By Hannah Powling
As the summer tends to bring out the gardener-side in us, Portobello Road Gin have created a series of cocktails using ingredients from the vegetable patch as a British take on the traditional Spanish style ‘Copa’ serve designed to showcase their delightful yet unusual ingredients and garnishes. These unique cocktails are now on the menu at the Portobello Star Bar in London and Pintura in Leeds, this July only.
Green-fingered gardeners can now treat their vegetable patch to a more lavish role this summer as the Portobello Road Gin Gurus have created a series of cocktails made from juices grown in your very own garden – designed to tap into Britain’s obsession with the hobby.
The unique cocktails created are The Vegetable Patch Copa, The English Garden Copa, The Good Life Copa and the Portobello Road Summer Serve Copa – and will each be available at the Portobello Star, and Pintura. Try them out for yourself and enjoy the array of unusual ingredients and garnishes, experiment and explore the surprisingly delicious flavours used to create these cocktails such as baby carrots, radishes, and gooseberries.
The taste geniuses at Portobello Road Gin created the cocktails to compliment the gin’s unique set of botanicals and tap into our love of the outdoors. Gardening is this summer’s coolest hobby, so go for it and try these recipes at home; and discover something different but brilliant to use in your summer beverages!
Decked with fresh garnishes from the garden, these recipes were created at The Portobello Star by Jake F Burger, one of the creators of Portobello Road Gin;
“When we came up with the concept of these cocktails we wanted to create a delicious set of drinks that showcased the botanicals of the gin and that Portobello Road Gin drinkers can re-create from comfort of their own back garden. It’s flavour profile gives us a great opportunity to be a little more daring with our drink ingredients. We started with inspiration from the Spanish style Copa serve. The idea is to treat your garden like your fridge. The adventurous home bartender can grab a large red wine glass, plenty of ice, a generous measure of Portobello Road Gin, a decent tonic and head to your vegetable patch for ingredients and garnishes that you normally might not consider. We chose ingredients that compliment but don’t overwhelm the flavours of the gin or the tonic. These might not be the first flavours you’d think to use but we think they work really well.”
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The Vegetable Patch Copa
Create this stunning Copa serve and enjoy outside with friends this summer.
50ml Portobello Road Gin
200ml Tonic water
25ml Carrot juice made from around 8 baby carrots
Basil sprig
Juniper berries for garnishing
Glassful of ice
Red wine glass
Place the ice into a large red wine glass.
Take the baby carrots and extract the juice using a juicer.
Pour the juice over the ice then slowly add the gin and the tonic, give it a gentle stir and garnish with a basil sprig and a sprinkle of juniper berries.
The English Garden Copa
Summery, savoury and elegant – everything an English inspired Copa should be.
50ml Portobello Road Gin
200ml Tonic water
25ml Radish and red chicory juice made from around 10 radishes and 4 leaves of red chicory
1 radish cut into thin slices
Rosemary sprig
Lavender sprig
Glassful of ice
Red wine glass
Place the ice into a large red wine glass.
Take the radishes and red chicory and extract the juice using a juicer.
Pour the juice over the ice then slowly add the gin and the tonic, give it a gentle stir and garnish with sliced radishes, a rosemary sprig, lavender and a sprinkle of juniper berries.
The Good Life Copa
Made with dextrose – the easiest sugar for the body to metabolise, grape seed extract – which is a great source of anti-oxidants, and superfoods gooseberry and pomegranate.
Ingredients:
50mls Portobello Road Gin
200mls High mineral content sparkling water
Pinch grape seed extract
Teaspoon of powdered dextrose
A couple of frozen gooseberries
Pomegranate pieces
A large twist of your choice of citrus
Rose petals
Glassful of ice
Red wine glass
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