Category: drinks
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Rhubarb & Strawberry Collins
If there’s one taste that epitomises the British summertime then it must be that of a perfectly ripe strawberry, bursting with sun-sweetened juice. Some of my earliest memories are of going strawberry picking at our local farm and of the sheer delight of finding the fruit, red and gleaming beneath trefoil leaves. We would fill…
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Lovage Cocktail
Lovage is a herb that seems to be rather out of favour at the moment. It occasionally appears as a component in restaurant dishes but I rarely see it in recipes and can’t recall ever finding it in a grocer’s shop or supermarket. Fortunately it’s pretty easy to grow from seed (or if you’re pressed…
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Rhubarb Ramos Gin Fizz
I’ve been intrigued by the Ramos Gin Fizz for some time, but until now have had trouble wrapping my head around the idea of mixing gin with cream. I couldn’t imagine how the balance of flavours and textures would work and worried about bitterness and curdling. However, a few weeks ago I was eating a…
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Kaffir & Clementine Gin Fizz
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m a little over January. I know that one should never wish the time away, but there’s something about this month that would test even the truest optimist. Perhaps it’s the rather melancholic sight of spent Christmas trees dropping their needles on the curb side, of unlit lights,…
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The King’s Hot Chocolate
Last weekend we were set for snow – heavy snow – and the husband was positively giddy at the prospect of crunching through newly fallen powder and being kept from the office on Monday morning. His disappointment then, when the forecasted blizzard turned into a half-hearted flurry and then to sleet, was tangible. As the…
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Blackberry & Sage Margarita
Thus far the Autumn has been unusually warm and so it was with real delight that I stepped out yesterday morning to see frost silvering the garden and to feel a definite chill in the air. It’s finally time to light the Aga, bring the log baskets in from the shed and to cosy up…
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Elderflower & Cucumber Margarita
There are few scents that evoke the British summertime as beautifully as fresh elder blossoms. As May ripens into June the hedgerows burst into deeper flower and sweeten the air with their perfume. We have our own rather unruly tree that Maurice keeps trying to convince me to remove, but I love it for its…
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Lemon, Elderflower & Chamomile Posset
May is probably my favourite time of year in the UK. After a usually grey early Spring, the sun finally throws out real warmth, and the world responds with an abundance of fresh green growth. Radishes, peas and broad beans spring up in the vegetable patch, the herbaceous borders seem to fill out over night, and every…
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Spring-Clean Green Juice
Iris is now sixteen weeks old, and my body is beginning to feel familiar again. I have to admit that I had not anticipated the level of sheer physicality I would experience during this time. I have become acutely aware of the needs and rhythms of this tiny body, barely separated from my own, while at…
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Smoking Bees Knees
The early May bank holiday is set to be glorious. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining and (by Yorkshire standards at least) it’s hot! I’ve spent the last few days in the garden – potting up tomatoes, herbs and courgettes – and in the evening have been playing around with new seasonal cocktail recipes.…