In the spirit of mixing things up I decided to take advantage of one of the great features of a 250ml can of white wine spritz - Its convenient single serve measure of sparking liquid. No need to open a bottle of sparkling wine only to leave half it in the fridge to go flat and end-up unceremoniously pouring it down the sink three days later. We all do it, even those of us with those fancy metal clasps that only really serve as rather weak projectile in your fridge and tend to fall on your shoeless feet in the morning when you are reaching for the milk.
I invited some friends around for a little cocktail party; LDN spritz style. The spritz is a field blend of locally sourced grapes simply spritzed with English water. With no additional fruit flavours LDN Spritz lends itself particularly well as a component in cocktails. You won’t need to invest in any fancy bar tools to make these drinks, my aim was to keep things simple by focusing on “built” style cocktails. This is the easiest method where, as the name suggests you add one ingredient after the other into a glass without the need to shake or strain. Quick, easy and no fuss. Built drinks do not require extra cooling, mixing or dilution with ingredients that easily mix. I tend to serve my built cocktails as long drinks over ice in a highball or a Collins glass if you have one.
In line with its English heritage, I have chosen gin as a base for my summer cocktails. Tanqueray No. Ten with its clean perfumed citrus notes and long zesty finish matches well with the LDN Spritz flavour profile of crisp fresh green apples, pear, and lemon zest.
1. Apple Spritz
30ml Tanqueray No. Ten
60ml apple juice
Top with LDN spritz
Green apple slice to garnish
Cubed ice
Fill your glass with ice. Add your shot of Tanqueray and 2 shots of apple juice. Top with chilled LDN spritz, give it a gentle stir and garnish with a thin slice of green apple - Told you it was simple!.
2. Brit Spritz
30ml Tanqueray No.Ten
30ml Elderflower cordial
Top with LDN spritz
Ribbon of cucumber to garnish
Cubed ice
Here I stuck to my game plan of using local produce. A nice tip to make more of your cucumber garnish is using a vegetable peeler to make a long ribbon. Peel length ways a thin strip of cucumber, it will be a flexible ribbon that you can then press and swirl up the inside of your glass, very bougie. As before, fill the glass with ice, add in your shot of gin and this time that very English Summer flavour of elderflower, top with the chilled spritz and bottoms up.
3. Mint Spritz
30ml Tanqueray No.Ten
30ml Simple syrup (dissolved sugar)
Top with LDN spritz
Approx. 8 mint leaves
Cubed ice
Ok, I couldn’t make it that easy. I left the most labour intensive to last. Luckily at this stage of the evening my guests were well lubricated and happy to lend a hand to muddle up some mint. It’s well worth the wrist action as the muddling releases the mint oils that really amp up the flavour. Simple syrup is also worth the energy and can be made very simply in advance. For the simple syrup add equal parts of white sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, allow to cool. For the muddling wood is best, either a wooden spoon or rolling pin, a pestle and mortar works too. Use a sturdy thick bottomed glass, definitely not time for a Zalto. Add all the mint and the sugar syrup to your sturdy glass, then press down gently with your blunt tool while you twist your wrist, then release, do this for about 30 seconds. Assuming you mixed the mint and sugar in your serving glass you now add in first of the gin, fill the glass halfway with the spritz then stir. Now add your ice to the top, fill the drink with more spritz give it another stir and garnish with a sprig of mint. It's very refreshing and will go down a treat after all your hard work.
