If you’re a gin lover and you haven’t yet sampled Hepple, you’re missing a treat. A project between chef and author Valentine Warner, renowned barman Nick Strangeway, countryman Walter Riddell, and master distiller Chris Garden, this is gin with a truly distinctive flavour profile. It’s crafted from handpicked wild juniper berries, Douglas fir from British woodland, fresh herbs like lovage, foraged bog myrtle and home-grown blackcurrants, and it’s distilled using a revolutionary triple-technique. Perfect with tonic, it’s also oh so flexible as the base of a sensational summer cocktail. Here are some of the team’s favourites.
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SUMMER CUP
Ingredients
40ml Hepple Gin
20ml Lillet Rosé
20ml fresh lemon juice
20ml blackcurrant cordial*
60ml chilled Earl Grey tea
50ml soda or tonic water
*100g frozen blackcurrants • 100g caster sugar • 100ml boiling water
Method
1. Place blackcurrants on top of the sugar in a bowl. When defrosted add 100ml boiling water and stir. Strain through a fine sieve.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large glass with ice and garnish with freshly sliced summer fruit.
NETTLE GIMLET
Ingredients
60ml Hepple Gin
25ml nettle cordial*
7.5ml lime juice
*60g washed nettle tips • 300ml boiling water • 300g sugar • 10g citric acid
Method
1. Pour boiling water over nettle tips, infuse for 15 mintes, then add sugar and citric acid.
2. Stir until dissolved and strain through a muslin.
3. Shake all ingredients on ice and strain
LONG SLOE SUMMER
Ingredients
25 ml Hepple Sloe & Hawthorn Gin
25 ml Fino sherry
150 ml Indian tonic water
Olive to garnish
Method
1. Fill a large wine glass with ice.
2. Add the gin and sherry.
3. Top with tonic and stir.
4. Add an olive and a bit of the brine to garnish.
LAST WORD
Ingredients
20ml Hepple Gin
20ml green Chartreuse
20ml cherry liqueur
20ml fresh lime juice
Method
1. Shake all ingredients on ice and strain into glass.
2. Garnish with cherry, fresh mint or edible flowers.
BEES KNEES
Ingredients
50ml Hepple Gin
3tsp honey with water (3:1)
25ml lemon juice
Method
1. Shake on ice and strain into a chilled glass.
2. Garnish with an edible flower or a strip of lemon peel.
