This Saturday, 14th June, it’s World Gin Day! To celebrate, we’ve put together some of our favourite gin cocktail recipes, each one imbued with summer sunshine. Perfect for sipping in the shade or on a relaxing evening, these drinks really make the most of our favourite spirit.
While the weather in the UK remains changeable, the chill of winter is thankfully becoming a distant memory. You wouldn’t be alone if you’re craving a sip of something crisp, preferably served by the side of a swimming pool…
Deep, sweet, spicy and short may be the attributes you want in the winter, but when the mercury climbs and the air is heavy and humid, you need a long and refreshing drink. Gin has an extraordinary duality to it, being both distinctive in taste and yet playing well with other ingredients. Your choice of counterpart will bring out or dampen down different botanical elements, with one base spirit showing different sides of its personality.
The clean, bitter and dry flavours of gin, along with its bright herbal notes, make it incredibly well-suited to warm weather mixology. In honour of the drink’s many talents, we’ve put together a list of some of our favourite summer combinations. As ever, these are more jumping-off points for experimentation, with each recipe perfectly adaptable to your personal taste.
One thing we would say - it would be very easy to get carried away with the alcohol content if you’re not careful, and I imagine we’ve all been there. When the weather is hot, you’re naturally more thirsty, which is why tending towards longer, slightly more dilute combinations might make for a more pleasurable experience in the summer, extending your weekend afternoons that bit more!
Stay hydrated and libated with us, as we take a tour through some sunshine flavours.
Swizzle
First seen in the Savoy Cocktail book in 1930, this simple and refreshing combo isn’t one you need to dig deep into your drinks cabinet for. With readily available ingredients and a crowd-pleasing serve, it comes highly recommended.
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Juice of 1 lime.
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1 dash of Angostura Bitters.
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50ml Hidden Curiosities Original Gin.
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1 tsp of white sugar (caster is preferable)
Squeeze your lime into a tall, chilled glass. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved (or as much as is possible). Add some crushed ice, then your gin. Next, use a swizzle stick (or if you must, a spoon or straw) to stir with gusto until the mixture foams up. Add more crushed ice, until around ¾ full, then swizzle it around some more. Add the dash of bitters to the crown of ice and froth, and garnish with a slice of lime. Ridiculously simple and an absolute joy on a hot day.
Gin Salad Martini
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60 ml Hidden Curiosities Aranami Navy Strength Gin
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15 ml Noilly Prat Original Dry Vermouth
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Cocktail olives
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Cocktail onions
Firstly, pre-chill a martini glass. As ever, temperature is key to a good Martini so you want it cold. Next, prepare the garnish by threading your olives and onions onto a cocktail stick, preferably in the following order - olive-onion-olive-onion-olive. Once this is done, add your gin and vermouth into a mixing glass with ice and stir, then strain into your cold Martini vessel. Pop the garnish delicately into the drink, allowing the flavours to meld.
Tom Collins
To call the Tom Collins a classic would be understating it. What’s more, the drink’s refreshing citrus flavour is ideal for a seat in the shade. As it’s so simple and adaptable, there are countless variations on the theme. We’ve corresponded to the simple and elegant original here, allowing you to tweak as you see fit. We like to use yuzu juice where possible in place of the lemon, to give a more clementine flavour, though the original is far more accessible and just as good.
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50ml Hidden Curiosities Aranami Navy Strength Gin
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25ml lemon juice
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25ml sugar syrup (gomme)
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125ml chilled soda water
You’ll need plenty of ice and a Collins glass - we prefer crushed but cubed is quite good enough. Add the sugar syrup, followed by the gin, then squeeze in the lemon juice and top up carefully with the soda water - it WILL fizz. Garnish with a slice of lemon then serve, preferably outdoors with a straw.
Valentino
As we have well-publicised in the past, we dearly love ourselves a Negroni. However, the deep and bitter notes of this magnificent cocktail are perhaps more suited to a romantically-lit cocktail bar, rather than the blazing sunshine. By upping the gin and reducing the other elements, you get a drier and more botanical result, better suited to heat and humidity. Just remember to treat this one with some caution, as the ABV has climbed a little.
60 ml Hidden Curiosities Original Gin
15 ml Campari
15 ml Antica Formula Carpano Vermouth
Pre-chill a coupe or Nick & Nora glass (your choice). Stir all the ingredients together in a cocktail glass with ice until nice and cold. You want a little dilution to take the prodigious strength down just a touch. Fine strain into the chilled glass, then garnish with a twist of lemon, letting the oil settle onto the drink a little. We recommend a slow and leisurely sipping action - you’ll be amazed how quickly you fancy another one…
Long Island Iced Tea
Beloved of the Ibiza and Spring Break crowds, don’t let this put you off. This combo is an enduring classic and just makes sense when you get the all-important ratios right. Unlike many cocktails on this list, it’s perhaps best suited to being made in quantity for a group of friends or a party, as it’s not too delicate and making a pitcher makes it easier to get the quantities just so. We’ve left out the vodka, which for us just adds strength without flavour here, and of course upped the quantity of gin ever so slightly.
Makes 4 servings
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100ml Hidden Curiosities Original Gin
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50ml Tequila reposado - Sierra or similar is fine
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50ml Wray & Nephew Overproof Rum
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50ml Triple Sec - we use De Kuyper
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50-100ml fresh lime juice
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500ml Fever Tree Madagascan Cola (or diet if you prefer)
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2 limes, cut into wedges
Into a pitcher or jug (about 1.5l in size), pour your gin, tequila, rum and triple sec. Squeeze in your limes, half fill the jug with plenty of cubed ice, then stir until it feels cold to the touch. Add the cola to this mixture, taking care not to let it fizz up too much. Drop the remaining lime wedges into the jug along with your mixed drink, then take four tall, straight-sided glasses. Add more ice cubes to each glass and pour over. Sip through a straw and enjoy the sunshine.
Note: this cocktail can be scaled up accordingly, depending on the size of the pitcher, or your circle of thirsty friends.
Whatever your favourite combo, we hope the British weather holds out, and you’re able to get a few relaxing hours in the sunshine.
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