"> mixology - A Tipsy Giraffe

The Campanella – a Paloma Cocktail Variation

The Campanella is a delicious, Italian Paloma Cocktail Variation that is a little bitter and a little sweet – it’s the perfect cocktail to sip on this Cinco de Mayo and all throughout the summer.

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The Campanella - a Paloma Cocktail Variation - old fashioned glass of orange cocktail, another in the background, garnished with half a grapefruit wheel  

Margaritas are great, there’s a very good reason that they’re so popular – it’s a simple and delicious formula that will always be a good choice. But, why not shake things up a little (literally), and swap out your margarita this Cinco de Mayo for an amazing tequila cocktail that is just as easy and delicious, but a little bit different.

 The Campanella - a Paloma Cocktail Variation - two old fashioned glasses filled with orange cocktail, bottle of tequila is in the background on the right, a cut grapefruit and lime is in the background on the left

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The Cupid’s Cup – a Pisco Sour Variation

The Cupid’s Cup is a delicious variation of the Pisco Sour. This simple pisco drink is a little sour and a little bitter, the perfect balance that you’ll fall head over heels in love with! Move over Pisco Sour, the Cupid’s Cup is here to stay!

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The Cupid's Cup - a Pisco Sour Variation - two orange coloured cocktails in coupe glasses, white foam on top 

Have you tried pisco before?  If you haven’t, you need to mix up this pisco sour recipe variation ASAP so you can fall in love with it. If you have, no doubt you’re already in love with pisco, so you should also definitely mix up this cocktail as soon as you can! Pisco is a grape brandy and can only be made in either Peru or Chile (both strongly claim it belongs to them, and most pisco lovers have a preference. It can become quite a heated topic so I shall leave it at that!). Pisco has a smooth taste with hints of grape and apple, it also has a light herbal earthiness to it that I would liken to tequila – however Pisco is definitely unique and any comparison to another spirit will certainly fail.

The Cupid's Cup - a Pisco Sour Variation - cocktail being poured into a coupe glass in the background, full glass in the front  Continue reading →

Holiday Gin and Tonic

This Holiday Gin and Tonic is full of the festive flavours of cranberry and clementine, and it’s made with sweet sloe gin. It’s the perfect cocktail to serve over the holidays as it’s easy to mix and a gorgeous, festive colour. This is going to be your new favourite G&T.

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This Holiday Gin and Tonic is full of the festive flavours of cranberry and clementine - one bauble glass in focus, with red gin and tonic and rosemary 

There are few things I enjoy more than coming up with delicious and creative new cocktail recipes, from twists on the classics to my own original creations. With that being said, sometimes a simple classic mixed drink is exactly what I want and need, and a gin and tonic is definitely somewhere near the top of my list of favourites. The fragrant botanicals of the gin, the bitter quinine of the tonic, and the citrus burst from the lemon or lime twist is just a winning combination. It’s a great drink to serve at any occasion. But, because it’s Christmas, I decided to dress it up a little for the festive season, and this Holiday Gin and Tonic was born!

This Holiday Gin and Tonic is full of the festive flavours of cranberry and clementine - two bauble glasses with red gin and tonic, in martini glasses

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Cranberry Martini (The Crantini) – with Homemade Cranberry Shrub

The Cranberry Martini is a sweet and slightly tart festive cocktail, made with a homemade cranberry shrub to give it a little bit of zing. This Cranberry Martini, Crantini if you will,  is an easy and delicious cocktail to serve over the holidays, with only a few ingredients needed you can’t go wrong. I also give you my recipe for a super simple cranberry shrub (aka drinking vinegar), a great cocktail ingredient that will take your Cranberry Martini to the next level – spoiler alert: it’s REALLY easy to make at home and makes a great gift too!

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The Cranberry Martini is a sweet and slightly tart festive cocktail, made with a homemade cranberry shrub to give it a little bit of zing! #christmas #cranberry #crantini #martini #cocktails #mixology

Can you believe it’s almost Christmas time?! Where has the year gone? I swear, the older you get the faster the time goes by! The calendar doesn’t lie though, so it’s definitely time to start getting ready for the holidays! And I don’t know about you, but I need a few festive cocktails to get my Christmas spirit going – this Cranberry Martini is perfect for that! Cranberries are wonderful this time of year, and certainly not just for Thanksgiving! Here in the UK we don’t have Thanksgiving, so the turkey and all things cranberry are reserved for Christmas. Besides, you cannot deny how festive the colour of this Cranberry Martini is – it’s totally going to get you into the Christmas spirit just by looking at it!

 The Cranberry Martini is a sweet and slightly tart festive cocktail, made with a homemade cranberry shrub to give it a little bit of zing - the cranberry martini being poured into a martini glass

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Mulberry Bramble Cocktail

The Mulberry Bramble Cocktail is full of amazing flavours and stunning colours. Made with mulberry gin, lemon juice, and blackberry liqueur, it’s really easy to mix, making it the perfect cocktail to serve at any occasion. It is fully of early autumn flavours, but can be enjoyed any time of year.

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The Mulberry Bramble Cocktail - a photo of the finished cocktail at a front on angle, with a small bottle of mulberry gin next to it

Mulberries are something that have always intrigued me. When we were little we would sing about dancing around a mulberry bush on a “cold and frosty morning”. In the myth of Pyramus and Thisbé, they meet (and later die) under a mulberry tree and that’s where the berries get their colour from (to memorialize their forbidden love or something vindictive and weird like that). So, do they grow on a bush that you dance around, or a tree that you have a violent death under? Who knows! (Probably botanists and people who can be bothered to use google). All I know is that I’d never actually tasted this sweet berry or seen them in real life. So my interest was piqued when I came across Mulberry Gin during a visit to Coughton Court (a National Trust site). I decided to snap up a small  bottle, despite being on a self-imposed ban on  buying any spirits or liqueurs for a month! Totally worth it, because this Mulberry Bramble Cocktail was born from it – and there ain’t nothing wrong with his baby!

The Mulberry Bramble Cocktail - a photo of the finished cocktail at a slight top angle, a bowl of blackberries in the background

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