09/07/2024
That's it. We're sick of waiting for the weather to sort itself out and get summer started. We're going to have to take things into our own hands and make our own summer.
While the weather outside is grey and uninspiring, the summer seasonal gins on our shelves are full of colour and bursting with warmth, light and full-flavoured fun. Here are our top picks for sunny spirits to simulate summer:
Garden City Elderflower
This is the quintessential flavour of British summer. The sweet, citrus-spicy floral tones of elderflower perfectly match Garden City's bergamot and lavender. Just one sip evokes summer fetes, picnics at a village cricket match, the special, delicate beauty of an English summer afternoon made all the more perfect by the fact that it is imaginary.
Alban Fireside
This one surprised us. The gin we created as a winter seasonal, a rich, peppery gin with a cosy finish of woodsmoke from an open fire, it turns out, also evokes images of summer nights burning driftwood on a beach bonfire. Plus, its extra peppery spicy flavour, its lingering smokiness and its robust juniper backbone make it the perfect accompaniment to barbecued food.
Birch Vodka
The backbone of many classic cocktails, a good, smooth vodka is a store cupboard staple for any self respecting bartender. Why is this one summery? Because it uses hand-tapped birch sap to ensure its cool, creamy flavour and mouth feel. The trees can only be tapped when the sap is rising and the world is warming up for summer. Hopefully it'll get your sap rising too...
Sound good? Pop by and see us at our distillery on Woodcock Hill (AL4 9HJ), or buy online at spiritofherts DOT co DOT uk
