This is Sipsmith's brand new orange and cacao gin. If you're like me, and you like your Jaffa cakes, then this could be the gin for you.
Below are the 3 Videos focusing on;
A Review of the Gin,
What Tonic Waters with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao
What Cocktails can I make with the Gin?
Sipsmith is a distillery, launched in 2009. They, in my opinion, my humble opinion, they are, not solely responsible, but play a major part in the whole gin explosion we've had over the last few years, because up until Sipsmith grants their first, or the first, small batch distilling licence, none of the smaller guys that are popping up now had access or were allowed to distil in small batches. Sipsmith changed that.
This is their sixth product that they've brought to market. So they've got their London Dry, that was the first one they brought to market. Then they've got their VJOP, which is their Very Junipery Over Proof gin, which is absolutely lovely. They've got their sloe gin. They've got their Lemon Drizzle gin, and they've got their summer cup, kind of a Pimm's variant. But I'd say, this is number six, orange and cacao, absolutely lovely.
So let's get on and smell it and taste it and see what it's like. I've been playing with this quite a bit already. I absolutely love it. But straight away off the nose, you get the orange, really hits you.
The Lemon Drizzle gin I don't think is actually as citrusy, as lemony, as it could be. But this is a very, very different. The orange hits you straight away, juniper. I'm not getting much chocolate, much cacao, coming off the nose there. But let's try it anyway. Got a little tasting glass. Let's pour a little bit in there. I'm just going to have this with a tiny bit of ice. I do like trying my gins with a bit of ice, if we get an ice cube to fit in there. There we go.
What does Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin Taste Like?!
That is absolutely gorgeous. I absolutely love drinking that neat. You get a big juniper hitting you. You get a tiny, tiny bit of licorice, I think, coming off there. But the orange and then the chocolate just comes... I've got a chocolate on my lips at the moment. The orange has gone down my throat. It is such a lovely, lovely gin.
As the taste lingers, it goes into marmaladey kind of feel. Bits of vanilla come out. But that chocolate, it's gone from my lips, down my throat. It is probably the best example of a chocolate and orange drink, a spirit, or anything like that, that I've ever tasted. I absolutely love this. I wasn't a huge fan of their Lemon Drizzle, but this is absolutely lovely.
How can you buy Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin?
In your supermarkets now, it is roughly anywhere between... I paid 22 pound for that bottle. It's only a 50cl bottle, not a full 70, but I've seen it in supermarkets in the U.K. for 28, 30 pounds. I'd say this was on offer. I paid 22. Highly recommend you getting hold of this and trying it for yourselves, really, really lovely.
Buy Online from Master of Malt; https://stblive.uk/sipsmith-orange
What Tonic Water with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin?
Schweppes 1783 with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin
I want to give you my preferred tonic water serves. I've actually got seven different tonic waters here for you. But kind of a couple of them are grouped together. So been played about with this. The first tonic water that I want to recommend. If you really want to get the orange and a chocolate flavours coming through, then in my opinion, Schweppes 1783 was the best a tonic water for that. Do try it with Fever-Tree. As I've said many times on his channel, I'm not a huge fan of a Fever-Tree, it's slightly more bitter for me. I love the Schweppes bubbles, the flavour that comes with it, the smaller bubbles. That's predominantly why I prefer Schweppes over that. I think that work so much better. If you really like the bitterness of Fever-Tree, then that will be for you. But I have say that's my top serve. So Schweppes 1783 just a normal crisp tonic water, that really brings out the kind of chocolate and orange gin and tonic, really, really lovely. So that's the first one.
Fever Tree Mediterranean and Merchants Heart Floral Tonic with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin
Now we're played about with previous orange gin's Tanqueray Flor De Sevilla for instance, kind of Mediterranean, whole Fever-Tree, Mediterranean, citrusy thing works very well. So I had a little play with this, and I've got three here. Now for me, I said before Fever-Tree, this is not a hate campaign against Fever-Tree, I don't really like their refreshingly light range. I prefer, and that's why I've got large bottles because that's the only way I can really get it now, I prefer the normal sort of sugary, it's not a huge sugary, with a refreshingly light, in my opinion, they've stripped the flavour back.
So for me, I'm going to get rid of that straight away. And it was between these two. If you don't recognise that that's Merchant's Heart floral tonic water, a Ocado Sainsbury's in the UK, absolutely lovely. And this is Fever-Tree's Mediterranean. Both are very, very similar tonics. For me it was actually really close. I'm not going to discount either of those two. And the Fever-Tree normal Mediterranean, the full fat version was absolutely lovely. I've got a really soft spot for the Merchant's Heart as well. Just slight edge, just a very, very slight edge for me was the Merchant's Heart. But genuinely both of those really, really lovely. You're not going to do wrong with either of those two, so go out and try those two.
Lixir Elderflower & Lemon Tonic with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin
The next one I came up with, this is a very interesting one, this one for me, this is Lixir, they're from Newcastle, this is their elderflower and lemon tonic. For me, that kind of created a really lovely, a kind of old school St. Clements style drink. Kind of drowns out the chocolate a little bit. You get a bit of vanilla, a bit cacao coming through right at the end. But as a finished drink, that was absolutely lovely. So links in the show notes where you can get these tonics from. Really, really nice. So that's kind of my third sort of choice.
Peter Spantons Chocolate Tonic with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin
In fourth place, this one had come out. It's not very often I get a gin that this will work really well with. But this is Peter Spanton's Chocolate Tonic Water. You can get that from Ricardo, various other places online. But you know what? As I say, I've said it in a couple of other videos, I love Jaffa Cakes, chocolate that really accentuates the chocolate in the orange there. Kind of obviously masks the cacao a little bit coming through in the gin. But as a finish drink, again, if you like that, this is not a super sweet tonic water at all, this is a traditional tonic water, slight hint of chocolate, running through it. It just works exceptionally well. Really love that. I'll be open and honest, I couldn't have two of them. But for one drink, absolutely lovely.
Merchants Heart Pink Peppercorn with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin
This is my fourth place tonic water. This is their pink peppercorn, again, same with that one, Ocado, Sainsbury's. You get those at the moment. The pink peppercorn, just really for me, really actually lifted the, sort of dampen down the orange a little bit, and really lifted the chocolate. So that was a really interesting serve. I don't know why I thought it would work, but absolutely lovely. So again, really try that one. That's absolutely amazing.
Franklin & Sons Rosemary & Black Olive Tonic with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin
But here's my, my quirky one for you. I think discovered this by accident with Tanqueray Flor De Sevilla. This is a Franklin's and Sons rosemary and black olive tonic. For some reason it just works exceptionally well with orange gins. I don't know why orange and rosemary, it's not something that would straight away come to my head. You can get these now. If you're in the UK these are now in four packs, in most coops. One of each flavour, it's their gin flavoured range. So we've got rosemary black olives, we've got rhubarb and hibiscus, pink grapefruit and bergamots, and then the elder flower with a slight hint of cucumber. So you getting them as four packs in a Coop. Get hold of them.
What Cocktails can I make with Sipsmith Orange & Cacao Gin?
Right, let's crack on with the cocktails. I'm not going to get too technical, too involved. These are for you guys at home, you guys behind your bars, you want to know how to serve this. These are three very, very simple, very easy cocktail recipes for you. So I'm going to quickly catch ... go on.
Orange & Chocolate Negroni
The first one that I was playing about with is, do you know what, I love a Negroni. This has made the best Negroni that I have tasted in a long, long while.
Negronis are very, very simple. Equal measures, so we're going 25 ml of gin, we're going 25 ml of Campari, and then the final ingredient is our vermouth. If you've seen any of my videos before, you know this is the vermouth I prefer. It's Lustau. It's kind of a sherry-based vermouth that's a little bit sweeter than your Martini Rossos and that kind of thing. Little bit, not creamier, but a little bit more viscous, a lovely texture to it. Really, really lovely. So we're going 25 ml in there, as well.
So, quick recap; 25 ml gin, 25 ml Campari, 25 ml there. We're just going to load this up with some ice. You never, ever shake a Negroni. Bar spoon, just stir. Right, so I've just been stirring down for about a minute or so. That is absolutely ... even just off the spoon. Just a simple garnish with a bit of orange peel. That is your Negroni. Very, very simple. That's number one. Right, let's get rid of those.
Orange & Chocolate Sidecar
Cocktail number two. This, I actually found on ... well, I was looking for it on Sipsmith's website. This is a flip on a traditional Sidecar. So I'm just going to quickly chill the glass down. So this is going to get made in a cocktail shaker. This is very easy to do. This is 35 ml. If you want to be precise, this is my Mezclar Precisio Measure. Again, links in the show notes where you could get this. This is 5 ml increments in your measures. Absolutely perfect when you want 5, 10, 15 ml.
Buy the Mezclar Precisio Measure; https://stblive.uk/precisio
I've just got some freshly squeezed lemon juice. Just want 25 ml going in. The next ingredient is our brandy or cognac. This is my preferred. This is Martell's VSOP. Absolutely lovely. 15, one-five, 15 ml. Then the last ingredient is sugar. I've just bought in some. You can make it yourself, equal amounts of granulated sugar to water, sort of boiled heat, dissolve down. In this, I'm just going half a shot, 12.5 ml. There we go.
So, quick recap; 35 ml of gin, 25 ml of fresh lemon juice, 15 ml of cognac, and then 12.5 ml of sugar. I'm just going to shake this down now, very quickly. Okay, so that's shaken down. Just going to double strain this, Hawthorne strainer, tea strainer. Just going to double strain this. That'll just catch if there's any little tiny shards of ice. It's a nice little one. You don't want a big martini glass for this. Nice little one. Then, I'm just going to garnish with a lemon peel. Just spray that over the top, pop that in, and that's the Sidecar. That is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.
Tropical Orange Collins
Now, the third cocktail. Out of the three, this is a bit more fun, a bit more fruitier. I haven't really got a name for it, kind of a Tropical Orange Collins, something like that. I am terrible at naming cocktails, but this is something that I played about with, found, I didn't ... I was going to go for orange juice, I didn't have any orange juice, so this is what we've got coming up.
Again, going to make this in the shaker. I'm going 35 ml of gin, I'm going 15 ml of lemon juice, I'm going 10 ml of sugar syrup, and then I'm going 50, five-zero, ml of Rubicon Passion Fruit. I've always got this because of Porn Star Martinis. I can never be without a case of that. So I'm going 50 ml. So just going to ice that down, give it a very quick shake. So that's all shaken up. Just pour that out of there. The glass I'm going to use is a highball, 16-ounce highball, plenty of ice in there.
I'm just going to strain that, pop that to one side, and then to top it up, I've played about with this, it actually works really well, if you do a champagne flute without the ice you could use Prosecco, that's really lovely, but as a really long, kind of interesting serve, this is Fentimans Valencian Orange Tonic Water, and this just makes a cracking top to that. I'm just going to garnish that, couple of these red oranges. Not blood oranges, these are red oranges, and there we go. That is my Tropical Orange Collins. How do you like that? There we go.