Itchy Oxford article

Move over mulled wine

Get some lovely gin in you

Itchy’s never been a fan of those special seasonal tipples for the sophisticated drinker – they’re just not our merry cup of tea.­ Just because the nights are drawing in and Santa and his sled are setting out on his annual masochistic round-the-world marathon, doesn’t mean we should be forced to endure the liquid equivalents of puke-producing Christmas cake. Pimms o’clock is definitely reserved for summer days lazing away in the beer garden of our local boozer, not for when the money-monkeys at Pimms HQ come up with Winter Pimms as a concept to keep the moneytrain chugging along in the colder months.

Yet even that most traditional of winter tipples - mulled wine - really deserves the bad press it gets from many wintry-winophobics. How many times have you sauntered into the pub on a freezing winter’s evening, only to be left running for the nearest exit when your nose meets the sickly sweet fumes of a vat of mulled wine, perched merrily on the bar like some liquor-grinch, threatening to steal your pub glory?   

Call us old fashioned, but we’d prefer to be careening around our Christmas parties with a cocktail in hand than supping on a seasonal tankard of steaming cinnamon and clove crap. If you’re of a similar bah-humbug disposition, read on. Thankfully the festive season doesn’t have to spell the end to good drinking, spoiling your booze palate with a barrage of musky, wintry flavours. No, no, no, sticking with that most traditional of spirits, here’s Itchy’s guide to the best gin cocktails to warm your cockles this Christmas…

The Cranberry & Ginger Fizz (Created by Strata, Glasgow) 

50ml Tanqueray Gin

12.5ml ginger syrup or a knob of fresh ginger

12.5ml fresh lemon juice

12.5ml sugar syrup

50ml cranberry juice

Instructions: Pour all into a shaker and shake hard with ice. Strain mixture into a highball filled with ice and garnish with redcurrants or crystalised ginger.

The Spanish Negroni (created by Pinxto People, Brighton)

40ml Tanqueray Gin

20ml aparal

20ml oloroso

10ml lemon juice

10ml crème de mure

 Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a Boston glass and fill with ice. Stir mixture until ice-cold before straining into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of orange.'

The Bramble Bush (created by Boutique, Leeds)

Bramble Bush as follows:

50ml Tanqueray Gin

25ml Creme de Mure

20ml lemon juice

15ml sugar syrup

Champagne

Instructions: Combine all but the fizz in a Boston Shaker, fill with ice and shake briskly. Strain the mixture into a highball filled with crushed ice and top with fizz. Garnish with blackberries.

Asterism (created by Island, Birmingham)

50ml Tanqueray Gin

25ml  Ruby Port

1 Bar spoon marascino cherry syrup

5 drops angostura orange bitters

Instructions: Stir ingredients in a Boston glass filled with ice, until mixture becomes ice-cold. Strain liquid into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a cherry.

Tanqueray Pink Lemonade (created by Sketch, London)

50ml Tanqueray Gin

20ml Rhubarb puree

4 Lemon wedges

15ml Elderflower cordial

10ml sugar syrup

25ml cranberry juice

50ml soda

Instructions: Muddle lemon with elderflower, add rhubarb puree, cranberry juice, crushed ice and Tanqueray. Proceed to mix up everything like a mojito and top up with soda, garnish with lemon.

Recent Oxford Articles

Search Oxford Articles