Join The Distillery and toast our green and pleasant land in the most English way we know how… by sipping on gin cocktails infused with nostalgic English foodstuffs, of course.
Served from 12pm on St George’s Day (Sunday 23rd April), this nostalgic line-up of gin cocktails will be made with and/or served in the packaging of iconic English food brands. Because if there’s anything more English than gin, it’s gin in a Bird’s Eye Custard tin. The drinks have been lovingly designed by legendary mixologist, Jake Burger, made with Portobello Road Gin, and will be served up at the Portobello Road Distillery and Ginstitute. Here’s the line-up:
*Drum roll please*
1. Coco Alexander
We were going to do the “forget the bowl, we’d rather have a cocktail of Coco Pops” joke, but the press release beat us to that one. They also made the “it turns the milk chocolatey” reference, so if we said these now and claimed them as our own, we’d feel like frauds. Anyway, it’s a chocolatey milky cocktail served in a mini Coco Pops box. So we can feel the excitement that we used to feel when our parents brought home a Kellogg’s variety pack, except with more gin and fewer Frosties…
2. Golden Julep
Mix the nation’s favourite syrup with the nation’s favourite spirit and you get the Golden Julep: a ginspirational cocktail topped with mint and lavender and served in a Lyle’s Golden Syrup tin. Obviously.
3. Three Little Birds
Putting custard in a cocktail is a terrible idea, which is exactly why they haven’t done it. Instead, they’re combining the taste of the English countryside with vanilla liqueur (which is as close as they could get to custard without using actual custard).
4. The Marmalade Gimlet
This is what we imagine Paddington Bear’s favourite cocktail would be; a mix of Rose’s lime marmalade and Portobello Road Gin. And that’s it. Oh except for a pretty edible flower for, you know… Instagram.
5. Portobello Pudding
Sounds a bit gross, right? Wrong. This delightful little mixture of Ambrosia Rice Pudding, Mexican Horchata, Cinnamon and Portobello Road Gin is a lovely little hug in a mu…. erm, a rice pudding tin.
6. Late Late Breakfast
Tea and gin? Did they just nail ‘Englishness’ down to the tea? Har har harrr. (Actually there’s a nasty rumour going around that coffee has replaced tea as the nation’s favourite drink, but we’ll ignore that). Remember to stick your pinky out for this one…
7. You Mite Like It
You mite, but you certainly wouldn’t if it actually had Marmite in it, so it’s a bloody good job they left it out. Instead there’s gin (have you spotted the theme here?), hoppy beer, sweet vermouth, campari and OJ. Probably a similar love/hate scenario, but we’re willing to give it a try…
The Distillery is a magical venue boasting four floors of gin-related jollying and you’ll find it at 186 Portobello Rd, Notting Hill, W11 1LA.