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Pink Grapefruit and Peppercorn Cocktail ft Colombo Gin
Sunday, 19th March, 2017
Colombo Ginis a dry gin created by a young Asian distiller inspired by the history of Ceylon and handcrafted in the UK.
Back when Sri Lanka was Ceylon, British Excise Officers didn’t believe that a good London Gin could be produced outside of the UK. However a young Asian distiller thought otherwise and fought until he could create a gin using local botanicals. His successes lead to creating the regulations of Ceylon Made Foreign Liquor as well as Indian Made Foreign Liquor laws that stand to this day.
The gin itself contains 7 native lead botanicals that create its war time recipe; Ginger root, coriander seeds, angelica root, juniper, liquorice root and Sri Lankan cinnamon bark and curry leaves.
Tasted neat the profile is distinctive and complex. Juniper leads the way with a burst of citrus and coriander followed by warming notes of cinnamon and the peppery heat of ginger. However when you add tonic the profile seems to become a lot smoother, juniper still maintaining its strength but with the other botanicals coming together to create a sweet, fresh and warming notes.
When creating a cocktail I wanted something that would keep those fresh and spicy notes. The gin compliments Asian cooking incredibly well so I was researching ingredients that would refresh the palette but maintain that peppery taste to embrace the gin.
So I created the…
Pink Grapefruit & Peppercorn Gin Cocktail
50ml Colombo Gin
½ Fresh grapefruit juice
2 Cubes of ice
3-5 Peppercorns
Top with Fevertree tonic
Squeeze the juice of half a fresh grapefruit into a cocktail shaker
Add two cubes of ice and 50 ml of Colombo Gin
Shake until cocktail shaker becomes misty and pour into a couple glass (or a short glass)
Top with Fevertree tonic and add 3-5 black peppercorns
Beki Xo
(*) As part of this review I was gifted the Colombo Gin however all opinions and the recipe itself are my own