75. Consorts’ Cocktail Masterclass, Guildhall Club, 20 November 2023

Leaving her post of Consort in style, and celebrating her birthday with friends, Sue Searle, Consort to the Master Distiller, organised a Cocktail Masterclass, spurred on by the popularity of her earlier Champagne Masterclass. The Cocktail Masterclass was a great success too.

We were welcomed with a non-alcoholic cocktail, a little like Campari.  After social mingling, we were invited to take our seats at the long dining table.

 Our Master for the evening was Oliver Morris, Head of Mixology at the Cotswolds Distillery.  This was established in 2014 to make use of Cotswold barley to make whisky; this operation began, but requires a few years for the produce to become ready.  Distilling gin is a quicker process, and their gins have become very popular.

We began by savouring the various botanicals, which went into their signature Cotswolds Dry Gin, and then tasting the gin itself, with the option of adding an equal amount of tonic.  Unusually, the nine botanicals included grapefruit and lime peel.  The procedure uses 300 grapefruit and 500 limes each week.  I detected a dominance of lavender, which was very pleasing.  This gin was very fine indeed, and I preferred it neat.

Having been introduced to the gin, and had an explanation of distillation, we then moved on to mixing our own gin cocktail.  The base was their Hedgerow Gin.  We began by muddling two extremely large juicy blackberries in our cocktail shaker, adding some bruised mint leaves, a large measure of apple juice, half a small measure of lemon juice, and the measure of hedgerow gin.

Vigorous shaking was then required, before straining the product into our cocktail glass. 

Those who had shaken correctly had a slight layer of froth on the top of their cocktail. 

The cocktail was very drinkable!  A delightful blend of sharp and sweet, refreshingly fruity.

Now it was time to eat.  The food was quite delicious, and during the meal we were entertained by King’s College London Jazz Society Band. 

A thoroughly enjoyable evening was had by all – and I hope not too many sore heads the next morning!