Recipes

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, G’Vine Gin (Spain’s top-selling gin) pushes boundaries with a unique approach. Produced in Villevert, France, G’Vine is distilled with French grapes, juxtaposed to traditional grain. The grape spirit is then infused with vine flowers and nine other ‘luxury’ botanicals including juniper berries, green cardamom and ginger root. In addition, the vine flowers are a rare ingredient, blossoming just once per year, in mid-June, existing for just a few days before maturing into grape berries....

This month, award-winning mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana has collaborated with Waitrose to create a selection of gin-based cocktail recipes. Best known as Mr Lyan, Ryan Chetiyawardana has garnered quite a reputation with his bars White Lyan and Dandelyan. Opened in 2013, in Hoxton, White Lyan was the first bar in the world to use no perishables (without fruit garnishes, or ice), serving a collection of mesmerising pre-batched cocktails. Most of those cocktails are available to buy outside of Mr Lyan’s bars,...

With the success of Shrimoyee Chakraborty’s first restaurant, Calcutta Street, in Fitzrovia – a second branch launched in Brixton last month. With a completely different atmosphere to the original, the new south London space in heavily inspired by Calcutta’s Park Street, a lively neighbourhood not too dissimilar from Brixton. Serving a menu similar to the Fitzrovia site, the new space has a prominent focus on street food and home cooking-inspired dishes, plus smaller plates at a lower price point than...

Summer has officially arrived in Britain, so it’s hardly surprising that iced tea has seen such a spike in popularity, with so many specialists having opened across the capital. Good & Proper Tea, for instance, has a Tea Bar on Leather Lane which offers a weekly rotating cold brew Iced Tea menu. With flavour combinations such as wild rooibos and orange; Darjeeling and elderflower; or hibiscus and mint – Good & Proper’s iced teas will also be available at a number...

A “Taqueria and Tequila joint”, Cartel in Battersea is inspired by Mexican street food stalls – boasting one of South London’s best tequila selections. Joining signature tacos filled with pulled chicken cooked in Mezcal and lemon, or slow-cooked beef brisket with chorizo, radish and coriander, Cartel’s bar is overseen by former El Camion bartender Josh Rooms. Celebrating tequila and Mezcal, the drinks list features twists on classics plus new, contemporary creations. ‘Tommy’s Margarita’, for instance, is a simple, sating libation,...

Wine is fine, but some evenings call for a dram of something stronger. Multi-award winning Single Malt Scotch whisky distillery, Balblair, have collaborated with Scottish culinary creatives Dram & Smoke to produce a number of recipes designed to be paired with whisky. Both originating from the Scottish Highlands, Balblair’s collaboration with Dram & Smoke focuses on some comprehensive recipes worth every second of the time taken to produce at home. This charcoal venison bun with bramble sauce, for instance, is...

Launched this week, Waterloo Food Month runs through July. A month long programme of food and drink-based events around Waterloo, featured events will include immersive workshops, master classes, talks from experts and various tastings. Culminating with the event, Bridget Virden from the community-focussed Meanwhile Club in Waterloo held a ‘Make, Do & Mend’ workshop, focusing on herbs as a key ingredient in summer cocktails. Sharing a wealth of knowledge with participants on creating a simple kitchen herb garden, the drinks...

World Gin Day takes place this weekend (Saturday 10th June), providing plenty of reasons to enjoy a drink (or twelve) containing the nation’s favourite spirit. In turn, Sopwell House – a Georgian manor house hotel in St. Albans - has fused two of the nation’s favourite drinks: tea and gin, in their ‘G&Tea’ cocktail. Created by the bar’s mixologists, the drink combines Bathtub gin with cooled Earl Grey tea and grapefruit juice for a ‘sophisticated twist’. So with World Gin...

As the blossom blooms, parks become desirable lunch spots and the tube becomes hotter than the filling of a McDonald’s apple pie -  it isn’t by chance that the classic, humble Negroni has seen such a resurgence in popularity of late. Served over a huge chunk of ice and garnished with a sliver of orange rind, it’s the perfect summer drink. Bitter and aromatic, a classic Negroni is the perfect appetite-building aperitif. Allegedly first created in Florence, Italy almost 100...