Recently we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary (yes, you’re right I really am far too young to have been married so long, thank you ). We debated for ages over what to do to celebrate, and eventually decided on a small garden party, on a grand scale, on as small a budget as we could manage.
For the cocktail reception to greet our guests we decided three cocktails plus soft drinks – and we wanted them to reflect something about *us*.
We’d immediately picked a Peach Bellini for an ‘us’ drink. The second choice simply had to be gin. Obviously… We wanted sharp and fruity, nothing too ‘tropical’ and gin would hit the spot perfectly. Plus, y’know – gin.
I tried lots of different recipes (I took my research very seriously, you can imagine), but I kept coming back to something not entirely in season in August – a Sloe Gin Fizz. But as Mr LittleStuff pointed out, it was our party and we’d have what we fancied. And if I do say so myself, my sloe gin is a bit lush.
I didn’t have enough of my own for this – but luckily you can buy it, you don’t have to plan a year ahead!
Ingredients:
- 15ml gin
- 15ml sloe gin
- 15ml lemon juice
- 1tsp sugar syrup
- Champagne, prosecco or cava, to top up (anything with fizz will do, I’ve used a cloudy sharp lemonade in the past too, to make a longer drink)
Lemon twist, to garnish
Recipe:
- Add both gins the lemon juice and the sugar in a cocktail shaker and shake over cubed ice for a good 10 seconds.
- Pour into a gin balloon, and top with your fizz of choice, garnish with a lemon twist and serve.
For a pitcher version, I simply multiplied the ingredients by 20 and added to a large pitcher, beating them with a whisk before popping it in the fridge. Just before the guests arrived I removed from the fridge, divided into two jugs and added a bottle of Prosecco to each (if you want to be swish you can make the lemon twists in advance and freeze them – just pop a frozen one onto each glass as it is served).
The frankly brilliant giant gin balloon glasses were sent to us by Rinkit. They’re now my favourite glass :)
