One Blend, Countless Cocktails: A Month with Ginger and Lemon
One Blend, Endless Possibilities.
It’s a big statement. It gets you thinking, where is the end? Is there an end?
I challenged myself to think about one Blend and how far we could push the limits.
Spotlight on Ginger and Lemon
My Blend in question – Ginger and Lemon. There's no better Blend than the OG that started it all: super simple, but super complex, spicy and citrus forward, sweet and sour.
Cranking up the creative juice and asking the question, how endless is endless?
Just how many serves and flavours can buddy up with Ginger and Lemon? What if you give yourself a timeframe of a month?
It’s fascinating trying a month with a single focus; the ideas pop up in the strangest of moments.
Week One: Exploring Classic Cocktails
I was cooking with soy sauce. And then it came to me, how about using the Ginger and Lemon Blend instead of brown sugar. Picture this - a smidge of soy sauce stirred down in a Japanese whisky old fashioned, to bring to life the depth of umami.
Week Two: Fusion Flavours
Again, I was back in the kitchen prepping a cucumber pickle. Then the idea of Hendrick’s pops up: making a cucumber shrub alongside Ginger and Lemon. Cucumber is herbal, as is chartreuse. Would this work for a twisted Last Word?
Week Three: Unconventional Ingredients
I found myself on a run at the gym thinking about salt – well, sweat – but salt sounds more appealing.
Leaning into eastern flavours, so salt and chilli. Inspiring a Picante: muddled red chilli, a saline solution, Ginger and Lemon with good white tequila, coriander on garnish. Then, falling down the road of spice and Eastern, what about infusing any white spirit with Szechuan peppercorns for Ginger and Lemon pepper highballs?
Week Four: Seasonal Inspirations
I was drinking a pale ale at a craft beer bar that had been dry-hopped with Sabro, a hop variety that has flavours of coconut. I thought about a summertime twist on a Shakey Pete’s, sticking to Ginger and Lemon but adding coconut bitters or a float of coconut cream.
A walk through Borough Market, seeing the first of the season's strawberries being sold, gave ideas for a Ginger Lemon Rossini or a Strawberry Gin Basil Smash, as next to the strawberries were bunches of herbs. Then, if you swap basil for mint, you find yourself back to a good old Strawberry and Ginger Mojito.
What I Learned from a Month of Experimentation
At the end of the month, I had scribbles and notes for over 100+ serves and flavour combos, some not as refined as others but endless nonetheless. I urge others to give it a go; it’s amazing where inspiration can come from. Are there endless possibilities? Pretty much, yeah. The limit just came from me, not the Blend. I just ran out of time.
Written by Alex Daulby - Head of Ops