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MEMBER’S AREA

welcome to the club!

Firstly, thank you so much for being a part of the Club! Each month we will be posting exclusive content and discount codes in the Member’s Area, so please ensure you check back each time you receive the monthly box.

Over 12 months we will be releasing 12 cocktails, all with an intensely seasonal focus, to be part of our Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter collections. We want to take you on a journey through the world of seasons, flavours, spirits and serves that we love, and we want to share them with you all!

Next up…

SUMMER COLLECTION - EPISODE 3:

The fig martinez.

Created by our Creative Director, Joe Schofield, this is a lovely transitional cocktail for this time of year. Not quite Summer any more, but not yet Autumn either…

SO what IS a MARTINEZ?

Thought to be the ‘Father’ of the Martini, or at least acknowledged to have had a huge amount of influence on it, the Martinez’s origins belong in a cloudy haze of uncertainty.

It most likely started life sometime in the 1860’s or 70’s, but is first known to have been published in O.H. Byron’s The Modern Bartender, in 1884. Byron’s succinct summary of the Martinez states that it is the “same as Manhattan, only you substitute the gin for whisky.” 

A classic Martinez starts with equal parts gin and sweet vermouth, before adding a teaspoon of maraschino liqueur and either Angostura or orange bitters. We decided to play on that rich, sweet aspect of the drink by using a fig liqueur instead of the Maraschino, and then using Pedro Ximenez, an intensely sweet and sticky sherry, to amplify the caramel notes of the fig and add a touch of complexity via the oxidised notes in the sherry. A touch of orange bitters finishes the drink!

how do you serve it?

As always, we’ve made it easy. There is (almost) nothing to do this month!

A: SERVE IT COLD. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BACK

Please the pouch in the freezer AT LEAST one hour before serving

B: ADD A SMALL COCKTAIL GLASS TO YOUR FREEZER AT LEAST ONE HOUR BEFORE SERVING

A critical move that separates the pros from the amateurs, this one. The frozen glass keeps your cocktail super-chilled for longer resulting in heightened deliciousness (or something…). In the same way that restaurants always serve food on hot plates, good drinks should always be served in frozen glasses.

Use a Martini glass / Champagne glass / coupe / Nick & Nora / Port glass / small wine glass for this one. Also available to buy online here if needed!

C. POUR & DRINK

No garnish necessary this time.

D. SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Take a pic and post it on Insta / Facebook / Twitter. Tag us in and use the hashtag #cocktailclub. Each month we will award the best photo with an extra surprise in their next cocktail box! The more submissions the better!

Easy, right? Yep, we thought so too.

OUR INDEPENDENT BRAND PARTNERS

EPISODE 3: FOXHOLE SPIRITS

Each month we aim to showcase one of the independent brands that we love and have used to create the cocktail of the month.

Foxhole Spirits brought their first product to market in 2016, their Foxhole Gin. A luxurious, yet sustainable, gin created using an innovative three-stage production process using by-products from the English grape harvest; English wine grapes.

They went on to create the incredible HYKE gin, expanding their sustainable ethos into table grapes, and looked at the supermarket supply chain to source raw materials so often going to waste.

PROCESS

HYKE Gin is made in England using grape spirit produced from internationally sourced, fresh table grapes that are surplus to the requirements of the supermarket supply chain.

This grape spirit is blended with grain spirit and flavoured with a blend of botanicals inspired by the grapes’ African and South American origins, including coriander, myrrh and rooibos.

BOTANICALS

Juniper, Myrrh, Nigella Seed, Rooibos, Cumin, Bay Leaf, Green Cardamom, Black Cardamom, Coriander, Angelica Root, Angelica Seed, Orris Root, Liquorice Root, Aniseed, Lemon Zest

PROCESS

Every year, Britain’s supermarkets import table grapes (the ones you eat, not those used to make wine) by the boatload from as far as afield as Egypt, South Africa and Chile. For packing, the grapes are cut and trimmed to fit the punnets, leaving loose grapes and tiny bunches that can’t be sold as fresh.

The sheer size of the trade means hundreds of tonnes of grapes end their long journey either as animal feed or in an anaerobic digester.

For the surplus table grapes, their round-the-world trip now has a far more productive ending. They take the grapes, press them dry and make the resulting juice into wine. But this wine never sees the light of day: instead, it’s sent to the distillery and turned into grape spirit, which they use to make HYKE along with the more usual grain spirit.

AWARDS:

IWSC

• GOLD MEDAL 2019

PERFECT SERVE

• 50ml HYKE Gin

• 100ml London Essence Pomelo Tonic

• Build over ice and garnish with a slice of lemon.

• Drink and enjoy!

If you like this gin as much as we do, please buy a bottle from the online store at Foxhole Spirits (you’ll find a link and 10% discount code below).

MEMBERS ONLY - DISCOUNT CODES

Head over to Foxhole Spirits and get 15% of all online purchases - Use code ASTERLEY15 at checkout

As a member of the Asterley Bros Cocktail Club you also get 15% discount from any online purchase in our store - Use Code ABCC15 at checkout

IT’S…*FAINT DRUMROLL*………MYSTERY AMARO TIME!

We at Asterley Bros absolutely love the mysterious world of Amaro. It’s a subject very close to our hearts and we have been making both Italian and English Amari now for the next part of a decade. So we thought we would take the time to introduce some of our favourites to our Club Members!

A little background:

Amaro is the Italian word for ‘bitter’ and Amaro is a hugely popular category of Italian Digestivo liqueurs, usually consumed after a meal to aid digestion. Bittersweet, with a heady mix of herbaceous, medicinal, bitter, aromatic & floral notes, Amari (the plural for Amaro) are very much an expression of terroir. The botanicals and flavours found in Amari are hyper-reflective of the regions in which they are made, using locally grown fruits, herbs and botanicals to create complex and layered bitter liqueurs. Campari, Aperol, Cynar and Fernet Branca are all examples of types of Amaro.

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The second Cocktail Club Mystery Amaro (#002) is:

AMARO LUCANO - 28% ABV

Another super-delicious, heady and complex amaro, hailing from Basilicata in Southern Italy. This amaro dates back to 1894, developed by a baker running his own pasticceria, and contains 30 different botanicals.

They say it is based on a secret recipe passed from generation to generation of the Vena family, containing wormwood, yarrow, gentian and aloe for bitterness, it also uses a number of herbs and spices to round out it’s profile including sage, orange and cinnamon. Most of the other botanicals used are shrouded in mystery of course! We’re pretty sure that liquorice, cinchona, mint, eucalyptus and bay are in there somewhere, with a little whack of caramel for colour and complexity too…

To serve:

Pour 25ml over ice in a tumbler, stir or swirl for 30 seconds to lightly chill and dilute the liquid. Sip slowly.

Tasting notes:

It starts with a really complex cola nut & citrus aroma. Rich, sweet and earthy with a touch of sandalwood and gentian on the front palate. Some bitterness develops with the floral aromatics of myrrh resin and then a lovely cinnamon, clove, all-spice mix, with a touch of mint at the end. Superb.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Referrals

Don’t forget that as a member of the club you also have a unique referral code that you received in your first subscription box. If you have lost it, please just reach out at info@asterleybros.com and we will resend it.

Please remember to share the code with friends and family so we can grow the club together.

Every time your code is used by a new member signing up, both the new member, and yourself, will both receive an extra free 100ml Rhubarb Negroni & 100ml Vesper Martini in your next monthly delivery.

So everybody wins! Get sharing!

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