About next week... Babylon The Movie

About next week… 
At the start of this year, I already announced that Double Strainger would now focus on the “roaring 20s”, with speakeasy and prohibition-style drinks.

Guess what???

Next Wednesday (January 18) a new Paramount movie is hitting the big white screens in Belgium. From Damien Chazelle, BABYLON is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

The story fits my blog like a silk white glove, holding a delicate coupe of expensive Champagne. So yes, I’m extremely happy to announce that next week I’ll be working with Paramount Pictures to showcase some of the delicious and classy drinks that appear in this movie. Keep an eye on our blog and socials… you really don’t want to miss this.

Verhofstede Edelweiss Gin + 2 cocktails

 

This is our second blog in the series we do together with Foodbelgium.com – Links with promo’s and FREE items at the bottom of this article.

Are there still well-known classics that haven’t really been featured on this blog yet? How about this cool and refreshing Tom Collins with a nice base of Edelweiss gin ?
This gin by Verhofstede holds 20 botanicals and is produced with water from the Edelweiss source. The gin has floral and citrus notes and a nice and sweet finish. It received the silver medal on the Concours Mondial in Brussels.

Tom Collins

Ingredients
5 cl Verhofstede Edelweiss Gin
3 cl lemon juice
1,5 cl Simple Syrup
Perrier

Method
Shake the gin, lemon and sugar with lots of ice. Strain into a highball glass with fresh ice. Add soda water. I really like Perrier for this because it has just the right amount of bubbles. Garnish with fresh or dried lemon. Perfect drink to cool down on a hot day 😉

And even more !!!
At our home we really like all things vintage and retro. That’s probably what I also like most about the Verhofstede spirits. They use old family recipes to create modern day drinks. Another Belgian company who does this is Ritchie. They have a range of vintage lemonades, which are very enjoyable and can now be found in several supermarkets.

The original lemonades dropped off the market in the 70s. Jan Verlinden, son of the former brewer, quit his marketing job in 2016, refreshed the old recipes (less sugar etc.) and brought them back to the market. They even have a natural coke without caramel or phosphor acid. Jan is the 4th generation running the brewery in Lubbeek, near Leuven.

The coke and the grapefruit lemonade both mix excellent with rum. I wanted to sample the orange lemonade and also give it a spike. This time it’s not a Gin Ricky, but a Gin Ritchie 😉

Gin Ritchie

Ingredients
5 cl Verhofstede Edelweiss Gin
1 bottle of Ritchie Orange

Method
Add your gin to a tumbler with ice. Top up with Ritchie lemonade. Give it a single stir. Garnish with a dried orange slice. Cheers !

Buy now
Verhofstede Promopage   
Edelweiss Gin 20 CL (+ FREE apero mix) 
Edelweiss Gin 50 CL (+ FREE Gimber)
 
Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations. Affiliate links present in this article.

Verhofstede Hop Jenever - Dry Gibson

 

Great news !!! I have teamed up with foodbelgium.com – This is a webshop with authentic Belgian food and drinks. They have asked me to test some of the bottles on their “Jenever, liqueur and distillates” pages. All products we will be testing in the next weeks and months can be purchased through direct links in the articles, often with free extra’s or specials promotions for our followers.

In this first article we got to play around with Verhofstede Hop Jenever. This local distiller started creating this product in 1961 by an old family recipe, based on the wild hops growing around their property. The hops create a silky finish for this traditional jenever. Did you know that jenever existed 200 years before the first mentioning of cognac… and that jenever is the more complex predecessor of gin?

To highlight the silky finish, we didn’t want to mask it too much with other flavours. Our first thought was a Dry Martini, but I was afraid the umami taste of the olive would change the taste too much. I picked a Dry Gibson instead, swapping the olive for a pickled onion. I used a can of pickled onions, pickled with barrel aged apple vinegar.

Pickled Martinis are real bartenders’ drinks. Very complex taste. The Dry Gibson just might be the easiest first babysteps toward this ‘pickled’ direction. It’s a fresh and silky Martini-style cocktail that will be loved by most spirit-forward enthusiasts.

Dry Gibson

Ingredients
6 cl Verhofstede Hop Jenever
2 cl Forest Dry vermouth

Method
Add the Jenever and vermouth to a mixglass with lots of ice. Stir for 20 seconds and strain into a chilled Martiniglass. Add a pickled onion.

Buy Now
Verhofstede Promopage   
Hop Jenever 20 CL (+ FREE apero mix)  
Hop Jenever 70 CL (+ FREE Gimber)
 
Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. While some items might have been gifted by the producer or distributor, these are in no way paid promotions or recommendations.

3 Days of Angostura (2/3) : The Trinidad Negroni

 

On the second day of Angostura we head in the direction of one of my favourite countries : Italy. For this series “3 Days of Angostura”, we were challenged to publish three tasty and festive cocktails with both Angostura 7 rum and Amaro di Angostura.

Why wouldn’t it be possible to recreate one of Italy’s most iconic cocktails, using both our spirits. You might have seen lots of Rum Negroni’s already, where the gin is swapped for rum. But for this cocktail we take the next step. We swap gin for rum AND Campari for amaro. And because amaro has a mouthfeel somewhere in between Campari and vermouth, we balance the cocktail in favour of the amaro. The result is a very tasty and exotic Negroni-style cocktail.

The Trinidad Negroni

Ingredients
4,5 cl Amaro di Angostura
3 cl Angostura 7 Rum
1,5 cl Punt e Mes Vermouth
1 dash of Angostura Orange Bitters

Method
Stir all ingredients together in a large glass with lots of ice. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass with a large ice cube. Add a nice piece of orange zest or a dried orange slice.

Do you want to have some fun ?
Go sit next to your Christmas tree with your Negroni and take a picture for your Instagram-story. Tag @doublestrainger and @angosturahouse. I’ll reshare them !

Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. This article is a paid promotion for House of Angostura.

3 Days of Angostura (1/3) : Sidekick 7

This year no “12 days of Christmas”, but “3 days of Angostura”.
As you already have noticed, I’m writing this short series in English, because I was challenged by The House of Angostura to publish 3 different festive cocktails, each of them including two of their top products : Angostura 7 Rum and Amaro di Angostura.

They asked to write this series in English, so they can also share them with their audience. We are also thinking about switching to English for our blog, to make it easier for international producers to work with us… and because we seem to hit our ceiling in local growth. A recent poll on our Instagram story shows that ±79% would rather read our articles and social media posts in English.

In this first article I will also tell you a bit more about both bottles :

Angostura 7    
 
The continuous stills of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago produce a massive amount of good quality rum. Even if you haven’t tasted any of the Angostura bottles, be aware that most European rumblends also contain very large amounts of Angostura rum.

Angostura 7 is a blend of aged rums, matured for at least 7 years in bourbon barrels.

Nose : Maple syrup, chocolate and spices. A bit of bourbon and vanilla from the cask.
Mouth : Again chocolate, caramel, coffee, honey, toffee.
Finish : More chocolate, caramel and coffee, a layer of crème pâtissier.

Amaro di Angostura

Probably everyone knows Angostura’s iconic bitters which are part of so many classic cocktails. From the same process comes the latest innovation from the House of Angostura : Amaro di Angostura, with a deep amber colour, aromas of cinnamon, dark chocolate and… Angostura bitters.

A good quality amaro can really bring the ingredients of a cocktail together. Add 20 ml of amaro to your Old Fashioned (I don’t even care if you make it with Whisky, Bourbon or Rum) and see what happens. It’s a serious upgrade you won’t regret.

To start our journey, we bring these great flavours together in a Sidekick cocktail. The Sidekick is a variation on the classic Sidecar, which is normally made with Angostura 5.

Sidekick 7

Ingredients
3 cl Angostura 7 Rum
3 cl Amaro di Angostura
1,5 cl Cointreau
1,5 cl Lemon juice
2 dashes of Angostura aromatic bitters

Method
Place all ingredients in your cocktail shaker with lots of ice, shake well then strain into chilled coupe. Add a cocktail cherry.
 
Disclaimer : All pictures and texts are copyrighted by Geert Conard and Esito Management & Communications unless stated otherwise in the article. This article is a paid promotion for House of Angostura.