Waitrose Heston Fruit Cup

I’ve never been a great fan of Pimm’s so I wasn’t expecting much from the Heston Blumenthal Fruit Cup which has just been launched by Waitrose.

It’s produced by Chase Distillery and based on the Heston Earl Grey and Lemon Gin which I was also surprised to like as much as I did.The fruit cup also includes elderflower, blackcurrant and raspberry liqueurs.

They suggest you serve it in a tall glass with lightly crushed raspberries and a couple of fine slices of peeled fresh sliced ginger. Pour over 2 x 25ml measures of the Heston Fruit Cup and 150ml ginger ale (so 1:3), add a few cubes of ice, a squeeze of lime and garnish with fresh rosemary and lime zest (not sure about the zest as a garnish but the rosemary makes it.) It’s incredibly good - fruity without being too sweet and with a lovely aromatic note from the bergamot you don’t get with Pimm's.

You can also apparently mix it with lemonade, sliced strawberries and mint.

It’s on an introductory offer at £16 until June 4th when it will revert to a rather pricier £21.35 so I’d snap up a couple of bottles now.

Japanese gin - but oddly not from Japan

Ask the man in the street where Japanese gin comes from and he’d look at you pityingly. "Japan, of course!" But actually this 42% ultra-premium gin comes from Cambridge, England.

It’s been made by the Cambridge Distillery from what they describe as ‘Japanese botanicals’ which include shiso leaf, sansho pepper, sesame seeds, cucumber and citrussy yuzu peel along with the mandatory juniper. All the botanicals are distilled individually in small batches under vacuum which distiller Will Lowe claims is what preserves their freshness and individuality.

I was set to scoff but it is in fact a gorgeous gin with the clean pure Japanese flavours that characterise Japanese food. I can imagine it going beautifully with sashimi or any kind of fresh seafood. (Crab would be perfect.)

The bottle which is hand-screen printed is rathe gorgeous too - as well it might be for £64.99 (at Selfridges) though you can buy a rather dinky 100ml miniature that looks like a perfume bottle for £16.99, roughly the price of a couple of cocktails. The temptation to dab it behind your ears is almost irresistible.

Is it worth twice as much as a premium gin and three times as much as an everyday brand? Not for most of us but given the given the amount of money sloshing around in London at the moment and the general buzz surrounding gin there will be plenty of takers and even at this price its considerably cheaper than many whiskies.

5 great whiskies for Burns’ Night (and other occasions)

Given that it’s Burns Night what other bottle could I feature but whisky? And as I couldn’t make up my mind which one here are five!

The first is a bargain - a fragrant 5 y.o. blended malt called Glen Orrin which Aldi sells for £12.99 - not just for Burns Night but all year round. It’s deliciously heathery, floral and sweet but with quite a spicy kick - I diluted it a touch with spring water and reckon it would be rather delicious chilled.

Aldi’s award-winning Highland Black Special Reserve 8.y.o. - at the same price - is also excellent for those who like a richer, more mellow style.

Also great value I think is Cutty Sark Storm which I imagined from the presentation would be far more expensive than the £21-odd it costs at Master of Malt and The Whisky Exchange (which has a shop at the back of Laithwaites in Vinopolis behind London's Borough Market though not all the whiskies it lists are available there. Master of Malt also sells a 30cl sample for £3.30.)

It contains an unspecified proportion of grain whisky - as most blended whiskies do -but has that fragrant, sweet character of a good grain whisky along with a nice whiff of peat and smoke. Dare I say a feminine whisky? This woman likes it anyway.

The next whisky Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky, is of course not Scotch at all but South African and turns out to have been voted the best grain whisky in the world. It’s very attractive - sweet and vanilla-y - not bland but comfortingly smooth. Pretty hard to get hold of which of course will be a draw for the whisky geeks among you but despite that not over-expensive at £29.45 (at The Whisky Exchange)

Finally a Johnnie Walker ‘expression’ as they call it in whiskyspeak - a really handsome bottling called The Royal Route from The Explorer’s Club Collection which was released in October.

Apparently you can only buy it in ‘travel retail’ aka duty free where it sells for around $159 (£96) a litre bottle which makes it hard to buy for Burns Night unless you’re flying today. It’s not cheap but that’s what you pay for a limited edition. And at least it costs a little less than the ultra-premium Johnnie Walker Blue.

Apparently it represents the leg of the spice route between the Mediterranean and Persia (now Iran) and indeed has an exotic, spicy almost smokey character but with delicious fresh and dried fruit flavours and a lovely rounded fullness.

Could it take spicy food? I reckon it could. I could imagine sitting on a verandah in Kashmir sipping this as a sundowner. And that was before I had seen the YouTube video I stumbled across when looking for more detail on the product. (When did you last see a wine promoted that way? And look at the travelling accessories they suggest The Royal Route purchaser will have in his - obviously his - suitcase (above). Selling the dream ...)

Noilly Prat Ambré

There’s nothing like hearing a bottle is impossible to get hold of to make you want to buy it so the news (via Jared Brown of Mixellany) that Noilly Prat Ambré was no longer available in the UK made me instantly snap one up here in France when I spotted it on the shelf.

Noilly Prat, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a famous vermouth which once boasted the slogan ‘Say Noilly Prat and your French will be perfect’ (It’s nwa e pra not noily prat - not that my French is up to much.)

It’s made in the small town of Marseillan on the Languedoc coast and - like madeira - is aged in barrels that sit outside in the scorching sun. The original is a pale but heavily aromatised vermouth that is a classic component of a martini* but the Ambré which also contains orange and vanilla is much richer and sweeter, more like a herb-infused Pineau de Charentes.

Jared tells me (via Facebook) his favourite way of drinking it is “on the rocks, sometimes with a twist. I have made martinis with it, using the original 1:1 ratio, with a lemon twist. I have even used a bit more vermouth than gin. This pairs well with oysters, especially if you happen to be sitting harbourside in Marseillan. It’s lovely in a Manhattan, but I’m really a traditionalist there: Martini Rosso is still my favourite in a Manhattan."

I haven’t explored a fraction of the possibilities but can vouch for the ‘on the rocks’ serving - I’m actually keeping it in the fridge. And the good news is that it does occasionally seem to be available in the UK: at The Whisky Exchange (for £16, though not at the time of writing) and I imagine Gerry's of Old Compton Street could get hold of some though they don't appear to have it on their website.

So if you’re anywhere near Marseillan or a wine shop in the Languedoc snag a bottle. Mine cost only 11.60€ (£10) so was quite a bit cheaper than you'll find it elsewhere.

If you spot Ambré anywhere else let me know!

* And also a good addition to many fish dishes.