Welcome back! It's been a hell of a month with collaborations for The Perth Craft Beer Festival to travels to Kuala Lumpur for Gin Jubille and so much more coming up soon! Check out the latest here!
When experimenting with new recipes a great place to start is tweaking classics to give them a fresh, new interpretation. Australian botanicals are a great place to look for inspiration which is how we came up with this creation: The Saltbush Sidecar.
The Salt Bush Sidecar(Available at theWest Winds BarLeederville)
20ml Saltbush Tea (heat 20g of saltbush in 500ml of water at 70 degrees for 5 minutes)
Method: Shake ingredients with ice and double strain into a coupe. Garnish with saltbush or sage.
Old Man Saltbush
HISTORY/ BOTANY
Saltbush
Oldman saltbush, and probably most other relatives, have their greatest potential where there is a well-defined autumn feed gap and the property has a significant amount of scalded land that does not grow good pasture any more. It is very expensive to establish but is very hardy once a few years old. Its role is as a drought reserve or a special purpose crop, not a production system. Oldman saltbush grows well only on heavy clays and alkaline clay-loams. Saltbushes are not suited to the tropics or coastal and cool upland areas.
Excerpt from The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Queensland.
Saltbush is available for purchase in Perth at Fresh Provisions Mt Lawley and all good organic suppliers.
Our crew stretches way out across the country and we’re always inspired by some of the posts people put up about The West Winds Gin on Facebook and Instagram. So much so that we’ve decided to feature our favourite one for each month! This month's winner is @ali_bailey with this beautiful shot of one of our Broadside Salt and Pepperberry Negronis (available nowonline!). Congratulations! We’ve sent you a little gift to say thanks.
Tag The West Winds Gin in your posts to be in the running for next month!
Barrel expedition French 75 cocktails with sage garnish
MIXOLOGY TIPS
Garnish To our brains, “flavour” is actually a fusion of a drink’s taste, smell and touch into a single sensation which is why garnish can be so important in cocktail creation. The role of your garnish to accentuate and influence the flavours inherent in your drink by activating your olfactory senses and the changes a garnish can make to “taste” cannot be underestimated. The ‘celery salt test’ is testament to this. Whilst blocking your nose take a pinch of celery salt and place it on your tongue. Unblock your nose and get ready for a wave of extra flavour that is not actually ‘taste’ by definition. When choosing your garnish for your drink think about aromas that can complement the flavours of your spirit or even fill in the gaps ie if you have a sweeter style of drink consider Citrus or even a savoury garnish like rosemary. When using Citrus we recommend zesting the rind and pegging it to the edge of your glass so that the aromas influence your senses with every sip.
Announcement! The very last of our Barrel Expedition is up online for purchase! Once it's gone it's gone forever so get in quick!
The Maidenii Barrel Expedition at 45% ABV was our first barrel aged gin and was rested in a Maidenii Sweet Vermouth barrel. A Maidenii barrel was chosen to complement the bright Citrus and juniper notes that are particular to The Sabre.
They're back! We sold out quicker than we ever imagined with these little gems so we've gone and done up a brand new batch just for you! Using a blend ofThe Broadside Navy Strength Gin, Sweet Vermouth, Campari and two native Pepper Berries it's a Negroni that packs a punch and has been wildly popular. Part proceeds of every can sold goes toThe Sea Turtle Foundationin Cairns so drink up for turtles everywhere. Available now through ourwebsite!
Environmental Tips
As disposable plastics continue to impact oceans all over the world hunting out alternative solutions is an increasing challenge in the bar world. Ultimately it would be best if people stopped using straws altogether but if you absolutely have to have them we’ve gone and done the leg work for you and found a selection of biodegradable, environmentally friendly options. The best option available is Bucatini pasta. Flavour neutral and resilient against cold water this pasta is a perfect alternative and will last for 30 minutes before you seen any kind of loss to structural integrity. If however you’re looking for a different aesthetic we recommend the Oxo-Biodegradable options fromhttp://www.eco-straw.com.au/.
Imran Ahmed aka 'Boss Man' and his signature G&T featuring The Sabre.
International Voyages
As we continue to drive The West Winds Gin our travels are now taking us out of Australia and into international waters. Recently we were proud to support Gin Jubilee, a festival held in various locations around South East Asia allowing bartenders to flex their creative muscles and invent the best possible Gin and Tonic they can. We were pleased as punch to be represented by Imran from JungleBird (recently voted top bar in Malaysia) and his creation 'Curry On My West Winds Son', a refreshing blend of ingredients from his home in Bangladesh and modern Malaysian cuisine. Can't wait to get back there and see what else he has cooked up!
Madame Geneva
FUN FACT
Madam Geneva
‘Madam Geneva has absolutely nothing to do with the city of Geneva. She was instead the British goddess of gin, which makes her a lot more interesting than anything in Switzerland. Her name comes, ultimately, from the Old French wordgenevre, which means juniper. This got taken into Dutch asjenever, which also meant juniper, or could mean the clear alcoholic spirit in which juniper is the main flavouring – the thing we’d now call gin.
Very few pictures of this curious lady survive. This is odd because, in her day, she was quite the celebrity. Poets wrote plays and poems in honour of this great lady, with catchy titles likeMother Gin: A Tragi-Comical Eclogue(1737); and her funeral was held in front of huge crowds, several times.
Excerpt from “A Short History of Drunkeness” written by Mark Forsyth
Rummy mixing the Spiked Puncheon at Ocean Brewing Company.
Distillers Log- No. 5
Brewing Beer isn’t really my thing. I mean, I love drinking the stuff. I especially love this ‘craft beer’ movement at the moment and the variety of styles being produced. It's incredible.
Jack, Head Brewer and good friend from Indian Ocean Brewing Company, recently collaborated with me on such a beer for The Perth Craft Beer Festival. The craftiest of craft: A mixture of Craft beer and Craft distillation. Essentially we blended a barrel aged Lager with some ofThe Cutlass. What resulted was a lovely table beer, one good for matching with food. If you’re in WA you’ll be able to find it dotted around and at the following venues:
Cellarbrations Carlisle Clancy's Fish Pub Fremantle Mane Liquor The Dutch Trading Co Indian Ocean brewery
I had a lot of fun making beer with Jack. If you are into your beer be sure to check out Indian Ocean Brewing Company. Their beer is fantastic.
