Easter Cocktails

Easter Cocktails

After taste testing 142 Easter eggs (how do we get that job?!), Good Housekeeping has found the best eggs on the market this year, with a vegan Easter egg nabbing the top spot.

Booja-Booja Hazelnut Crunch Chocolate Truffles Easter Egg isn’t technically a chocolate egg, it was still considered by the judges who gave it a high score of 89 out of 100. The truffles, which are gluten, dairy and soya-free, come in a beautiful hand-painted box. The egg was named the winner of the free-from category but also topped the list overall thanks to its high score.

The rise in plant-based alternatives is fantastic news for vegans and people with allergies to dairy. It seems chocolate and alcohol companies are catching on to this expanding market. Demand for vegan and vegetarian food increased by 987% in 2017*.

All this got us thinking here at HEL’s HQ about a chocolaty dairy alternative for our Easter cocktail menu.

Hot Cross Kraken

Ingredients:

75ml Baileys Almande
25ml Kraken Spiced Rum
10ml Chocolate syrup
100 Raisins for infusion

Method:
Infuse the rum first. Soak the raisins for 24 hours in 70cl of The Kraken Rum. Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Pop some ice cubes into the shaker and shake vigorously till the liquid is silky smooth. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Finish with a sprinkle of cocoa and enjoy.

If that all sounds too sweet for your taste how about this delicious Easter cocktail palate cleanser inspired by Portobello Road Gin?

The Cold Cross Bun Martini

Inspired by Portobello Road Gin’s passion for all things British, the ‘Not Cross Bun Gin Martini’ has been developed by distilling high-strength alcohol with Hot Cross Buns to create a super-concentrated essence which is then sprayed into a frozen glass. The Easter-themed cocktail is made with gin, vermouth and hot cross bun tincture

Ingredients

• 60 ml gin
• 7 ml dry vermouth
• 2 drops of Hot Cross Bun tincture*

Glassware: martini glass
Garnish: lemon peel cross, whole clove

Method

In a mixing glass filled with ice, add gin, vermouth and stir until chilled. Strain into a chilled martini glass and top with two drops of the hot cross bun tincture. Garnish with a lemon peel cross, held together in place by a whole clove. The Hot Cross Bun garnish is optional.

(Thanks Corinne Mossati )

* To make the Hot Cross Bun tincture, macerate 30 ml of neutral grain spirit of vodka with 5 raisins and 1/8 teaspoon of mixed spice in a small jar. Shake the jar and store it in a cool dry spot. The following day, strain the tincture using a cheesecloth or coffee filter and store it in a dark glass bottle.

Notes:

Baileys Almande is dairy and gluten-free and is now certified Vegan. The Kraken Rum is gluten, wheat, nut and lactose-free as well as Vegan. We used Sweet Freedom choc shot liquid chocolate which is Vegan and available from Waitrose.

The delivery service, Just Eat, recently released statistics concerning the food orders it had received from its massive customer base of 20 million. According to the Mirror, there was a 987% increase in the demand for vegetarian options in 2017. Source Livekindly.com

Images: portobelloroadgin.com, Good Housekeeping