Berkley Bridge – Brockman’s Gin
Brockman’s Gin claimed October as Brocktober where twenty Mixologists create cocktails and post them one after the other. So, today it is my turn and I decided to come up with a punch recipe. Furthermore, instead of adding complementary flavours, I played heavily on the Brockman’s Gin proprietary berry notes. While I am quite pleased with the result, let us see what the other folks think of my creation.
Brockman’s Gin was created to be “different” from other gins. The botanicals are macerated in grain alcohol and the list of botanicals consists of juniper from Tuscany, black- and blueberries from Northern Europe, almonds from Spain, Chinese liquorice root, Valencian lemon and orange peel, coriander seeds from Bulgaria, angelica root from Belgium and Saxony, orris root from Italy and Cassia bark from South East Asia. Distillation takes place in a 100-year-old copper pot-still. In the end, Brockman’s bottle their gin at an ABV of 40 %.
Berries, berries and more berries
Obviously, the Brockman’s Gin is not that juniper forward. Instead the blue berry notes overwhelm the flavour of the gin. The phrase “intensely” fits when it comes to the berry notes. Besides that you will find some hot ginger flavours and also a noticeable menthol note in the gin. Lastly, you can taste a few coriander seeds before a finish with even more berry flavours.
Berry tea punch
For my Brocktober drink, I used a template from another cocktail I already posted here on the blog. The House of Winston adhered to the classic punch recipe and I used the similar proportions for the Berkley Bridge cocktail. However, instead of the combination of brandy and eau de vie I went for the Brockman’s Gin and a splash of Tatratea Berry. A Bohemian tea-based liqueur with forest berry flavour. On top of that, I used a red berry fruit tea from Berlin. However, you could use any strongly flavoured berry fruit tea. For the bitter part of the recipe I opted for the Bittermen’s Burlesque Bitters and the wine part is composed of the Rinomato Aperitivo.
0,75 cl Tatratea Berry
2,25 cl Rinomato Aperitivo
2 Dashes Bittermen’s Burlesque Bitters
4,5 cl Red Berry Tea
3 cl Lemon Juice
2 cl Apple Sweetness
Shake – strain – chilled Highball glass over ice cubes;
Garnish: Long Lemon Twist – Dried Orange Wheel – Dried Berries;
Song: San Fermin – Berkley Bridge;
Balanced by herbal flavours
The berry notes clearly dominate the flavour of the “Berkley Bridge” cocktail. However, the herbal tea notes of the Tatatea and the Aperitivo also shine through in the taste. The drink is quite balanced with the lemon juice and apple sweetness. Obviously, you also could use regular simple syrup instead of apple sweetness. You will just lose a bit of additional fruitiness. The drink definitely is suited for summer and the days when you want to be reminded of those.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The gin was provided by the Perola GmbH.
