"lavender" news and stories

Quintessential (Q) London Dry Gin is 40% abv. / 80 proof is made in a process requiring five distillations of botanicals to produce the gin. Q is based on a 1761 recipe from Greenall Distillery that was known for its clean, smooth flavors, with a few modern changes. While having the normal botanicals like juniper and other traditional fruit, herb, and spices, the recipe was tweaked with the addition of lotus flower leaves and lavender. Part of the velvety smoothness may be from these additions, but I am sure a lot can be attributed to the ultra pure spring water from one of Wales finest springs.

The aroma is a light but heady blend of juniper, complex floral elements and spice notes. While not intense or strong it's a nice scent that makes you want to try a sip. As the spirit sits it opens up and you can sense the floral elements developing strength.

The taste is a smooth and tasty mix of spices and flowers over a mid-level juniper base. This is a nice twist on a traditional London Dry Gin, bringing in more floral notes than the norm in a crisp and clean way.

Q won the Beverage Tasting Institute 2005 award for the Worlds Smoothest Gin and I most heartedly agree that it is very smooth and luscious. It's definitely an excellent gin, one that is best drunk straight on the rocks. It also makes a mighty fine dry martini and has just enough of a unique taste that it also works well with premium tonic water and in fine cocktails.

If you enjoy cupcakes and have not yet seen the Cupcake Bakeshop blog, I strongly recommend that you take a look. Cheryl is an amazing baker and comes up with some of the most exotic sounding and beautiful looking cupcakes you'll ever see. Case in point, the delightful cupcake pictured above is made up of a layer of cake, two layers of ice cream and topped off with frosting, making it into a Green Tea, Lavender and Honey Cupcake Bombe - and giving it a name that is as much a mouthful as the cupcake itself. The ice cream layers are lavender and honey, both homemade, and the frosting and cake base are both flavored with matcha (green tea powder), so the whole treat is colorful as well as tasty. As you might imagine, an ice cream cake (with very little actual cake) topped with frosting is quite sweet - but that's how cupcakes are supposed to be, right? Even if you don't want to attempt the whole process of this multi-layered cake yourself, you might want to try one of the two ice cream recipes to add something different to your repertoire.

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