Bentley Owners Club Visit us

What a superb selection of timeless pieces and the guys and gals are great too! Joking aside, lovely people and one off cars of exceptional engineering and condition.

The Suffolk Show 2014

Despite mixed weather we had a great time meeting old friends and new. Sampling lots of super spirits

Old Salt Rum just won best Rum at Hong Kong ' RumFest

We bested big brands Havana, Zacapa, Fiji Rum, Bacardi, Diplomatico, Angostura etc.

Shows, shows, shows and more shows

Spring has sprung and a busy weekend looms.

If you fancy having a chat and a taste we are at Harewood House (near Wetherby), the Yorkshire Game Fair (Ripon) and Burghley this weekend.

Lots of of new sips to try too:

• Chocolate Liqueur - this is a gorgeous truly chocolate liqueur, made with probably the best dark and milk chocolate there is and our fine vodka. Simply for the full on choc-aholic. Lovely with a large chunk if ice or add an espresso for a gorgeous alcoholic mocha
• Colombian Coffee Bean vodka - simply an alcoholic espresso 
• Apple Brandy - we are going on a big apple brandy journey this year with more than six different ones plans. This is the first of that trip and crisp, smooth, good presentation of both skin and flesh notes and a superb brandified finsih. Lovely as a pommeau - one to one with a good apple juice too

Catch up soon!

A letter from the Prime Minister

Lovely start to the year, hand written letter from DC looking forward to trying our malt...

Cooking with apple brandy - Chicken Chasseur

Hunter's Chicken might be a bit old fashioned for a lot of people, but I think its a delicious dish and ideal for the damp chilly times of year. Alcohol is used sparingly in this dish - normally some calvados and white wine.

Take your whole chicken and de-bone. I give the wings to the dogs. The carcass goes to stock. Plain flour the legs and breasts. Hot pan, olive oil, brown the chicken.

Meanwhile, finely chop a shallot and one red pepper. In a hot pan cook with a little olive oil until the shallot bits are transparent. Add two tbsps of apple brandy and reduce to a syrup, then add a finger of Dr J's Gin and reduce to a syrup. Take off the heat of your chicken bits aren't brown next.

When the chicken is browned add it to the shallots etc, mix through, had a handful of finely chopped tarragon, a chicken stock cub (crumbled) and 500ml of passata. Cook on a low heat for 10 minutes and serve with sauteed spuds and steam seasonal veg'. Lovely.

Apple Brandy is here!

Good morning!

We have just completed the first batch of this year's apple brandy. 

Last year's was a true delight and, I must say, I had more than a little trepidation that with year to year crop variations we might not fly so high. That said, this years crops - as I am sure you will know - have been quite incredible - with so many varieties we were able to refine even on last year's.

Distilled five times. The breadth of apple notes, with layers from caramelised apple tart through to fresh crisp skins punching through a golden rounded finish.  A true delight!

I was a little decadent yesterday with my sauce for my belly of pork: 500ml cider, reduced to syrup, 500ml cox apple juice, reduced to a syrup, 250ml double cream, thicken, 50ml of apple brandy, vapour off and finished with some pork juices.... well that puts me into a middle-distance trance!

If you fancy a super smooth treat its here.

Cheers!

J 

Christmas Spirit is here!

It is fast approaching that time of year again. Personally I love it. Seasonality is often forgotten and comes with so many delights - our Christmas Spirit is one of them!

It starts life as our Old Salt Rum, made from black-strap molasses, fermented for about 12 days and distilled twice in our 200L copper pot stills; discarding the heads and tails as we go.

Next we infuse with raisins, sultanas, freshly split Indian vanilla pods, freshly pared citrus zests, star anise, cardamom and pixie dust. Leave for a good old while and then bottle.

Its a superb sip, complex, layered and fun; tastes pretty much like a liquid Christmas Pud. I enjoy it on its own, but naturally goes well with pud or cheese course. No finer thing to crack open on the day!

More info is lurking here!

Apple brandy in a couple of days - yippee!

Old Salt Rum smoked Salmon

As the garden party season swings into high summer time for the essential hot smoked salmon.

Kicked off with 3kg of salmon fillet (serves 10) from the superb Colin at Fish in Newmarket.

My cure - 250ml Old Salt Rum, 1kg of Rock Salt and 300g of dark molasses. Smear the fillets in the mix and leave covered in the fridge for 24 hours.

Next on our cheap BBQ waited until the char' was white and flame less. Dipped a couple of good slabs of apple wood in water and placed on the cinders. Then cover loosely with foil to allow the smoke the circulate. I placed the salmon on a disposable aluminium tray I had pierced lots of holes in with a knife.

Smelt fantastic. The damp generates lots of smoke! So beware! Two hours did the job, with lots of checking to make sure there was lots of smoke, but no flames!

Looks superb and smells better. Avoided a sneaky pick for breakfast. Roll on this evening!

Cooking with Dr J's Gin

Cooking is one of my passions.

This is a quick-ish little number that is delish. Pan-seared chicken breast with a Dr J's Gin, leak, mushroom, blue cheese and tarragon sauce, served with new potatoes and whatever good veg you have to hand.

The sauce takes about 30 mins so kick off with that.

Sauce: hot pan add good butter - 2 tbsp - two thinly sliced field mushrooms and a thinly sliced stalk of a leak plus a good grind of fresh black pepper. Cook until the leak is nearly transparent and has unravelled. Next in goes a third to half a bottle of Dr J's Gin, reduce to a syrup. Add a pint of chicken stock, reduce to a third. Add a heap tsp of Dijon mustard, stir and add 50g of your favourite blue cheese. Cropwell is always good. Stir and add 200ml of double cream. Bring to a simmer. Take off the heat. Sprinkle on a tbsp of finely chopped tarragon and cover. Warm through again prior to serving.




Make a paste for the chicken breasts: in a m&p grind up 1 heap tsp of fennel and half a chicken stock cube. Empty into a bowl, add 1 tsp of honey, 1 tbsp of olive oil and a 1/2 tsp of finely chopped rosemary. Blend together and coat the chicken breasts with this.

In a hot pan sear skin side down for 90 seconds, flip over and place the pan in the medium oven for 12 minutes. Leave the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Damn delish.

Apple port

Well it has been full on. Never a bad thing to have to contend with. So a big excuse me, going to make a special effort to keep blogging!

One idea we have recently been working on is an apple port - probably cause all sorts of issues with EC naming, but it helps communicate what it is. To all you port aficionados out there the aim was to make something similar, but using the delish English apple in its many guises.

Port - wine fortified with brandy and some spices. So apple port - take a good still cider and fortify with our five times distilled apple brandy. The result: something superb, midway between a sherry and a port. A little more work and we hope to have it on sale in July. Ideal as either an aperitif or a digestif.

Take a leaf out of Marco Pierre Whites books I recently used it to make a spectacular sauce for belly of pork: 500ml of apple port, reduce to a syrup, not a caramel, 500ml of fresh apple juice, reduce to a syrup, double cream to thicken to taste, 50ml of apple brandy, juices from the pork belly, thicken slightly and serve over the sliced rested pork belly.... mmmm, wrong time of day to be recalling that!

Dr J's Gin

Now summer is here (ha ha), it is gin time again and what a lovely time that is. As you may know our Dr J's Gin begins life from our English Spirit and then we pack in varieties of coriander, juniper berries, macadamia nuts, fresh zests and some magic. Our copper pot stills work their wonders and out pops our Dr J's at about 80.5% ABV. We cut back to 45% to ensure in the glass experience of one to one with your chosen mixer is the perfect expression of our gin.

We are asked a lot what is the best mixer. Well, never been a big fan of mixers as they vary so much and when you have spent an immense amount of time and effort creating your spirit the last thing you want to do is contaminate it with something.... shall we say... sub-standard. With this in mind, we set out to produce a gin that was perfect when served very simply over crushed ice - one to one. If you want a twist then set aside all your rinds and zests and do this:

Two fingers crushed ice, two to three salted capers (not the brine but the salt crystal version) and two fingers of Dr J's Gin. Sip and enjoy. Repeat ad libidum.

Nano still

We have been wittering on for some time about the delights of our simple 1L copper pot "nano" still and the delights of knocking out your own drop of spirit whilst you preparing and eat your evening meal.

Nothing could be simpler than our little gem.

Easiest is to start with low quality wine - red or white it does not matter.

Cider makes Calvados or Apple Brandy, fruit wines make eau de vie and unhopped beer makes whisky.

Put a whole bottle (75cl - 750ml) in the pot. Place the pot on a hob and attached the head. Seal the rim of the head where it meets the pot with thick flour and water paste. Light/switch on the hob on a medium heat.

Plug the two holes of the cooler that are not connected to the coil. This is best done with candle wax.

Attach the curvy arm to the cooler. The cooler should not be on the hob.

Fill the cooler with cold water. Light the hob and bring the pot to the boil. Should take 10-20 mins. The first vapours off are called heads and you don't want them so discard the first 30ml (an egg cup full), next collect the following 125ml - this is called the heart. Add to this about an egg cup of water and you'll have about 150-160ml of ca 40% spirit - in this case a brandy. Sip and enjoy!

It is legal to own your own personal still in the UK, provided it is 4L or less in size and you register with the HMRC (start here)

You can buy one of these little gems from our online shop too.

Sambuca

By popular demand we have created a sambuca and as is typical for us, is probably the only one made in the UK!  Instead of taking a maceration approach we have gone ginning: redistilling or beautifully smooth English Spirit in the presence of star anise and then combining with English elderflower eau de vie and sugar. Simply overly drinkable!  On sale in our shop today.

Our flag arrives

With a lot of people saying we drove passed and missed you, we thought a could not be missed sign was needed. So we had a flag made and the next challenge is keeping it upright!

A day of two halves

A crisp drive in this morning in the returned minus three.  Next up a train ride to London and our tasting at Fortnum and Masons....

Snow again ah!!

J

Just when we thought we had seen the last of this... global warming.... anyway it takes forever for stills to come up to temperature when we have an ambient of about zero. Normally, we kick off at about 0630 with first product off at about 0930, but today it was closer to 11 before the heads made their appearance. Keep smiling!

Expedition Number 1 is here

Possibly the finest malt spirit.  Solely made with only English malt - no other grains.  We are so pleased with this sip.  On sale tomorrow. First batch 75 bottles.

Brentwood Centre Food & Craft Show

It is nippy outside today, but we'll worth a visit as we are tasting our English Grappa: crammed full of flavour!

New molasses pump bit arrives

I know it is rather mundane, but how can you not feel impressed by this bit of kit? May have to start taking down old Tonker toys on eBay!