Christmas Gin Cocktail Recipes Snowdonia Style

So gin is the drink of choice for 2018 and nothing pleases us more than to spread the word that Snowdonia is indeed home to three distilleries producing Welsh artisan gins that travel the world. If, like everyone else this year you’re stocking up the drinks cupboard with gin, then you might want some Christmas gin cocktail recipes Snowdonia style… to help you get into the swing of things, the creators of these local gins have each given us a cocktail recipe to spice things up this Christmas!

FORAGERS GIN | SNOWDONIA DISTILLERY

Using the finest ingredients and artisan craft distilling methods, the Snowdonia Distillery produce a limited amount of exceptional quality spirits. There are three gins in the portfolio; the Yellow Label, Black Label and a Mountain Strength Black Label which is for the more discerning gin drinker…

THE CRANBERRY COLLINS

A twist on the iconic Tom Collins and perfect to have as a nice welcome drink when the family come around on Christmas Day. It is easy drinking and not too heavy on flavour, which is what you want for the first drink of surely many to come…

To make the Cranberry Collins combine in shaker:

30ml Forager’s Yellow Label Gin
20ml Raspberry liqueur
30ml Lemon juice
10ml Gomme

Shake until nicely chilled. Strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Add 30ml of cranberry juice, and then top-up with plain soda. Serve with a straw, and garnish with a couple of cranberries or raspberries.

BLUE SLATE GIN | DINORWIG DISTILLERY

All the botanicals to make Blue Slate Gin are from the garden and so rhubarb is used to give the gin its ‘citrus lift’. Because of the rubarb element, it works really well with a range of mixers, including ginger ale and ginger beer. It also works well as well as a classic G&T using Fever Tree tonic and a slice of juicy orange. (*please note this is not a Rhubarb flavoured gin*)

A GIN-GIN MULE (from the Gin Foundry)

50ml Blue Slate Gin
15ml simple syrup
15ml lime juice
25ml ginger beer
handful of mint leaves

Muddle the mint leaves and syrup at the bottom of a shaker. Pour in the gin and half a cup of ice and shake until cold. Add in the ginger beer and stir, gently (if fizzy). Fill a Collins glass with ice, pour in the cocktail and garnish with a couple of sprigs of mint.

MERYWEN GIN | NORTH STAR DISTILLERY

Merywen (Juniper in Welsh) Gin uses local botanicals including eithin (gorse) and grug (heather) which are hand-picked from the local hedgerows, combined with water from the foothills of the Welsh mountains. Celebrating the music of the area, tunes have been written for the gin and are displayed on each bottle – you can hear and taste something of Wales with this gin!

A CHRISTMAS COCKTAIL

50ml Merywen gin
1 Litre of Apple Juice
3 Sticks of cinnamon
8 cloves

Mull the apple juice with the cinnamon and cloves over a low heat for approx 15 mins. Then simply use it as a mixer with your Merywen gin; as much or as little as you want – absolutely lovely!