Corner Club
Stockholm is one of those cities that many talk about, many have visited but many, presumably due to the high tax placed on alcohol, don’t consider it a city that is famed for having much of a cocktail scene. Thankfully, this is slowly changing. With more and more Swedish brands making headway in the international scene and more members of the international bartending scene re-homing back to Stockholm, things are looking bright for those looking for a tipple or two. Well, it’s not going to be good times for your wallet but at least, there are now more and more bars worthy of you spending your hard earned money and better equipped to provide you with a drink worthy of the hefty price tag.
Having toured a few bars, judiciously tasted our way through one cocktail after another on a jaunt around the capital, we’ve come back with some Ginspiration for you - both if you are looking for where to go yourself, or something to make at home.
It comes from a bar called Corner Club, nestled in Stockholm’s Old Town. The bar had a stuttered start under previous management but now under the stewardship of two of Stockholm’s brightest talents, it’s collecting silverware at break neck pace (Best New Bar in Sweden 2013 being their latest award). They are also one of the few bars that specialise in cocktails. Ask for wine, they’ll send you downstairs (a specialist wine bar), ask for beer, they’ll send you next door (you guessed it - a specialist beer bar) etc… It’s not that they don’t want to serve other drinks, it’s just that the alternatives are right there and they are proud cocktail specialists. This alone, means it’s worth visiting for you gin soaks.
They are also one of the few bars who stock Swedish Gins and use them on their menu. We were surprised at just how hard it was to find other bars that stocked the likes of Hernö, Hven or even newcomer Strane Navy Strength around town. Two drinks that caught our eye on the Corner Club menu using Hernö Gin and worth a quick mention:
Northern Navy
Lime juice
Grapefruit cordial
(A twist on a Gimlet and perfect as an after dinner pick me up)
Pillow Fight
Pineapple Juice
Shake hard and strain into a chilled coupe
They may no longer be on the bar menu when you visit, but you can always ask to have a look at the drink of the day in their book and ask for a gin cocktail they served back in April, the guys will knock one up for you. They have a daily cocktail that goes out on the menu and gets recorded in the book. Give it a year and that’ll be one handy cocktail book…
We digress. Now, something to make at home: The Warm G&T. Readers will be aware of our recent foray into Colonial G&T’s and Oskar, a bartender at Corner Club, came up with a different variation on the same idea at the end of 2013 winning him an award in Hernö Gin’s cocktail competition.
The Warm G&T we hope catches on with those searching for a weekend project that is worth the effort. Also, it’s a drink we’d like to see in more bars as it could possibly transform the winter months.
Just like the Colonial G&T we’ve written about here, the cocktail is served up in a coupe glass and will subvert your expectation of what a G&T can be. We’ll admit that making one is a lot of faff - so it’s best served to groups as you’ll batch make it.
Warm G&T
…recipe for one…
30ml Hernö Swedish Gin
10ml simple syrup (sugar syrup)
80ml Heated tonic water (Fentiman’s preferable)
Float Full cream infused with juniper
The “HOW TO” section is a little more complicated than shake and strain…
Step one - infuse the cream with juniper berries.
Heat a cup of cream over medium heat until the cream is scalded but not boiling. Add the juniper berries (and some chopped apple slices if you like a little zing!) to the cream, cover the pan and keep heating for a few minutes, then set aside to cool for about 30 minutes. Strain the now cool cream into a mixing bowl through a fine-mesh sieve.
Tip = Crush a few of the berries with your fingers a little to help the flavour come out.
Optional extra = make more than you think, juniper cream tastes amazing served over apple crumble. Warm G&T before dinner, juniper infused crumble for dessert…
Step two - get the tonic on the go.
Heat the tonic gently over the duration of a few hours. It’s important that all the bubbles have disappeared since boiling hot bubbles meeting human gums will hurt. Once you’ve boiled out the bubbles, let it cool a little so it’s not piping hot (think drinkable tea temperature not hot caldron of death).
Tip = Gentle heat over a long time will get better result than hard and fast boiling. It takes a while for the bubbles to boil out. You can add ingredients in to zest up your tonic if you feel it needs it.
Now that you have the two elements prepped, it’s straight forward.
Pour the heated tonic water into a coupe. Quickly, pour gin, simple syrup and cream into a shaker with a bit of ice. Shake hard. Then shake some more - it needs lots! Strain into the coupe and you should get a layering effect and the foamy, viscous creamy gin mixture should sit nicely on top of your tonic.
Clearly by the image - we went for a normal glass. It is better in a coupe, as it’s a sipper, but needs must and there was gin to be enjoyed…
Enjoy!
Note - some of the gin foam will mix into the tonic, that’s okay. Because your foam is cold - it will lower the temperature of your hot tonic. That’s also okay, you are aiming for a warm drink not a piping hot toddy!
Tip = If you are struggling to layer it all and it keeps mixing in the glass to create a cloudy mess, just pour slower, pour from lower and use it as an excuse to “practice” by making another….
