Valentine's cocktails from Shetland

Jonny has an astounding breadth of knowledge on both mixology and brewing. He has worked hard to develop his palate but is also an avid reader and long-standing subscriber to technical publications such as Punch Drink and Imbibe magazine. He started by binge watching Videojug tutorials, gradually building a solid foundation for the wealth of technical knowledge he has now.

Asked where he gets his inspiration for his cocktail recipes, he says: “Well, it’s always nice to base recipes around what’s seasonally available but really anything can work as an inspiration - from something as simple as a particular colour, an event like Valentine’s Day, or something more specialised like cocktails from a specific place. Once I get the theme, I start playing with ideas, textures and flavour combinations."

For the recipes below, Jonny has opted to use two different Shetland Reel Gins – Original and Festive Hawthorn. Shetland Reel craft gins are distilled in Unst, Shetland’s most northerly isle. The business owners, Frank and Debbie Strang, and master distillers, Stuart and Wilma Nickerson, have proudly branded their company as Britain’s most northerly distillery, safe in the knowledge that unless someone sets up in the Muckle Flugga lighthouse, the title is theirs to keep!

For the past six years, their small, dedicated team have distilled award-winning batch distilled gins using locally harvested botanicals wherever possible. Their Original gin is a London dry gin with nine botanicals including sweet, fragrant applemint, grown and harvested in Unst. Their Festive Hawthorn gin is a special edition and Debbie Strang, who hosts some of the distillery’s guided online tasting sessions, gave us this description of it:

“A lot of people assume it’s going to be a liqueur but we really wanted to make this a dry gin. It starts off with a typical juniper spice but quickly leads into a very smooth woody yet mellow berry flavour from the hawthorn berries. It’s very easy on the palate, sipped neat by the fire it's a real treat. It’s something like a sloe gin but stripped back to its essences.”

The cocktails Jonny has dreamt up for your delectation and delight are Breakfast in Bed, for the hedonists amongst us, and Kiss & Tell. The secret, and somewhat elusive, ingredient in this exclusive Kiss & Tell recipe, is a dash of a very special rose-hip liqueur, made for him by his friend and neighbour and one of Shetland’s top chefs, Mike Skinner of Da Haaf Restaurant in Scalloway. If, like me, you aren’t lucky enough to be in possession of a flask of Mike’s magical potion, you can substitute with extra rhubarb syrup.