Up your drinks game this National Braai Day

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It’s time to light the fires and pour a celebratory Heritage Day drink.

Happy Heritage Day. We have no doubt that you’ve got the food sorted for this celebration  … one which involves all things braai and celebrating our heritage.

The good news is that now that we’ve all come out of hibernation, lockdown levels have come down a notch and everyone is socialising in the sunshine. So it’s time to Up Your Drinks Game.

That means celebrating with your favourite local drinks brands and serving delicious cocktails and drinks. Whether you’re all about a gin bar, can’t say no to a sparkling wine, want an alcohol free option, or simply just want a lekker local tipple of something special for your Springbokkie, look no further.

Bloedlemoen (pronounced “Blue’d Le Moon”) is a handcrafted South African, small batch local gin made from ten natural botanicals, including the delicious Tarocco Blood Orange, proudly making it the world’s first Blood Orange gin. The fruit is sourced locally from the Western Cape.

SA-Groni

Ingredients:

  • 25ml Bloedlemoen Gin
  • 25ml Campari
  • 25ml Full Cream Sherry
  • 1 twist of Orange Peel garnish (Pro tip: use a potato peeler)

Stir all ingredients together and strain into a tumbler glass with a big block of ice. Take the twist and squeeze the oil over the drink.

Grace Du Roi Sparkling Wines are a range of premium sparkling wines from Paarl in the Cape. Grace wines are known for their lively bubble, and refreshing green-apple and pear character (with a hint of raspberry and cream for the Rosé wines). With Chenin Blanc as its base, the unique flavour comes largely from the cuvée (first press) of the grape – the result is a clean, delicate wine, with a gentle fruitiness. Grace wines have a delicate balance of acidity and sweetness.

Graceful Mimosa

Did you know that a Mimosa contains 32% of your suggested daily dose of Vitamin C? Simply mix sparkling wine with orange juice.

Ingredients:

  • 60ml Orange juice
  • 120ml Grace du Roi White Gold Sparkling Wine

Fill a champagne flute one-third full of freshly squeezed orange juice and top up with ice-cold Grace du Roi White Gold.

Cape Velvet is the original South African produced wine-based cream aperitif, and it is known for its sweet, creamy texture and delicious taste. The creamy texture and its versatility have earned it pride of place in many local kitchens and bars. 

On the rocks

Ingredients: 

  • Cape Velvet Cream
  • Twist of orange peel

Pour into a large glass over ice and garnish with a twist of orange peel.  Delicious!

Any great occasion or social gathering necessitates a premium, mouth-watering Aperitif. Abstinence Lemon Aperitif provides all the richness and complexity of flavour, without any alcohol. With a dominant lemon backbone, it’s supported by an infusion of natural botanicals and a faint bitterness from the African wormwood and quinine.

ABSTINENCE Lemon Spritz 

Ingredients:

  • 50ml ABSTINENCE Lemon Aperitif
  • 200ml Soda Water (can be substituted with Tonic)
  • Ice
  • Lemon peel

Pour ABSTINENCE Lemon Aperitif over ice in a gin goblet or wine glass. Top with soda and garnish with fresh lemon peel.

Just as our cherished Cape Fynbos cannot exist without fire, so any social occasion is not complete without the intensity of the Abstinence Epilogue X. It is a blend of three different malts ― oak-smoked malt, crystal malt and dark toasted malt ― that are meticulously married with a combination of botanicals and local honey bush to create a delicious non-alcoholic sipping spirit, which is amber in colour.

Cape Spice Manhattan

Ingredients:

  • 50ml ABSTINENCE Cape Spice
  • 25ml ABSTINENCE Epilogue X
  • 25ml Martini Rosso
  • 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
  • Orange twist

Add ABSTINENCE Cape Spice, ABSTINENCE Epilogue X, Sweet Vermouth, and bitters to a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled coupé and garnish with an orange twist.

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