Last week was quite a week.

Tuesday evening saw the MoM team in the opulent surroundings of the Dorchester hotel, having been nominated for not one, but two awards at the highly prestigious Drinks Retailing Awards – organised by Off Licence News. Spoiler alert: We won them both.

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Cream Gin - £41.95

It’s fair to say that I’ve been a fan of the guys from Fluid Movement (the team behind The Worship Street Whistling Shop, Purl, and the new Dach and Sons) for a while now. In fact, I reviewed Purl almost 18 months ago here should you care to read about it.

It was a somewhat off-the-cuff suggestion that we ‘do something together’ made whilst at the Whistling Shop about this time last year which has ultimately led to the situation of us jointly launching the first retail product from this team of really very clever chaps.

So, without further ado – I give you ‘Cream Gin’. The main ingredient in the Whistling Shop’s signature cocktail – The Black Cat’s Martini.

This really quite marvellous concoction is the brain-child of The Whistling Shop’s erstwhile head barman, and all-round mixological genius, Ryan Chetiyawardana.

In the name of journalistic plausibility, and to make for a better read, I briefly forgot all about the extensive NPD conducted for the product, and the fact that I now know more about vanillin content and fat globule homogenisation than any man has the right to, and caught up with Ryan for a brief Q&A:More...

Today is two things: 1. It’s a day all the trains from London were delayed dramatically. 2. It’s Thanksgiving!

What do these 2 things mean when combined? Well, I found myself a rare free moment to muse upon all things American. Being a Yankee far from home at this time of year can be a bit sad (hello, 4-day weekend!), but luckily there’s enough turkey, cranberries, and canned pumpkin in the UK to get me through.

This year, I thought I’d add something new to my holiday tradition: pre-dinner cocktails. Normally, the drink of choice for Thanksgiving is Beaujolais Nouveau (I still recall the colourful paper signs propped in the liquor store window of my hometown: Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!), but this year’s crop has been low, so the bottles have been allocated and as such are in limited supply in the UK. Boo.More...

Published today – an open letter from Tunbridge-Wells-Based manufacturer, The Handmade Cocktail Company to Commander Bond.

The letter reads:

Dear Commander Bond,

I write to you today in the gravest of circumstances.

It has been brought to my attention that you have been seen - in public no less - consuming that most un-gentlemanly of concoctions. Lager-beer.

The exact circumstances of this sighting I have been unable to ascertain - the employee in question ran into my office quite incoherent before crouching in the corner, and having to be chemically ‘calmed’ by our nurse. Contained within his ramblings however, there was definitely something about a train, a bar, and some arms made of ice?

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So – a few weeks back you may remember we launched a couple of ‘experimental’ cocktails - the Hanky Panky and the Boulevardier. The good news on this front is that the Hanky Panky has rapidly earned itself a promotion to the exalted ranks of the main series of the Handmade Cocktail company’s core offering, such was its popularity. I’ve just got to do a bit more mucking about with it (I’ve been experimenting with some of the fresh oak barrels we’ve recently acquired, and it takes exceptionally well to a bit of this – so it’s going to get some oak influence methinks) and with any luck it’ll be out before Christmas.

Those of you who’ve been paying attention may remember that back in February of this year, we ran a little competition – the purpose of which was to get you lot to guess the ingredients in a yummy new cocktail we’d invented. The winner of this competition then went on to name the cocktail  (I won’t reveal it, as it’s going to be launched in full 70cl glory at some time in the next month or so).

In order to facilitate this competition, we made samples of the cocktail available in cute little 20cl versions of the standard bottle used for The Handmade Cocktail Company’s wares.

The more observant amongst you may remember that the little 20cl bottle was labelled as part of the ‘experimental series’? Well – today we’re revealing the purpose behind that ‘experimental’ moniker.

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So – Summer’s here. Sort of. From time-to-time. When it’s not flooding or what-have-you.

With this in mind, Professor Cornelius Ampleforth has turned his attention to perhaps the most quintessentially British drink that there is – the Summer Fruit Cup.

Now – it’s worth noting that there are several other cups on the market, from the Ubiquitous Pimm’s, through several distillers’ own recipes (Chase is rather good – coming soon – watch this space) to the really rather excellent Sipsmith. There was one thing that the Professor had deemed to be missing from all of these concoctions though – pure, distilled Madness*. More...

It all started so well. The Master of Malt Mobile was pimped, packed with drams and a simply outrageous selection of fine booze, and we were ready to go by 9.30am… not bad going I think you’ll agree.

We’ll be doing a bit of entertaining in Islay, so we packed our entire range of Vintage Cocktails, a selection of whisky and a few special bottles including Glenfarclas Cognac Cask, a single cask Ardbeg 1993 (more on this in coming weeks – yes – it’s going to be a new bottling from MoM), and a 28-year-old Port Ellen.

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The handsome devils at The Handmade Cocktail company have mixed a very tasty martinez, the latest addition to a range of superbly convenient cocktails.

The origins of the martinez are mysterious. More mysterious than people who profess to enjoy Coldplay; more mysterious than the location of Mike’s passport; more mysterious even than the fact Greg Wallace keeps getting presenting jobs.

Stories as to the provenance of the martinez abound; some say it was created by legendary bartender “Professor” Jerry Thomas at The Old Occidental Hotel in San Francisco to satiate a thirsty miner on his way to the town of Martinez. More...

We are soon approaching that quadrennial day in which we un-married men must hide fearfully from our other halves in case they try to enslave us in a life of penury and servitude. That's right – the 29th February. I have already prepared for myself the finest secret cellar this side of Austria, and plan on sequestering myself away in it for the duration of the day.

Marriage-related terror aside, the idea of gaining an extra day is rather novel, and so we've set about creating a very special something by means of celebration – the Secret Leap Year Cocktail (OK - naming things isn't our strong suit). We're also giving away a pretty exciting prize too…More...