Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year! Thank you for all your support so far, it’s been a fantastic year and TASTE has now become a small team of 3 working on all things cocktail! Our Christmas sales were fantastic and exceeding our Crowdfunding target was a great way to end the year; we are really excited to see what 2016 has to offer.
Here’s what we’ve been up to in the last year…our subscribers monthly kits and a little bit about them and what else we did that month.
January 2015 – Clover Club
Featuring the lovely Sipsmith London Dry Gin and the wonderfully purple, sweet and floral Parfait Amour liqueur. The clover Club was the first of our 2015 Subscribers kits.
January was a month of gathering thoughts after a mammoth first Christmas, and working on the plan to conquer the cocktail world in 2015!
(No longer in stock)
February – Manhattan
March was the month of The Manhattan, this month we revisited our first ever kit to celebrate 1 year of TASTE cocktails, and upgraded it with new, premium ingredients. With this kit you can make your choice of Sweet, Perfect and Dry Manhattans, to impress your friends and family.
Want to try the Manhattan kit?
March – Dark Chocolate 
Forget chocolate eggs…our Easter bunny delivered this Dark Chocolate Cocktail kit featuring the absolutely delicious Mozart Dark Chocolate Liqueur and Chocolate Bitters.
Mozart is an Austrian Liqueur producer, with a great range of liqueurs, bitters and a “Dry Chocolate Spirit”. Our Recipes were created by the good folks at Mangrove, the UK distributor for Mozart, and they do a great job of balancing the chocolate with the bitterness of Campari, and the sweetness of vermouth and orange juice.
(No longer in stock)
April – Mezcal & Chartreuse
This Mezcal Kit is probably less well known but that’s the beauty of making cocktails at home; you are able to try new things and see what you enjoy. The box features Del Maguey Vida Mezcal and two different Chartreuse liqueurs to make a Mexican twist on the “Last Word” cocktail, and a modern creation “All Betts Are Off”.
This one is my favourite kit, but also our worst-selling! It’s definitely an unusual one but I’m a cocktail geek, so I like something a bit weird. It’s definitely worth a try if you’re curious.
Shop here to try this kit.
May – where’s the kit?
In May we switched from sending kits at the end of the named month to the start, so the April kit arrived around the 25th April, and the “May” kit arrived at the start of June – The Aviation.
Also in May, Max joined the team, and we started work on the new website and magazine. With 2 people instead of just one, we found ourselves powering through work, putting together great partnerships for future boxes, and working on our plan to raise investment and grow quickly into 2016. We also started the search for another member of the team.
June – Aviation
The Aviation is a classic recipe from 1916. The name is supposedly due to the sky-blue hue the drink takes on when the violet liqueur is added. The Elder Aviator is a modern twist that swaps out violet for elderflower. This one featured Blackdown Gin from Sussex, with a very unique ingredient of Silver Birch Sap from the surrounding woods.
Try an Aviation Kit
July – Margarita
The July kit was based on the refreshing Margarita. This tequila based cocktail often surprises people. It has as many different origin stories as it has different ways to serve it. Here at TASTE it’s the Tommy’s Margarita that slips down all too easily, but it’s up to you to find your perfect serve with this one.
Give the Margarita Kit a go.
August – Mojito
Everyone loves a Mojito particularly in the Summer months, but since the 1500’s and its invention, this drink has become one of the most popular cocktails in the World. Our kit features Ron Barcelo, a delicious rum produced in the best conditions offered by the Caribbean.
In August, Amy joined us to help keep our customers happy, and find new ones! Now with a team of 3, I set about the long journey of raising investment.
Try some Mojitos!
September – Bramble
The Bramble kit has been extremely popular, featuring Minus
33 Juniper Distilled Spirit. Actually pretty simple to make and well balanced in its sweet and sour tones, this blackberry cocktail has become something of a modern classic, appearing on many bars’ menus. This kit also features some exciting recipes from Casita Bar in Shoreditch.
Get your Bramble on.
October – Pisco Sour
October was always going to be a busy month, and with London Cocktail Week we had even more excuses to drink and be merry! Although we didn’t have a stall it meant we managed to visit both the Old Spitalfields Market hub and Soho Hub, both of which were fantastic and we are looking forward to the next event! Octobers kit was the Pisco Sour; a traditional Peruvian cocktail featuring 1615 Pisco Quebranta and Italia.
Try some Pisco Sours.
November 2015 – Espresso Martini
Our Espresso Martini kits took off from the moment they hit our website and they have by far been the most popular kit to date. A great winter drink, its the perfect combination…caffeine and cocktails!
The kit features multi award winning Tovaritch Vodka and allows you to make a couple of classic Espresso Martinis as well as ‘Cuppa Joe’ and the ‘Toasted Almond’, using Frangelico and Amaretto.
By now we were ready to launch our Crowdfunding campaign, and running that alongside 4 months of record-breaking sales in the lead-up to Christmas meant that November and December were the busiest and most stressful time of my life to date!
Get your own Espresso Martini Kit.
December 2015 – Sidecar
December was mad! With our Crowdfunding campaign in full swing and orders flying through the door, we hired in some extra elves to help pack our kits and our office soon became a mountain of bottles, packaging and postage labels! Orders were coming in quicker than we could pack them, and in the end we turned off sales around mid-December, and only just managed to get them all out of the door in time for Christmas.
Our Christmas kit for 2015 was The Sidecar. This is a classic cocktail but with a TASTE twist on it…featuring Chateau Laubade VSOP Armagnac instead of Cognac. We chose these cocktails for a festive and warming taste in the Winter months but it’s just as good all year round!
Want to try the Sidecar kit?
January 2016 – The White Lady
Finally…we thought we better start the new year with this delicious ‘Ginuary’ Kit; The White Lady. We’ve partnered with the wonderful Sibling Gin who have a fantastic story and great tasting Gin. Although many of you have probably adopted the fateful ‘Dry January’ regime, we believe that 2016 is all about trying new things (in particular cocktails) and discovering your new favourites. So raise a glass with us..and cheers to a New Year!
Start the new year in style with a White Lady kit.
If this year of cocktails sounds like your kind of thing, why not subscribe for a completely new cocktail kit every month? You won’t regret it.