Mothership Drinks
History: 10 years ago two young bartenders took over a basement bar on Edinburgh’s Queen street. Their concept for the Bramble Bar and Lounge was to create a cocktail bar with a focus on gin, which at the time was just beginning to grow in popularity. It didn't happen instantly for Mike Aikman and Jason Scott, it took a lot of hard work and hours to get people to understand what they were trying to achieve with the bar. Over the years Bramble Bar has won several big industry awards and started the careers of dozens of high profile bartenders. As well as opening two other venues the pair started to put in place a plan in 2012 to create their own drink brands company called Mothership. They have always put great care and attention into the products they stock in their bars so they decided they had the skills to create their own.
The brands: There are three pre-bottled cocktails which are already mixed for customers to enjoy at home. The first is Affinity, a whisky cocktail, aged in an Oloroso cask and a blend of Glenmorangie, a vermouth, cocktail bitters and Byrrh, a wine-based aperitif. Next is the The Six Cylinder Cocktail, inspired by the a recipe from the famous Savoy Cocktail Book of 1920. It comprises of Bombay Sapphire Gin, a blend of vermouths, Campari, cherry liqueur, Dubonnet aperitif and a secret formula. The last is the Bottle Aged Brooklyn cocktail – a bottle-aged drink which blends bourbon, vermouth and cocktail bitters.
All of them come in handy “travel sized” 100ml bottles. Their next steps was a lot more adventurous, they created a range of bartender liqueurs with a range of flavours before launching Sea Wolf, Scotland’s first white rum, the Bramble Gin Liqueur a combination of London dry gin and Scottish brambles and most recently Cross Brew which is titled a “Damn Fine” liqueur. It is a rich, full-bodied coffee liqueur made from a darkly roasted blend of coffee, a new-make spirit base, a little sugar and Scottish water. All the brands are available to buy on mothershipscotland.com.
Favourite tipple: The Seawolf Rum is delicious. Most people think of white rum as being harsh but this one is particularly smooth and can be drunk just over ice but to get the best out of it you have to try it in a classic Daiquiri, with fresh lime and sugar, shaken and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.
Geek fact: Sea Wolf Rum uses both Champagne and rum yeasts which help to create its flavour profile of of unripe banana, sugarcane and cereal alongside a smooth, creamy texture.
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