This St Andrews Day, 30th November, raise a glass of Sweetdram and toast to the best of Scotland Food and Drink.

St Andrews Day is also known as the Feast of St Andrew and is celebrated every year on the 30th November. To mark the day, Scotland Food & Drink is encouraging us all to celebrate the people, products and places that are building Scotland’s reputation as a land of food and drink. Scotland Food & Drink represents over 450 food and drink and affiliate companies growing and producing some of the best food and drink products in Scotland – and some would say the world! So I’m helping to shine a spotlight on our fantastic industry this St Andrew’s Day, and remind you all why it’s so vital to support Scottish food and drink.

SWEETDRAM, A SCOTTISH SPIRITS PRODUCER

I’ve teamed up with Sweetdram who are a progressive, flavour driven spirits company. What that means is that Andrew MacLeod Smith and Daniel Fisher, co-owners of Sweetdram, create spirits that focus entirely on original flavour. In other words, they create spirits with no additional artificial flavours, sweeteners and colours; they work to the original natural botanical recipe.

BOTANICALS AND SUSTAINABILITY

When Andrew and Daniel set up home here in Sighthill, Edinburgh a few years ago, creating a distillery garden was of the utmost importance. They needed to stay true to their ethos of using natural botanicals and the best place to get organic botanicals is to grow your own.

You’ll find the garden at the front of the building and teaming up with local business, Radicle Gardens, ensures that the land is used efficiently – they capture rainwater, promote biodiversity and of course grow the botanicals.

Sweetdram are taking sustainability seriously and it now forms part of every day activities. Because they distil on site, they’ve installed a state-of-the-art recirculating chiller to cool their condensers, saving around 2,000,000 litres of good, clean mains water from getting flushed down the drain each year. They compost spent botanicals into feed for new botanicals, working on plans to install a green roof and also grown fresh herbs and spices.

WILD ABSINTHE

You might know Absinthe as a bright green drink, popular in France and the consumption of choice particularly among Parisian artists and writers.

Sweetdram’s Wild Absinthe might not be neon green but I reckon it’s a lot safer than what they were drinking in the late 18th century.

This Wild Absinthe is tinged with green from the hand-picked, air-dried sweet cicely picked during the Summer months from their closed-loop’ or ‘circular’ economy, no waste garden out front!

This Wild Absinthe can be drank over ice, give it a swirl until it turns cloudy or try this Corse Reviver No2 recipe

INGREDIENTS

25ml lemon juice

25ml London Dry Gin

25ml Cointreau

25ml Dry Vermouth

Dash of Absinthe

Orange peel for garnish

METHOD

Pour all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Give it a good shake and strain into a glass. Garnish with orange peel

SCOTCH SAZERAC

Don’t feel bad if you have never heard of Scotch Sazerac, I hadn’t either but if you love an Old Fashioned, you’ll love a Scotch Sazerac.

Scotch Sazerac is a whisky cocktail. It is said that Sazerac was the first ever cocktail and made in New Orleans by a Creole apothecary, Antoine Peychaud in 1838. The name of the drink comes from Peychaud’s favourite French brandy, Sazerac-de-Forge et fils. Somewhere along the line, American Rye-whiskey was substituted for the cognac and, in 1873, bartender Leon Lamothe added a dash of Absinthe.

Sweetdram have created their own and bottled it for easy drinking. The original recipe calls for Rye Whiskey, Peychaud’s bitters and absinthe. Sweetdram have created theirs by using their BLEND #1 Blended Scotch Whisky for depth, structure and a subtle wisp of smoke, their Cask-Aged Moonshine Liqueur and Whisky Amaro – both intensely aromatic – to reconstruct the fruity, dry spice notes from the Peychaud’s, and their seasonal, sustainable Scottish Wild Absinthe to flesh out the edges.

As this is already mixed, the best way to serve is to stir it down over ice, strain and pour into a coupe glass. Similar to an Old Fashioned, garnish with lemon peel.

Sweetdrams Scotch Sazerac is extremely rare and will never be made again due to it containing their Cask-Aged Moonshine Liqueur which has now completely sold out, never to be repeated. So, unless you’re one of the lucky few who has a limited-edition 2020 bottle lying around, this Scotch Sazerac CANNOT BE RECREATED by anyone, including Sweetdram.

BUY your bottle of Scotch Sazerac NOW - https://sweetdram.com/products/sweetdram-scotch-sazerac

SLAINTE

Sweetdram have other innovative spirits in their product range. If the Wild Absinthe or Scotch Sazerac don’t tickle your fancy for toasting this St Andrews Day, try one of these

· Escubac - sits somewhere between gin, aquavit, and herbal liqueurs in terms of flavour and style. Try it with Tonic, similar to G&T

· Whisky Amaro – a blend of three Scottish single malt and grain whiskies with nine botanicals added. Great as a digestif or as a classic Highball with sodawater

· Smoked Spiced Rum – aged Caribbean rums infused with bright green botanicals, superior lapsang souchong tea and organic figs, which they warm-smoke over oak at the distillery. Perfect serve is a Dark & Stormy

If you would like to purchase any of these products, visit Sweetdrams website www.sweetdram.com.

This post is an AD and a collaboration with Scotland Food and Drink.

DRINK : Slainte from Sweetdram on St Andrews Day