When summer feels like a distant memory, there’s plenty of enjoyment to be found in sampling the epicurean pleasures of this ‘season of mellow mists and fruitfulness’.
There are dozens of cocktails based on autumn fruit flavours, roughly divided into orchard fruits, like apples, pears and quinces, stone fruits such as plums, sloes and damsons, and soft hedgerow fruits including blackberries, elderberries and mulberries. It’s definitely worth making your own plum or damson vodka/ gin if you can get your hands on a kilo or two of ripe fruit and a Kilner jar.
Here are a handful of our favourite autumnal tipples.
Appletini
All right, so while the Appletini may feel like a full-blown 90s throwback, we think it’s time to show a little more love for this contemporary classic. Add equal measures of vodka and cloudy apple juice to a cocktail shaker, together with a splash of calvados, lemon juice and maple syrup. Shake until ice cold, strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with crisp apple slices.
Damson Martini
Sticking to the alterna-tini theme (Edmunds’ Passion Fruit Martini is a winner if you need a ready-to-serve option), try shaking things up for autumn with this version using damson liqueur and vodka! Shake a double measure of vodka with a shot of damson liqueur, ice and lime juice before straining into a Martini glass and garnishing with lime zest.
Pear and Elderflower Collins
Add gin, elderflower liqueur, pear puree, lemon juice and honey syrup to an ice-filled shaker and blend till cold. Strain over rocks and top with the soda water, stirring to combine. For hassle-free alternative, simply add a splash of pear liqueur to Edmunds ready-to-serve Elderflower Collins in an ice-filled glass and garnish with a thin slice of pear and a grating of cinnamon.
Bramble
The perfect seasonal cocktail, this fresh-fruit Bramble is a dream to prepare from ripe hedgerow berries. Muddle half a dozen blackberries in a rocks glass. Add a double measure of gin together with a shot each of lemon juice and sugar syrup and plenty of crushed ice. Stir with a spoon and garnish with more blackberries. If you want all of the flavour with none of the effort, our Chambord Bramble is a great ready-to-serve option.
Kir Royale
Perhaps one of the simplest and best-loved champagne cocktails, the Kir Royale is an elegant choice for any celebration. Tip a teaspoonful of crème de cassis into the bottom of a flute and top with ice-cold champagne or sparkling wine. Garnish with a blackberry. Bottoms up!
