Cocktail of the Week: chasing up a cheesy fizz with our September Gin of the Month Burleigh's Dry

Below is a cocktail from our Gin of the Month, Burleigh's Gin which featured three of their gins for our members: The Signature Edition, the Export Strength and the Distiller's Cut. Burleigh's is made at the 45 West Distillery in Leicestershire where they also hold a gin school where participants can learn everything about distilling, make their own gin, and walk away with a bottle of the gin the make. All this info and more is printed in GINNED! Magazine which goes in our monthly surprise gin parcel. Our club members are loving their Burleigh's and all the great ginformation in GINNED!

It's only autumn now, but as the cold sets in you're likely already itching for the spring time when warmer breezes blow that musty, enclosed winter smell from your nostrils and replace it with the smell of spring flowers. But if you’re in Gloucester on the Spring Bank Holiday, chances are you’ll receive another musty waft, one that smells peculiarly like cheese.

Gloucester is the home to one of the world’s most unique sporting events, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake. What started as an odd local tradition has grown into an international wonder. Some historians date cheese rolling back to the Ancient Britons of pre-Roman times. The first recorded proof dates to an 1826 letter from the Gloucester Town Crier. The letter indicates that the tradition was already well-established at that time.

The premise is pretty straightforward: 1. Collect a group of people at the top of a steep slope. 2. Role a cheese wheel down said slope. 3. Have said people chase cheese. But in reality, it’s not that simple.

Firstly, Cooper’s Hill, the event’s venue, is a steep slope. the ambitious cheese chaser risks serious injury by running full speed after a block of milk mold and indeed, every year a number of participants end up in an ambulance.  

Secondly, for a dairy product, cheese actually has legs. The nine-pound Double Gloucester wheel that Cheese-Rolling officials drop from the top of the hill reaches speeds of up to 70mph. Despite our best efforts, humans still can’t run that quickly, even down hill, so the cheese often remains elusive until - or if - the cheese runners reach the bottom of the slope. The estimated 5,000 spectators at this years’ event, despite their tendency to enjoy some pre-cheese merriment at local pubs, remain attentive for cheese at that pace can do some damage if it were to stray from its downward path.

Burleigh's Fizz

After a hard day's work: refreshing, clean: a well earned Fizz

• 50ml Burleighs 40%
• The juice of 1/4 orange
• The juice of 1/4 lemon
• 3 dashes sugar syrup

50ml Burleighs 40%

The juice of 1/4 orange

The juice of 1/4 lemon

3 dashes sugar syrup

Shaken, served over ice with a splash of soda.