Burleigh's Statesman Cocktail: Hunting for pheasant with Burleigh's Gin and Roald Dahl

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!

The British tradition of hunting foxes with hounds may have been banned with the much publicized Hunting Act of 2004 to the chagrin of many a statesman. But at least they’re still allowed to shoot guns at fowl. Or do they even have to do that? One of the most famous modern British authors thinks not, or at least his characters don’t.

Roald Dahl had a knack for fascinating children while simultaneously entertaining their parents. One of his child characters, Danny, surname “Champion of the World”, develops a cunning plot to humiliate the story’s villain, a wealthy landowner that celebrates hunting season every year by inviting his rich friends - many of whom are statesman - to a pheasant shooting party. Danny laces raisins, a pheasant favourite, with the sleeping pills of his recently-injured father. Scattering the raisins around the wood one night, all Danny had to do was keep quiet, let the pheasants feast, and then gather the napping birds that fell from their tree perches to the forest floor. 

With the pheasants captured and the villain’s upper-class event ruined, Danny and his father could kick back and enjoy a well-earned G&T. Well, maybe not Danny. Even if fictional, he was only nine. 

THE STATESMAN RECIPE:

• 40 Burleighs distillers cut
• 15 Ginger liqueur
• 15ml honey
• 1x whole egg

Shake and strain into a tankard. 

Top with Ale.

Enjoy with roast partridge or game.

Thanks to Nate Brown of London Bar Consultants and Merchant House for contributing this cocktail.