#BackingTheBlues: Lilu’s Foxy Gin

They have created a special gin cocktail to celebrate everything Leicester City Football Club – combining the best of Leicester, and of course the unmistakable blue that is sweeping our dear city.

Lilu’s cocktail is Burleigh’s Gin, made in Leicestershire, a gin I love so much I went to discover how it was made and distill my own gin, which is still one of the best days I’ve ever had. Over ice, they shake it up with blue curacao (I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of this in the coming weeks) and then a dash of bitter lemon and just a drop of blackcurrant cordial is added to give it a deeper blue colour.

It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does – because the gin is added liberally and its dryness counteracts the sweetness of the lemon and curacao, making it a refreshing, slightly herbal but satisfyingly citrus drink. Not at all syrupy and sweet, but still at the lighter end of your heavily boozed cocktails. 

You can hear all about this cocktail being made from its inventor, Pratik, on the BBC Leicester Breakfast Show tomorrow morning and I will be following it up talking about #BackingTheBlues and this little blog at 7.55am. What an exciting day!

What blue excitement have you been experiencing in the city of late?