Campfire London Dry Gin wins World’s Best Martini Challenge 2019
Well, what an amazing start to the new year! To our enormous surprise our Campfire London Dry Gin martini was crowned winner at the World's Best Martini Challenge 2019!
On Tuesday 15 January Ben and I headed off to London to serve our classic martini to martini fans who had gathered at 100 Wardour Street. Along with the other four gin finalists and the 2018 winner we also had to present our showstopper martini creation to the World's Best Martini Challenge judges. It was going to be a tough competition competing against Conker Spirit, HMS Spirits Mary Rose, Plymouth Gin, Marylebone Gin and Arbikie the 2018 winner.
For the event we partnered with Dylans Kings Arms in St Albans and Sean and Roberto came along to provide support and help on the bar while Ben presented our showstopper martini to the judges.
Ben pouring our winning martini for the judges
We've always favoured a simple bone dry martini recipe made with our Campfire London Dry Gin but with a slight tweak to our usual ratios and garnish we added a little more depth to the flavour profile. With a nervous hand Ben gently poured our Campfire martini into hand-blown glasses (a beautiful find at The Hospice of St Francis charity shop) and decorated them with hand-stamped orange peel flowers which we soaked in Carpano Antica Formula rosso vermouth for 10 hours. This not only added a little colour to the underside of the peel (all pith removed) but imparted a subtle hint of the Carpano vanilla notes into the martini whilst enhancing the sweet orange aroma.
Judge, Ivan Dixon commented 'Simple but beautifully executed, not to mention tasty as. Because sometimes less is more, and less sometimes wins'.
We'd like to thank everyone that came along, Dylans, the judges (Rebecca Milford of BarChick, Ivan Dixon of Entroria&Coe and Gabriele Sasnauskaite of Artesian Bar at The Langham) and of course James and Gary organisers of the World's Best Martini Challenge 2019.
We'll be back next year to defend our title! Do pop into the distillery to see our enormous martini glass trophy! (When it arrives back from the engravers!)
The winning martini recipe is as follows:
Campfire Bone Dry Martini
1 part Dolin Dry Vermouth
Combine the gin and vermouth with ice and stir – you are aiming for dilution equaling 2.5 parts water. Serve in a pre-chilled glass and garnish with orange peel flowers soaked in Carpano Antica Formula rosso vermouth for 10 hours.
Tip: use an icing cutter to make the orange peel garnish.
