After our holiday in tropical Costa Rica, settling back into what was left of our British summer was rather a struggle. So, when the artisan food marketplace Yumbles contacted us, inviting us to try some martini cocktail sets by Tipple Box … of course we said yes! Anything to try to bring back memories of those balmy tropical evenings sitting at the hotel bar!
About Yumbles
Yumbles is a curated marketplace connecting food lovers with the UK’s best independent small batch producers of food and drink. Every maker has been carefully hand-picked for their incredible and original produce. Yumbles taste-tests food from every maker to ensure that everything on their website is not only good for you and the world around us, but delicious too.
As you’ll notice they don’t just list food, but drink too. You will find the perfect gin gift set from Yumbles.
Tipple Box
Tipple Box sells the UK’s best cocktail and gin sets. Based in Edinburgh, each Tipple Box contains everything you need to make delicious cocktails at home. Each box contains two expertly curated recipes, which include four 5mls of spirits, mixers and exclusive ingredients. They also have a monthly subscription service, sending a new kit each month, which sounds like a great gift!
We were sent two kits to try.
Martini Cocktail Set 1: Espresso Martini
This box, beautifully packaged, contained:
The salted caramel marshmallows (replacing a piece of fudge, which I dislike) and the chocolate coated coffee beans were added by myself. These, along with the glasses, ice, cream (optional) and a cocktail shaker were all the additions required to make two cocktails – the Espresso Martini and also a Salted Caramel Martini.
We followed the instructions the best we could – we didn’t really understand how to use the measure that came with our cocktail shaker (it had no measurements on it), so we had to guess a little. Here’s the recipe we followed:
Making the cocktails was a lot of fun – the children loved shaking the cocktail shaker (and no, they didn’t get to try them!)
The resulting cocktails tasted good, but they were no way near as professional-looking as the photographs on the recipe cards. They seemed too watery, too runny.
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- Espresso Martini
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- Salted Caramel Martini
Martini Cocktail Set 2: Pornstar Martini
This set contained the following:
This kit makes two Pornstar Martinis and two Sex on the Beach cocktails (calm down dear!) We had to provide the garnish – a passion fruit and an orange.
Again we followed the instructions on the recipe cards …
And again the resulting cocktails tasted good, but lacked in presentation.
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- Sex on the Beach
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- Pornstar Martini
What did we do wrong?
We’ve thought long and hard about this. I think our first error was the choice of glasses – the cocktail glasses were too large. Secondly, our measurements were too much guesstimate. That is probably why too much of the mixer drinks were added, giving the cocktails a watery consistency. We just couldn’t get a creamy layer on the Espresso Martini.
Overall thoughts
Of course, this was the first time we’ve ever attempted to make our own cocktails. You only get one attempt at each cocktail in each kit … and we clearly need a lot more practice! It WAS fun, and they WERE tasty, and I’m sure it was our amateur mixology that made each cocktail miss the mark in terms of presentation.
Would we recommend them? Yes. We love the idea of the subscription, where you receive a different box each month. What we would advise, in hindsight, is to invest in a cocktail kit – shaker, strainer, liquid measure etc. Don’t be in a rush to make the cocktails either … know what you are doing before you start. Don’t guess the measurements and you’ll end up with perfect Instagram-worthy cocktails that look as good as they taste!
Disclaimer
We were gifted two Tipple Box cocktail sets from Yumbles to try out. This review has not been influenced in any way.
