Inspired by the nail-biting awesomeness that is the BBC’s Line of Duty (the new season has had us on the edge of our seats, G&T in hand!), we have come up with our very own detective quiz for those gin fans with an appetite for mystery and intrigue.
While Hastings, Steve and Kate try to work out who “H” is in Line of Duty, we have our very own mystery for you to solve. It’s time to access your inner Sherlock Holmes and decipher the riddles below to save the day.
A Study in Gin: The Case of the Cocktail Clues
It was an unusually dreary day for the month of May, and the streets around Craft Gin Club HQ were filled with a damp, cobweb-like mist. In that murky morning gloom, nobody noticed Mrs Ginny Sipper fall out of the door of her gin distillery and stumble down the cobbled street, past painted doors and glowing shop windows, toward her destiny. (Whatever that destiny maybe is in your hands, gin-lover, as you soon shall see.)
Bob, the last of the Craft Gin Club team to arrive at work and was sitting at the ornate, marble-topped gin bar when Mrs Sipper burst through the doors with a look of shock and terror on her face; her bonnet askew on top of her limp, grey hair. The doors swung shut behind Mrs Sipper with a bang. Everyone turned to investigate the commotion, some peering from behind bottles of gin and boxes. She stood for a moment, her lips quivering. And then, without an audible word, she collapsed to the floor in a heap.
Bob and the rest of the Craft Gin Club team crowded around their favourite distiller, trying to decipher the ghostly words that were whistling from between her lips like hot vapours from a ruptured still. ‘They’ve taken it…the recipe… it’s gone!’ she said again and again to nobody but the stucco cherubs looking down from the ceiling above.
Before anyone could ask any questions, Mrs Sipper fainted, her arm falling to one side, her hand opening to reveal a note.
It read:
“Dear Mrs Sipper,
We have stolen your prized gin recipe. It’s just too good to be kept by one person alone. Unless, of course, you can prove yourself worthy. If you want your recipe back, you’ll need to solve the riddles below and name each of the cocktails they reference. Only if you can do that will we let you have your recipe back. If we don’t have your answers by midnight tonight, we’ll destroy the recipe forever...mwahahahaa!
Yours faithfully, ”
The Craft Gin Club team know that Mrs Sipper is more than worthy, of course. Her gin is famed throughout the land for its quality.
Can you help the Craft Gin Club team decipher the riddles and name the cocktails in time to save Mrs Sipper’s recipe?
The game’s afoot!
(When you think you have the answers, scroll down to the bottom to see if you are right!)
Clue 1:
Clipperty-clop, watch me stomp. My silks may be yellow but I’m never mellow. Feed me amaretto and orange and watch me go. By the stable, after each race, I’ll be, come and see.
Clue 2:
Oh-la-la, aren’t I the belle of the ball? Tall and elegant, fizzy and fun, that’s me. Soixante-quinze, they say I am but I’m older and I don’t give a dam. From across the channel, here I come.
Clue 3:
I’m a cool cat in a highball glass, always moving to the beat of my own drum. Phil up a glass with me and so happy you will be.
Clue 4:
That tuxedo-clad double-zero has it wrong, try his serve and disappointment will be your song. Vodka thinks it’s all that, but gin’s the one to which we tip our hat.
Clue 5:
Oh, Honey, how you like to buzz. Watch yourself though, don’t hurt your leg as you shake me up. You’re sweet, but I like a touch of citrus tang to beat the heat. Remember, balance in everything, my beautiful B.
Clue 6:
One, two, three, stir me and you’ll see. The best things in life mix the bitter with the sweet, so take me back to Florence, to my noble seat.
Clue 7:
I may be sour but stick with me and you’ll be safe at sea. I may be green, but scurvy beware, I keep the sailors in the Navy.
Clue 8:
Lucky, I am. Green, I am not. Foamy top and colour so pretty, colour so hot. From Ireland, you may think I could be, but find me anywhere and see how they stare.
Clue 9:
Though I may be second, don’t be scared, I’m nothing to fear. Lazarus and phoenix, move aside, when I’m in the mix I’ll pull you from the Styx. With me, there are no zombies, only homies.
Clue 10:
Ian made me for a casino but there’s nowhere I can’t go. Elegant and sophisticated, I’m no shooter but don’t you ever mistake me for a scooter.
Time is ticking. Did you manage to guess the cocktail connected to each riddle? Let’s hope you’re right and we can send The Mischievous Martinis packing!
(Click on the images to find the recipes for each cocktail!)
Answers:
Clue 1:
Jockey Club
Clue 2:
French 75
Clue 3:
Tom Collins
Clue 4:
Martini
Clue 5:
Bee’s Knees
Clue 6:
Negroni
Clue 7:
Gimlet
Clue 8:
Clover Club
Clue 9:
Corpse Reviver No. 2
Or our special The Walking Dead version of the cocktail
Clue 10:
The Vesper
If you got all of the cocktails right then congratulations, you’ve saved Mrs Sippers’ recipe and beaten The Mischievous Martinis! Look how that dastardly bunch scurry away, back into the shadows, waiting for their next opportunity to strike.
plus all of your
plus all of your
plus all of your