Wine pairing meals are a great way to add a different flavour to an evening. The flavour of each dish considered in combination with a particular drink makes perfect sense. But why stop at wine? The trend for pairings with other drink genres has grown in popularity of late and whether wine, beer or spirit it seems there are appropriate venues to experiment with food and drink, all in the name of research.
Last month Suma’s and LoveWine together welcomed Joyce and Raissa de Haas, otherwise known as the Double Dutch twins, for a double pairing of both their unique mixers to gin and those G&Ts to creations from the Suma’s chefs.
It’s quite amazing that while the small batch brewing of vodka and gin has exploded in the last decade, the mixer market was static for so long. Schweppes really dropped the ball and now Fentimans, Fever Tree as well as the amazing flavours of Double Dutch are almost as much the definer of the drink as the gin they pair with. The brand was started as a project for their dissertations as part of an MSc in Entrepreneurship at UCL. Richard Branson then awarded the twins a Foodpreneur award, recognising the potential of their innovative Food and Beverage brand. Since then their product range of flavours such as Pomegranate and Basil or Cucumber and Watermelon has exploded in popularity and they’re set to sell five million bottles this year.
Thankfully, there’s always room for a spot of research and touring to tell their story. Clearly the island’s penchant for a Gin and Tonic or two allowed Lovewine to convince the girls to come and host the evening. Guests seemed more than satisfied as Suma’s served up an incredible menu to compliment the various flavoured G&Ts on offer. The evening sold out as soon as it was announced and we hear Sumas and Lovewine will be working together on other events like it in future so keep your eyes open.
Learn more about double dutch at doubledutchdrinks.com
