Sager + Wilde Paradise Row and Wychwood Brewery have teamed up for a creepy crawly Halloween special: beer-based cocktails featuring Wychwood’s flagship beer, Hobgoblin, and ants (yes, actual ants).
– Excuse me waiter. There’s an ant in my drink!
– Yes, but only for a limited time!
Bethnal Green bar Sager + Wilde Paradise Row has launched two cocktails just in time for Halloween: the Hobgoblin Beer Vermouth + Ants cocktail and the Hobgoblin, Rum + Malt. I dropped by for preview recently, really enjoyed these drinks and am now glad to recommend them to you.
The Beer Vermouth + Ants drink is a mix of wood ants frozen in a specially created beer vermouth of Hobgoblin Gold with grapefruit, pink peppercorn, bay leaf, white tea, wormwood and strawberry, topped up with Hobgoblin Gold and a squeeze of lemon. I was surprised how much I like this antsy mix – and how easy it was to drink it. The ants add a bit of texture and seem to absorb the drink’s flavour. Weird? Yeah. But fun too. Ants or not, that beer vermouth is brilliant!
As for the other non-insect Hobgoblin, Rum + Malt cocktail, I was less surprised by how yummy it was. But it was indeed astonishingly tasty. Based on a 2/3 reduction of Hobgoblin’s Legendary Ruby Beer, it’s mixed with dark rum, a whole egg, vanilla syrup and cream, and topped up with more ruby beer and a dusting of grated nutmeg. Dee-lish (and there’s word it may stay on well past Halloween)!
The cocktails will be served at Sager + Wilde Paradise Row from 24 October to 6 November.
Sager + Wilde Paradise Row is located at 250 Paradise Row, E2 9LE. Find out more at sagerandwilde.com and at wychwood.co.uk.
