From St Kilda to your lover. The St Kilda Sour

The St Kilda Sour is the absolutely perfect ideal drink to share with someone special this Valentine’s, combining the smooth, maritime taste of Isle of Harris Gin with sweet strawberry and tangy lime flavours. 

Taking its name from the age-old courtship rituals on the isle of Hiort in St Kilda, the cocktail is an ode to the young men on the isle, some 45 miles off the Harris coast, who throughout time would perform a delicate balancing act on a stone cliff high above the sea to prove their worthiness of marriage. 

Paying tribute to the romantic tradition of the Isle, the St Kilda Sour is the perfect way to prove your love to someone this Valentine’s Day, without the need to balance on any rocks, of course! 

Created by Glasgow's leading bartender Jack Cain, The St Kilda Sour is available at the cocktail bar ‘Rascal’ in the West End of Glasgow and can easily be recreated and enjoyed with loved ones at home.

St Kilda Sour

Taking its name from the age-old courtship rituals on the isle of Hiort in St Kilda, the cocktail is an ode to the young men on the isle, some 45 miles off the Harris coast, who turned to more than poetry to prove their worth. The Lover’s Stone is a finger of rock projecting from the clifftop, 880 feet above the sea. On this fearful spot it was said a lover had to demonstrate his nerve before being allowed to marry by standing on the edge of the precipice on just his left foot, draw his right leg upwards and touch his right foot in a deep bow. This balancing act proved a suitor worthy of the finest women on the island. 

Ingredients:

50ml Isle of Harris Gin

25ml fresh lime juice

25ml strawberry syrup

1 egg white

Prep: Fresh Strawberry syrup

Ingredients:

250g strawberries

250g granulated sugar

A couple of hours in advance, or the night before, wash and chop a punnet of fresh strawberries and put them in a big jar or saucepan. Cover with the same weight of sugar and leave for at least two hours, preferably overnight. 

The sugar will pull the oil and juice from the strawberries and form a thick red syrup that can be strained through a sieve and decanted into an empty bottle. Kept refrigerated, this syrup can last several weeks if care has been taken to sterilise containers and bottles.

Method:

Separate the egg white into shaker then add all other ingredients, shake hard without ice to emulsify egg white, then fill shaker to the top with ice and shake hard for 15 seconds, then double strain into a chilled coupe or Nick and Nora glass. Garnish with a fresh strawberry slice on the rim.

To learn more you can check out their website, here https://harrisdistillery.com.