Merchant’s Heart Review
Last Friday Merchant’s Heart sent us a gorgeous gift box of the new 150ml tonics to help us create our own perfect serve!
What is Merchant’s Heart? Well it’s a range of seven spirit enhancers. Yep that’s right spirit enhancers! It’s because they’ve been designed to get the very best out of the spirits they are served with.
The range includes Tonic Water, Light Tonic Water, Pink Peppercorn Tonic, Floral Aromatic Tonic, Hibiscus, Ginger Ale and Soda Water. The brand new 150ml can range was released after the success of Merchant’s Heart’s 200ml glass format, which was launched into Sainsbury’s 12 months ago. The new can range comes in the four most popular flavours: Light Tonic Water, Hibiscus, Pink Peppercorn and Floral Aromatics Tonic Water.
We were challenged to create our perfect serve in under three minutes and rose to the challenge. Merchant’s Heart recommended four perfect serves and we’ve included them below, but our favourite of course was Roku Gin with Hibiscus. (Though I didn’t include the cucumber as I always feel cucumber overpowers everything).
I then experimented with some other gins I had in my collection and found each of the ‘spirit enhancers’ really did improve the taste of my gin and gave it a nice balance.
Light Tonic Water: A balanced bitter taste giving way to a crisp, citrus finish
- 50ml Haku Vodka
- 150 ml Merchant’s Heart Light Tonic Water
- Garnish Thinly sliced ginger
- Tip Steep the ginger in the vodka for a couple of minutes to let infuse, then add the tonic.
Hibiscus: Delicate & fruity sweetness with a soft bitterness and a hint of rose
- 50ml Roku Gin
- 150ml Merchant’s Heart Hibiscus
- Garnish Cucumber ribbon & sliced raspberries
- Tip Use a peeler to create the cucumber rubbon. Adding this to your drink will infuse freshness.
Pink Peppercorn: Rich & bitter, combined with the soft, fruity spice of pink peppercorn
- 50ml Courvoisier
- 150ml Merchant’s Heart Pink Peppercorn
- Garnish Peach slices & fresh lemon zest
- Tip Steep the peach in bourbon for a couple of minutes to let the flavour infuse, then add the tonic.
Floral Aromatics: A soft bitterness followed by delicate fruit flavours with a fresh & crisp finish
- 50ml Old Bakery Gin
- 150ml Merchant’s Heart Floral Aromatics
- Garnish Fresh pink grapefruit zest
- Tip use a peeler to remove the zest of a grapefruit. Express the oils over the top of the drink then place into the glass.
Merchant’s Heart is available in Sainsburys with 6x150ml cans for £5 and glass bottles of 200ml for £1.30. Customers can also purchase the cans online at https://www.merchantsheart.co.
So what are you waiting for? Go enhance your favourite spirit now!
