COLLABORATION TO CREATE BESPOKE GIN FOR YORKSHIRE’S RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR

This article was distributed as a press release in December 2018

Two of Yorkshire’s most exciting food and drink brands, Cooper King Distillery and Skosh restaurant, have collaborated to craft a limited-edition gin which teams perfectly with Skosh’s eclectic small plate menu.

The teams at Cooper King Distillery and Skosh have been hard at work for months developing and distilling a range of unique ingredients which best reflect Skosh’s varied menu. The signature botanicals Skosh wanted to include were black cardamom, nori, mandarin and Szechuan peppercorn. The gin has incorporated all these complex flavours to compliment the dishes on offer at the restaurant.

Skosh – meaning a ‘small amount’ in Japanese - opened in 2016 and is the brainchild of York chef, Neil Bentinck, whose aim was to create a restaurant that served small plates of refined Asian-inspired cuisine. The varied menu is influenced by Neil’s Indian family heritage and travels around the world which incorporates a multitude of flavours utilising Yorkshire and British produce.

Skosh has wowed customers and food critics with dishes including ‘hen’s egg with St Andrew’s cheddar, mushroom and px sherry’, ‘cauliflower manchurian’ and ‘miso glazed cod with hipsi cabbage, mussels and pine nuts’.

It has gone on to win several awards including Restaurant of the Year in the White Rose Awards 2018 and a coveted Michelin Bib Gourmand, awarded only to restaurants that offer good quality and good value food.

Cooper King Distillery, which launched its inaugural product, Cooper King Dry Gin earlier this year, has produced a limited number bottles of the craft Skosh gin which will be served as the restaurant’s signature house gin from Friday 14th December.

Abbie Neilson, co-founder of Cooper King Distillery commented:

“We’ve absolutely loved working with the creative team at Skosh to help turn their passion for flavour into a delicious bespoke gin. The resulting Skosh gin is truly unique, with a beautiful layering of intriguing botanicals which can make a cracking G&T.

“We are so proud to be supporting such an exciting restaurant in our home county of Yorkshire and to help them enhance their already awe-inspiring menu. We know they will continue to go from success-to-success, accompanied along the way with some amazing cocktails.”

Neil Bentinck, owner and head chef at Skosh commented:

 “We met Chris and Abbie a while back and decided from the off, that with their passion and knowledge, we could create a very special and unusual gin for our customers at the restaurant. 

We really wanted to include some full-on flavours in the gin. Abbie and Chris embraced the concept and truly showed their understanding and knowledge of distilling and balanced the flavours in our bespoke gin to perfection!”

Full bottles of this first-release limited-edition Skosh gin will be available to buy from Friday 14th December priced at £45 from Skosh’s restaurant on Micklegate, York as well as in the Cooper King Distillery shop in Sutton-on-the-Forest, North Yorkshire. It will also be available in a range of G&T’s and cocktails at Skosh. There will be further bottlings in 2019.

Skosh have taken inspiration from the ‘Corpse Reviver #2’ cocktail, mixing the gin with Noilly Prat dry vermouth, triple sec and Japanese yuzu juice to create a sharp and refreshing drink, great with the spices used in their food or alone as an aperitif.

Purchase a bottle from the latest batch of Skosh Smoked + Spiced Dry Gin here.