Jack Bevan is co-owner of The Ethicurean (Picture: Richard Lappas)

By no means am I a smooth barman,’ confesses The Ethicurean’s Jack Bevan.

He’s recalling the Young British Foodie awards finals in the summer when he (accidentally) pinged a judge in the face with an ice cube.

The 27-year-old must have done something right, though, as he went on to win the alcohol category, wowing the judges with home-made bitters, infused British spirits and foraged ingredients.

Bevan’s drinks have a strong ‘sense of place’, in keeping with the locavore ethos of The Ethicurean, the Somerset restaurant he co-launched in 2010 with Paûla Zarate and brothers Matthew and Iain Pennington.




Next at the Ethicurean, they’re planning a ‘wild cocktail bar’, a showcase for Bevan’s painstakingly researched artisan tipples. One of his favourites is vermouth, the recipe for which he shares below.

Vermouth, an aromatised fortified wine flavoured with ‘botanicals’ (spices, seeds, roots etc), is enjoying a bit of a revival of late – not only as a component of the Negroni but also as a beautiful drink in its own right.

Making vermouth is an involved process – you need to get cracking a fortnight prior to drinking, says Bevan – but it is, he promises, ‘totally doable at home’.

Jack Bevan’s vermouth cocktail (Picture: Richard Lappas)

How to make vermouth at home

Step 1: The first job is to brew the 20 botanical teas that will give your vermouth its intriguing flavour. An initial investment in about 25g of each botanical will be plenty and you’ll have enough leftovers from the 20 brews you’ve made to keep experimenting. For more arcane botanicals, try baldwins.co.uk. You’ll also need 20 sterilised jam jars.

The botanicals: angelica seed, bay, black peppercorn, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, coriander seed, gentian root, juniper berry, marjoram, nutmeg, orange peel, orris root powder, quassia bark, rosemary, sage, star anise, vanilla pods, wormwood and yarrow.

‘If you’ve got herbs growing in your garden, then try them for this,’ says Bevan. ‘But always do your research if adding wild ingredients, as some react badly with alcohol.’

Step 2: To prepare the teas, you will need roughly one third of botanicals to two thirds vodka (Bevan uses Chase). Don’t mix them up, use separate jars for each tea. You don’t need to measure anything, just put in a handful of botanicals, then top up to twice the height with vodka. Screw on the lids and leave the teas to steep at room temperature for two weeks.

Jack Bevan gets to work on creating his vermouth cocktail (Picture: Richard Lappas)

Step 3: To prepare the vermouth, you’ll need 200g caster sugar, 150ml of the teas and 500ml white wine per each 700ml bottle of vermouth. Digital micro scales and a pipette are your friends here.

Strain the jam jars with a tea strainer and pop the liquid back in their jars. From each one, using a pipette, pour out the liquid into a jug on the scales in the following quantities: 15g angelica seed, 15g bay, 10g black peppercorn, 1g cardamom, 8.3g cinnamon, 0.5g clove, 15g coriander seed, 2g gentian root, 15g juniper berry, 5g marjoram, 5g nutmeg, 14.6g orange peel, 6g orris root powder, 4g quassia bark, 5g rosemary, 15g sage, 5g star anise, 5g vanilla pods, 4g wormwood and 2g yarrow.



‘Please taste each tea as you go,’ says Bevan. ‘This will give you a sense of what each ingredient adds.’ You’ll have about 150ml in total.

Jack Bevan adds the finishing touches to his cocktail (Picture: Richard Lappas)

Step 4: Make a caramel by heating the 200g of sugar in a frying pan over a medium-high heat with 4tbsp of water. Once the sugar starts to caramelise, stir gently until it is dark amber (it will register 185C to 188C on a sugar thermometer). Pour on to a heatproof mat to cool. Once set, break into shards.

Step 5: To finish, warm 125ml white wine over a low heat and add 200g caramel shards. Stir until dissolved. Allow to cool to room temperature then combine with the remaining 375ml white wine, then add the teas. Pour into a sterilised bottle with a good seal, refrigerate and drink within a couple of months.

The Ethicurean Cookbook (Ebury Press). theethicurean.com, @JackABevan

Young British Foodie Awards

Whether they’re rustling up coffee from a cart, curing meat or putting vegetables centre stage, Young British Foodies are defining a new culture of food and drink in Britain. The YBF awards were co-founded by Metro food editor Chloe Scott to recognise grass-roots talent. If you believe you’ve got the YBF spirit and have a creative food or drink project, enter this year’s awards at www.the-ybfs.com.

MORE: Win a Kenwood kMix mixer in Metro’s recipe competition

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