William Robinson, the Victorian era’s Alan Titchmarsh, lovingly cultivated the expansive and stunning gardens in the grounds of Gravetye Manor, an upmarket hotel in West Sussex.
The hotel uses its land as inspiration for a quaint aperitif list, which includes “Summer”. This beauty of a pre-meal drink comes served in a Pooh-bear miniature honey pot, complete with wooden dipper, and is a melee of wonderfully pronounced ingredients: Doorly’s XO rum, Chase English elderflower, bee pollen syrup and lager. The honey syrup and crisply cold lager, with spirit backbone, make for a bright, chilled, refreshing and quirky tipple that can be enjoyed, by way of an added dimension, while sat in the very gardens that gave the ingredients.
Address: Gravetye Manor, Vowels Lane, West Hoathly, Sussex RH19 4LJ
by C Ley
