A bracing brunch combo that’ll leave you full of beans

An ambrosial pairing to awaken one's senses from Sunday's somewhat somnolent slumber.

A sticky stack of hot buttered crumpets with caramelised banana, crispy bacon, pecans and drizzled with honey, served with a nutty variation on a stimulating Espresso Martini shaken with our awfully English vodka.

Broken Clock’s story and recipe turns the clock back to the 18th century — which is the first time that vodka is described to the British public.

And while tea is somewhat strongly associated with Blighty it was the ground bean rather than the loose leaf that was the top choice for Georgian-era Londoners seeking to eliminate their parched palates and perk themselves up.

Over 2,000 coffee houses sprung up in the Capital in the 1700s and 1800s and the English public could be caught slurping ten times more coffee than tea up until the time when Queen Victoria hopped onto the throne.

Today the Espresso Martini indubitably has a claim to reign as the nation’s number one cocktail — and having been proudly invented in Soho in the 1980s you can make yours all the more awfully English by shaking it up with Broken Clock Vodka.

INGREDIENTS

40 ml Broken Clock Vodka
20 ml Frangelico
3 dashes Chocolate Bitters
1 hot Single Espresso
5 ml Banana Syrup
1 pinch of Salt

Garnish

Grated Tonka Beans
Coffee beans

For the banana syrup (batch)

Mix one chopped banana with cane sugar, leave it to extract the moisture. Then pop into a pan with a splash of water and add the same amount of the sugar and a pinch of salt. Simmer, remove from the heat and allow to cool. Infuse in the fridge overnight before straining off the syrup.

METHOD

Combine the cocktail ingredients in a Boston Tin with plenty of ice and shake like one's life depends on it. Double strain into a chilled martini glass being sure to float the all of the crema on the cocktail's surface.

Now liberally grate a nutty tonka bean onto the crema and pop a coffee bean or two on top for good effect.