Of course we had to make an Eastnor martini. What else would do for a castle that feels like a film set; where smoking jackets are interchangeable with dressing gowns, and the overarching mood is “have as much fun as possible”?
Our martini is a mix of English gin and Welsh vodka – fitting for a castle straddling two home nations. You simply shake them together with vermouth and a twist of lemon and there you have it. An Eastnor 250 martini. Best drunk somewhere outrageous – or, at the very least, when surveying the lake from the Gothic Drawing Room.
Guests staying in our bedrooms may have noticed another recent addition to our repertoire: a vintage martini trolley. We found it somewhere near Yorkshire (credit to the heroic team member who drove through the night to collect it) and now it lives on the first-floor landing, stationed between the bedrooms. Armed with cold spirits, cut glassware and a chic shaker, it invites you to play bartender before sitting somewhere lovely and enjoying your ice-cold cocktail – preferably with your little finger extended.
We could have picked any serve to be our signature. A smoky old fashioned perhaps, or a bloody mary in a garish shade of Eastnor red. But we went for a martini, because a martini made sense. It’s elegant and refined – and drunk by people we can imagine staying at Eastnor (James Bond, the late Queen, the glamorous sort who order a flight of mini martinis after dinner). You don’t drink a martini by accident. You drink it with purpose.
And that’s also how the castle was built. A large mock-Norman castle didn’t just appear in Eastnor one day. It took 250 men, working day and night, to lay each stone and bring every turret to life – we think they definitely deserved a martini. So, we named our signature cocktail after them – a nod to the past, and a very good drink.