This liqueur is particularly good served with lemonade or soda, but also great on its own over ice or even served warm as a winter cordial.

Things you will need before you start:

A large, sealable jar. (1L should be fine)
Cheesecloth.
Coffee filters.
A funnel.
A sealable bottle.

Ingredients

250g of Cranberries
350ml Dannoff Vodka
Zest of 1 Lime
Zest of ½ an Orange
200ml Water
200g White Sugar
A cinnamon stick
a few allspice berries, lightly ground
a few cloves

Things you will need before you start:

A large, sealable jar. (1L should be fine)
Cheesecloth.
Coffee filters.
A funnel.
A sealable bottle.

Ingredients

The spices are the key to the flavour, so feel free to experiment with quantities.

250g of mashed pumpkin
350ml Dannoff Vodka
350ml Water
250g White Sugar
A cinnamon stick
a few allspice
a few cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

When I make liqueurs using vodka, I tend to stick to the same basic recipe each time and adjust it based on how I expect the fruit or main ingredient to infuse their flavour. Often, this will differ from other recipes that may be available, but the end result is usually about the same.

 Recipe

1) Thoroughly clean everything you’re going to use and rinse with near-boiling water (safely & carefully). This is the most important part, as the mixture will take flavours from pretty much anything it comes into contact with, which can easily include the smell of the rubber seals on the jar, washing up liquid, or even the lingering scent of whatever was in the jar previously. You need to ensure everything is as clean as possible to keep the flavour of the liqueur from being ruined.

2) Throw the pumpkin, spices and Dannoff into your very clean big jar.

3) Boil the water in a very clean pan. Slowly stir in the sugar until it has all dissolved into the boiling water. Remove from the heat and allow the syrup to cool.

4) When your sugar syrup has cooled, pour it into the jar and stir all ingredients together.

5) Seal the jar and put in a cool, dark place for a week or so. Once a day, give it a good stir then seal it back up again.

Honestly, it won’t look very appetising at this stage.

After a week, you just need to filter and bottle the liqueur for it to be ready. The filtering can be tricky and time consuming, but running the liquid a couple of times through the cheesecloth followed by a couple of times through the coffee filters in a funnel should be enough to get rid of almost all the pumpkin mash. Once you’ve fully filtered the liqueur, bottle it up & it’s ready to enjoy.

So far it’s been a rollercoaster of a season for us, since the Dannoff cars have a tendency to imitate rollercoasters with their wild ups and downs and also to spend part of the course upside down. But hey, we’ve finished more races than we’ve wrecked cars and also managed to finish in the top 5 a couple of times, so it’s looking pretty optimistic for the rest of the season!

Here’s one of our stunt car highlights from Snetterton:

And an example of our awesome teamwork from Donington Park :

We figure that by starting our UK motorsport career here and slowly working our way up, getting bigger, better and more experienced, we’ll be running a championship winning Dannoff F1 team sometime within the next… uh… 90 years or so.

For more information about the Ford Fiesta Championship 2012 as well as other Fiesta race events, please visit fordracing.eu

Now four years in a row, Dannoff Vodka was pleased to receive a gold award at the Spirits Masters awards, held annually by the Spirits Business magazine. This year we scooped the gold in the Eastern Europe category, once again highlighting the excellent quality found in Dannoff’s Latvian production.

The Dannoff Vodka team had a wonderful time as ever at this years awards lunch, and are proud to have sponsored it once again. The whole event was an excellent showcase of the quality driving forward the spirits market and it was great to meet with so many others connected with the industry in such a friendly and welcoming setting. The Spirits Business team always does an outstanding job at organising the event and creating one of the most enjoyable dates in the spirits calendar.

You can find out more about the Spirits Masters Awards by visiting the Spirits Business website : www.thespiritsbusiness.com

Back in December, Dannoff Vodka had the exciting opportunity to sponsor Disney’s Tron:Legacy European premiere and the exclusive after party held at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The PG nature of the movie meant that there wasn’t any visible promotion at the event, but we’ve recently unearthed one of the cocktail menus from the Tate Modern after party featuring the superb Dannoff Vodka cocktails that were on offer.

I can confidently say that the bright blue Lightcycle Martini has become one of my favourite ever vodka cocktails.

The whole atmosphere of the after party, and the light show in particular was excellent, and really suited the feel of the film.

This year Dannoff Vodka has a stand at the National Convenience Show at the NEC. NCS 2011 is part of a showcase event with hundreds of suppliers covering a range of unique and niche products as well as three days of live events, guest speakers and expert consultations. Dannoff Vodka will be exhibiting at stand C139 (conveniently on the main walkway to the bar), where we will be enlightening everyone on the merits of Dannoff Vodka as well as providing samples for over 18s.

The event runs from Sunday 27th February to Tuesday 1st March in Hall 6 at the NEC in Birmingham.

Dannoff Vodka can be found at stand C139
(Turn left as you enter the hall and we’re just before you get to the bar/restaurant area).

For visiting and registration details as well as more info on NCS2011, please visit www.nationalconvenienceshow.co.uk

The 15th anniversary event took place at the Echo Arena in Liverpool and was attended by a whole host of stars including Billy Ocean, JLS, Roll Deep, Mark Ronson and Tinie Tempah.

It was a fantastic star-studded night and it was great to see everyone enjoying the Dannoff cocktails.

Here’s a sneak-peek from the official MOBO After Party at PanAm.

Images 1-7 courtesy of MOBO. Images 8-10 courtesy of Matthew Riley.

Special thanks go out to MOBO for giving us the opportunity, and also to UKBM for helping us to make the night a success.

I’m pleased to say that once again we’ve achieved a gold award at the annual Vodka Masters Awards. This makes it the third consecutive year that Dannoff Vodka has been awarded the gold award in the Premium class.

This years Vodka Masters saw over 110 entries from some of the most respected and recognisable vodka brands in the world. Judging was as always by blind tastings and required 8 judges split across two judging panels due to the large number of entrants. As in the previous two years, Dannoff Vodka is proud to have recieved such high recognition in the face of such worthy competition.

Organised by the Spirits Business magazine each year, the Vodka Masters brings together both the big and small players in the vodka industry on a level field, judged in a blind tasting by an expert panel. They are a prestigious annual event in the spirits calendar, alongside their awards for the other spirits categories.

Unfortunately, strong competition and some excellent newcomers in the Eastern Europe class meant that we’ve had to let someone else look after the gold in that class. We fully intend to claim it back next year, however, along with our fourth consecutive gold in the Premium class.

Inspired by Chekhov’s The Seagull and Nina Variations by Stephen Dietz, .dash are working with a hand picked range of practitioners to create an immersive, interdisciplinary event. Set in a dilapidated, Soviet era casino, .dash present a series of variations of Nina and Treplev’s famous last encounter.

Explore the casino. Drink at the bar, play the machines and be sure to try your lick at the roulette table. It is here the two worlds collide; bets are laid and the wheel spins to select a variation – each directed in secret by one of London’s top aspiring directors, comedians, musicians, visual artists and academics. The scene plays out. Some win, others don’t…and the process begins again.

Chaika Casino will be performed as part of Theatre Souk – a market place of performances hosted by Theatre Delicatessen at their building just behind Selfridges.

Dates: 21st September – 16th October
Times: Tuesday to Saturday, multiple entries from 7pm
Location: 3-4 Picton Place, London W1b 2HL

web: www.dashtheatre.co.uk