In the below ramblings we will take you through what makes an ethical hamper, and more specifically what makes our hamper an ethical hamper.
In answer to the second question yes, yes it does. Although that may be the food and booze rather than your conscience.
Everybody knows that hampers are great, especially when they are packed with style & attention to detail. But typically not much notice is given to our impact on the environment, we are determined to help minimise the wastefulness of gift-giving and make every celebration ethical and environment-friendly.
SUSTAINABLE
LOCAL SUPPLIERS
THE ONE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
So don’t feel guilty about sending a hamper this year, buy a Circa hamper. #shameless tagline
]]>One of the maiden voyages of the Circa Covid think tank is the launch of our ethical hampers and more specifically what to put in them? We have put a big emphasis on having a homemade element to our hampers. Booze is no different and seems as a good a place to start as any.
We have been making ‘house infusions’ for a few years now, and hope that we have got pretty good at it. It’s not all that complicated really, we take a good quality base spirit we want to infuse, and cram it full of what we want to infuse it with, then let time do its thing. We focus on seasonality as much as possible. Foraged sea herbs are always a favourite, Beth’s mums blackberries in the autumn, Spruce from Ashclyst forest, you get the picture…
Most recently, we have made our own house vermouth. We wanted to keep it simple for our first outing. Our virgin recipe included four commonly used botanicals made into tinctures (cassia bark, yarrow root, gentian root and wormwood) and four of our own we have foraged locally. We decided on rock samphire, sea beets, sea purslane and pine. It’s bloody tasty. We will be adding sloe berries & thyme into the mix in the next batch.
Now there is the risk of gecng a bit pretentious and irritating when discussing cocktails. We will attempt to avoid this, as such we have given our mixologists the day off. Anyway, we have always tried to be creative and seasonal with our cocktails. There are some restrictions when designing cocktails for hampers. They need to be booze-heavy, so as to travel gracefully. Definitely a first world problem. Our focus with hampers has been on coming up with quirky alternatives to classics. Think toasted hazelnut negroni, sea herb martini, hay infused old fashioned and all that jazz.
We will be posting some recipes on here over the coming weeks for you to get infusing, mixing and drinking at home.
I hope you have found this interesting, and that it has inspired you to consider buying one of our ethical hampers for a loved one this year. You can find the full range on our website www.circadevon.co.uk
]]>Although the past few months have been extremely challenging for us as a business, they have, in a perverse way been exciting and stimulating at the same time. There is something about having to think on your feet that makes you more creative and willing to take risks. Decisions that you may have deliberated over and over, must be made speedily and with conviction.
And if this shitty virus has taught us anything, it’s that we must find new ways to connect with our customers, hence this ramble. Adapt to survive and all that.
Since being told to shut our doors on the 20th March, we were closed for 5 months, but we kept busy. First our staff ran a non-profit meal scheme for NHS workers; cost-price meals delivered to the door. A night-off for those risking their lives on a daily basis. All the while trying to come up with a ‘game-plan’.
Our live-music bar on the first floor had to go. Extremely sad, a goodbye to some amazing nights, beautiful artists and fun times, but as Bob would say ‘the times they are a changing’.
What next? A farm shop & deli, selling ethically minded local suppliers and homemade products from the restaurant kitchen. In addition we have just launched a hamper business, selling these wonderful products and our homemade bits and bobs nationwide.
Prior to Covid we were known as a steakhouse, hopefully a good one. However with social distancing in the restaurant, we lost a third or more of our covers, so a time to reflect. We had for some while wanted to move the business into a more creative and exciting food offering. It seemed to us that Exeter, being the capital of Devon, a super-abundant county with some truly world-class producers was under-represented when it came to ‘high end’ dining. As such our menu now reflects our beliefs & personality. Yes to a tasting menu but no to all the old-school rubbish that can often come with it.
So this may be a very different landscape we find ourselves in, but we intend to see the possibilities rather than the pitfalls. Here’s hoping for the best for a deeply scarred industry and country. We hope to see as many restaurants, pubs, bars and other effected businesses as possible on the flip side.
We would love your support and would urge you to shop local, support small businesses and together we can get through this.
Thanks for reading, more jibber jabber soon.
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