Hubert’s O’Clock, Anyone? Yorkshire’s Answer to Pimm’s
By Kevin Pilley
Pimm’s is the name on all the lips in England in midsummer. It’s high society “quaff”, consumed through the summer season in the Stewards’ Enclosure on the banks of the Thames at the Royal Henley Regatta in Oxfordshire, in the fields around the country manor house of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in East Sussex and, of course, at Wimbledon, London SW1.
But it’s not the only choice.
It could equally be Hubert’s. And it could, just as traditionally, be Hubert’s o’clock, not Pimm’s. It should be Hubert’s and lemonade in pitchers. It should be a punnet and Hubert’s. And we should be toasting a Yorkshire vicar, not a Kentish man and rumoured fishmonger.
Born in 1868, Hubert Bell Lester discovered gin at Cambridge University. He became Reverend of Keighley but in contravention of the draconian Licensing Act of 1902, he distilled in secret in the middle of a wood with his beloved “Gertrude”. He was arrested and briefly imprisoned. But he couldn’t stop making his winter warmers and summer cups.
His great-grandson, Burford-based chartered surveyor Thomas Lester has revived the drink, the Revered Hubert’s Winter Liqueur (27% ABV) and, with a few modern tweaks, is closest to what the Reverend Hubert Bell Lester gave his Keighley congregation at Christmas at the beginning of the 20th century. His 20.1% ABV Summer Cup soon followed in the same style of bottle with a label design resembling a church window.
“Lovingly restored”
Says Thomas: “I sold the winter warmer to other parents on the school rugby touch lines and a few local pubs and restaurants. Sales went berserk and word of mouth created interest for weddings, parties and gifts. I was up at 4am, filling kilner jars. Hubert’s is all about the quintessentially English summer – boaters, fetes and cricket. All are on the bottle. Hubert was an old Harrovian.
“I developed a serious limoncello habit while on honeymoon on the Amalfi Coast. When I came back, I was in withdrawal. I couldn’t find a decent, non-synthetic one. So with the finest vodka and large juicy lemons from Amalfi, I set about making my own. The results were obviously lemony, fragrant, slightly syrupy, and clear. Perfect for ending a summer’s day lunch.
“One day my aunt presented me with a beaten-up world war one hip flask with a barely legible label. It contained Reverend Hubert’s winter recipe. After a bit of research and a lot of trialling with a co-blender, drinks consultant, TV presenter and founder of “The Drink Coach UK” YouTube channel, Joe Wadsack, we re-created his summer cup with plums, cranberries and Cotswolds rather than Yorkshire rhubarb. And so have our own family bespoke Pimmsy-ish drink.
“Created to mark the coronation of Charles III, Lewis Johnson of the Fox and Pheasant pub in Chelsea, owned and lovingly restored by James Blunt no less, invented a special cocktail too.”
Ingredients:
- 50 ml Reverend Hubert Summer Cup
- 50 ml grapefruit juice
- 25 ml elderflower cordial
- 25 ml fresh lime juice.
Method:
- Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with a generous amount of ice.
- Shake like crazy, strain into a rocks glass or a jam jar if you’re feeling funky.
- Serve with a slice of grapefruit, strawberries
“The Rev died in 1916 but I am sure he would have been tickled!”
Pimm’s is clinging onto its reputation as the quintessentially English summertime drink, despite challenges from Ableforth’s Summer Fruit Cup (which “screams tennis! Garden parties! Picnics. Sun-filled joy!”) made with vacuum-distilled fresh strawberries, cucumber, orange and mint blended them with Bathtub Gin, a mix of sweet Italian vermouths and a triple sec liqueur, plus herbs and spices.
There’s also Tapper’s Hydropathic Pudding Summer Fruit Cup which uses a recipe going back to 1902. Hydropathic Pudding was the Victorian name for summer pudding, as well as The Cotswolds Distillery Summer Cup and London’s Sacred Rosehip Cup.
This all-natural gently bitter aperitif is made in Highgate, north London with English rosehips and rhubarb, Spanish sweet orange, organic Peruvian ginger and naturally coloured with red grape skins.
One perfect pur is the Rosehip Spritz: 3 parts Sparkling Wine, 2 parts Rosehip Cup, 1 part Soda with ice and an orange slice. It also lengthens nicely with fine sodas or mixes in equal measure with Sacred Gin & English Spiced Vermouth for The Complete English Negroni, “ says Sacred’s Hilary Whitney.
