Ikoyi Chapmans is a wildly refreshing sparkling beverage which can be enjoyed on its own or paired with a variety of premium spirits. Upon first impressions, a striking feature of Ikoyi Chapmans is its bold and vibrant colour which will elevate any drink you pair it with. The West African inspired citrus drink packs such a punch you’d be surprised tofind out its not only 69 calories per bottle and gluten free, this product is vegan friendly too!
In this review, you will find; The story and heritage of Ikoyi Chapmans, the taste, pairings as well as cocktails we made using the citrus drink. Finally, a fair critique for what Ikoyi Chapmans brings to your drink and things you should consider.
This is the story of how a West African inspired drink made its way into my cocktail. Mike and Garry Robinson are the pioneers of Ikoyi Chapmans, their journey started in the late 1960’s at The Ikoyi Club in Lagos, Nigeria. In the heat and humidity of West Africa, one of the Club barmen would mix the most amazing, refreshing and thirst-quenching drink which was popular with everyone, called Chapmans.
Twenty years later, Mike and Garry became professional squash players and continued to mix and enjoy Chapmans, discovering it had the potential to be a great cocktail mixer.
For many years, it has been their dream to bring the taste of West Africa to the UK for everyone to enjoy. – IKOYI CHAPMANS
As stated before, Ikoyi Chapmans is a sparkling citrus drink. It extracts its main flavours from the likes of oranges, limes and cucumbers, along with natural herbs and bitters. This all adds together to create a striking flavour which blends well with premium spirits such as gins, whiskeys, rums and even prosecco. Ikoyi Chapmans brings a truly unique and refreshing flavour which you’ll struggle to find anywhere else. In terms of aesthetics, Chapmans has the ability to produce a vibrant colour, or offer a delicate orange hue which will stand out from the crowd.
We decided to make two cocktails featuring Ikoyi Chapmans that were recommended by Mike and Garry themselves. Being a Warwickshire, UK, based company it was only fitting to make The Mayor of Warwick and The Guy of Warwick, two delicious cocktails which highlights either spiced rum or gin.
For the recipe, method and review of each cocktail, click here for The Mayor of Warwick and The Guy of Warwick.
With this being a fair review, there are things to consider with Ikoyi Chapmans. Firstly, being a powerful and flavour-rich drink, it can be easy to overpower a cocktail and potentially lose the flavour of the spirit. This is particularly the case with vodka; being a pure spirit with no taste. Therefore, it is important when using it as a mixer to remember, a little goes a long way. As Ikoyi Chapmans is a citrus drink, as well as a mixer, each 330ml bottle can be shared between approximately four cocktails. Secondly, it is important to have an open mind when trying this drink as it does have such a unique taste. For example, Chapmans does blend well with gin, however traditional G&T drinkers may find the taste different as the drink focuses on bringing out sweet, fruity flavours rather than the traditional dry flavours. Finally, and most importantly, whether it’s neat, with ice or in a cocktail, it’s essential to enjoy Ikoyi Chapmans ice cold.
We love Ikoyi Chapmans. It’s a great product that can bring a great taste and quality to your drink, as well as a desirable aesthetic appeal. It’s great to see how bold the company is for making simple cocktails that rely on Chapmans to do the heavy lifting, which it does. By following our considerations and recommendations, you will enjoy Ikoyi Chapmans as much as we do. We highly recommend you give this product a try.
Thank you to Ikoyi Chapmans for giving us the opportunity to try and fairly review your product. Here is a link to their website: https://www.ikoyichapmans.co.uk
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