This August we're heading over to Beaconsfield to meet Hannah Wainwright of The Treehouse and Laurie Othen who have 'talked all things tequila' with us.

The Treehouse was first established in 2010 and is part of Drinkwell Bars, a small bar group in the Chilterns. The Treehouse specialises in fantastic cocktails, a proportion of which are made with products made in their very own Micro-distillery.

The professional bar team believe in constantly evolving the drinks offering - and as well as providing awesome cocktails for weekend revellers, they also like to push the boundaries. Spirits that were rarely drank in the Buckinghamshire towns where the bars are situated, are now embraced with aplomb thanks to the creative mixing of the team at the Treehouse.

One such team member is Hannah. Hannah is a fantastic advocate for female bartenders, and for making diverse and interesting spirits attractive and accessible to a wider audience.

'There are many ingredients that provide amazing flavours that can be intimidating, simply because they are misunderstood - Agave spirits are a great example of that. From fresh vegetal and green apple notes of a Blanco, to the sweet caramel and toffee notes of a reposado, or the smokey grassy nature of a Mezcal - there is such variety'.

Hannah goes on to explain her love of cooking, music and creating flavour combinations, and how this helps with the current trend for savoury cocktails. 'Building a cocktail or a recipe is just like the building of a great song. You have the more earthy flavours which are your bass notes; little dashes or seasoning are the melody that brings everything together while the main spirit is the chorus that gets everyone singing!'.

Hannah believes as a woman she finds her customers more open to trying new flavours. 'When you start to talk about flavours and tastes that people can relate to, you build trust - and then you can take people on a journey'.

This is very much so for one of Hannah's favourite cocktails - the Smoky Beetroot Sour. A combination of Mezcal, lemon, egg white, fresh beetroot and in-house distilled 'seasoning'. 'At first just the ingredients can seem intimidating, but when you talk about the smoky, sweet and earthy flavours balanced with a little citrus and flavouring, people get excited!'.

The Smoky Beetroot Sour:

50ml Mezcal

25ml lemon

Egg white

5ml simple syrup

Fresh beetroot

7ml Hobo 'South American' distilled alcohol seasoning (including flavours of mole, cacao and chili)

Shaken hard and double strained into a coupe.

Having the additional spirits and flavourings from their own Wayfinder distillery makes all the difference to Hannah. 'We have the great opportunity of really making our cocktails stand out. We use our spirits, tinctures and bitters to really pull together our cocktails, giving them a more rounded and unique touch.' It is also this difference and approach to cocktails that Hannah hopes will inspire more women to get involved in and work with spirits.

Everyone here at Nectar is behind Hannah the whole way!