I.V. for the Leymen

And easy and light classic...

Ingredients
50ml Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka
10ml Sugar syrup
2 lime wedges
2 lemon wedges
Apple juice

Glass
Hiball / water glass

Method
Squeeze the lemons and limes into the glass. Then add ice, Zubrowka and sugar. Stir, then top up with apple juice.

Very refreshing and a lot better than just plain old vodka and apple juice.

Zubrowka is a Polish bison grass infused vodka, made by the company Polmos. It is a myth that the bottle of vodka, gets it's entire flavour from the single strand of bison grass in the bottle. Even though bison grass has a strong flavour, it's not that strong. It is infact properly infused.

Someone asked me the other day, if I have ever invented a Christmas Cocktail. I actually haven't... But this one might fit the description...

Ingredients
50ml Mount Gay Rum
10ml Chambord (wild raspberry liqueur)
5-10ml Canadian Maple Syrup

Glass
(Chilled) Cocktail / Martini

Method
Shake all ingredients and strain into chilled glass
Garnish with a pecan nut

Now you are probably wondering why the name of this cocktail is so offensive... There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that - but I'm not going to tell you about it...

Other one of those drinks invented on a quiet night in South Kensington in 2003... This one with Jen in mind.

Ingredients
25ml Premium Sake
25ml Centenario Plata Tequila
30ml Mango puree
10ml (Catron) Cherry liqueur (not Cherry Brandy please!)

Glass
(chilled) Cocktail / Martini / Coupe / Margarita

Method
Shake and strain the Sake, Tequila and Mango puree (see previous posts for details) into the chilled glass.
Place a straw in the middle and pour the Cherry liqueur onto (not into) the straw - into the drink.

Garnish with a fresh cherry dropped into the drink when served.

Perfect for your Cherry Blossom festival!

Invented by myself and a funny little South African guy called... Greg? It was a while ago (2003) while I was working at Opal on Gloucester Road. This place never really kicked off before 8pm, so we had a few hours to kill before hand. The results were many, but few were excellent. One excellent to follow...

Ingredients
25ml Jagermeister
25ml Krupnik Honey Vodka
10ml cocktail cherry juice
3 dashes Peychaud Bitters

Glass
Old-Fashioned / Whisky / Tumbler

Method
Peychaud Bitters and cherry juice in glass - add 1 ice cube.
Stir 25x
Add Jagermeister - add 2 ice cubes
Stir 25x
Add 2 ice cubes
Stir 25x
Add Krupnik - add 2 ice cubes
Stir 25x
Add 2 ice cubes
Stir 25x

Garnish with 2 cocktail cherries

Not a drink to make for the drunk nor to drink for the drunk.
Warning! Don't drink and stir!

Invented by your's truely last weekend, so don't copy cat unless you do it right. Don't want to give my expertise a bad name now would you...

Ingredients
50ml Whitley Neill Gin
20ml Bottlegreen Dandelion & Burdock Cordial
(Can now be bought at well-stocked Sainsbury's)

Glass
Cocktail / Martini

Method
Fill jam jar ²/₃ with ice.
Add ingredients and stir vigorously 26 times.

Strain into glass.

Good thing you don't get barbequed for this kind of stuff anymore... Would go down well at one though!

To the one person who reads this blog:

Who are you?????

Ingredients
50ml Myers rum
25ml lime juice
10-15ml sugar syrup
7 raspberries
1 lime wedge
Ginger ale

Glass
Higball / slim jim / water glass

Method
Place 5 raspberries in your jam jar and muddle them.
Add rum, sugar, and lime juice.
Add cubed ice and close lid.
Shake vigorously 11-12 times (till jar is cold).

Strain content through tea strainer into glass over new cubed ice. Top up with ginger ale and serve with a little smiley face of 2 raspberries and a lime wedge.

Straws as usual for that Summer party feel...

Ingredients
50ml Cuban light, or amber rum (please, don't use Bacardi!!!! Please!)
25ml freshly squeezed lime juice
10-15ml sugar syrup (depending on your sweet tooth)
6-8 mint leaves
1 mint sprig
Crushed ice

Glass
Highball / Slim Jim / water glass

Method
Place the mint leaves in the glass and add sugar syrup
Muddle the mint with your rolling pin (or some other object that seems suitable)
Fill glass with crushed ice
Add rum and lime juice
Stir vigorously
Top up with crushed ice
Garnish with the top of the mint sprig and 2 straws

Hint: If you slap (yeeeesss, slap!) the mint sprig before placing it as garnish, the fragrance will make the experience of drinking your Mojito even more pleasant. Our taste buds are often currupted by our sense of smell...

3 ways to make crushed ice at home:

#1. Find an old, but tough tea towel and a rolling pin. Place your cubed ice (about 3 handfuls) in the towel and bundle it up - don't leave any holes! Then knock the living daylight out of that ice till it's all nice and mushy.

#2. Place ice cubes in your blender. Fit the lid and blend at maximum speed until all lumps are gone.

#3. Run the ice cubes through your paper shredder.

Now that I have given you these 3 choices, please only use choice #1, as the other two are not recommendable due to a high risk of damage to the equipment...

Alright then, why is it so important to use premium spirits when making cocktails? The answer is painfully simple:

The quality of the products you use will determine the quality of the end product.

There is also an overlooked rule in The Only Trip of a Lifetime. Which states that all the crap of this world is just not worth your while or back strain... So treat yourself to what you deserve and avoid the bottles of Smirnoff, Jose Cuervo, and Gordon's.

Now for something a little more approachable...

Ingredients
50ml good vodka
15ml elderflower cordial
Cranberry juice
Cloudy apple juice
1 wedge of lime

Glass
High ball aka Slim Jim aka water glass

Method
Fill the glass with cubed ice
Add vodka and elderflower cordial
Fill the remainder of the glass with ¹/₃ cranberry juice and ²/₃ cloudy apple juice.
Stir and garnish with lime wedge and 2 straws of any colour that takes you fancy.
Sit back and enjoy the summer breeze!!!

Ingredients:
50ml premium smooth tequila
20ml honey water*
5 drops of lemon juice
Slice of lemon peel
Ground Cinnamon

Glass:
Cocktail (aka martini)

Method:
Pour tequila, honey water* and lemon juice into jam jar.
Fill 2/3 with ice cubes
Stir vigorously approx. 25 times
Strain through tea strainer into glass
Squeeze lemon peel over drink to release the zest
Powder lightly with ground cinnamon

Et voila! Drink and be merry! Just don't poop in public...

*) Honey water
Use same method as to make sugar syrup but in the proportion of:
1/3 honey
2/3 water

Oh my! What did I just get myself into? A blog about cocktails? Where the hell do I start? There is just too much ground to cover! Or is there? Hey, it's not like I have to make you guys into the hippest, competition-winning, coolest, bestest bartenders. That wouldn't interest you anyway. Alright, then what's left? How about the bare basics? At least just to get you started on the fun? Yeah, I think that'll be it.

First of... What would you need, if you were to give cocktail making a go? We bartenders walk into bars that are fully equipped with the best shakers, spoons, strainers, ice, and all the other "basics" - bought by special retailers. But those things would not be that easy for you guys to get your hands on. So let me think... Can you guys make cocktails from whatever your kitchen cupboards and drawers hold? Of course you can!!! You will have to dig out:

1. A sturdy fairly large jam jar with lid (or flour shaker even!)
2. Your longest tea spoon
3. A 20cm stirrer thingy or whatever you can find
4. Your tea strainer
5. The weirdest glassware you own (just roughly gauge out the size compared to the ones you get cocktails in, in bars)
6. Your measuring spoons (the ones you use to measure little measures of like almond essence and stuff for baking)

Then you'll need to include a few extra items on you regular shopping list:

1. Lemons
2. Limes
3. Ice cubes (unless you wanna make them yourself)
4. Some booze of course

IMPORTANT - the better the quality of the booze - the better drink!

Last but never the less least:
Make some sugar syrup...
-Find a empty bottle (and since you guys got this far in the post I can assume you have one!).
-Boil a quarter of a litre of water
-Place boiling water in heat proof vessel with wide opening
-Pour in some regular sugar - not too much at first though...

What you are trying to do is to saturate the water with sugar - making it into syrup. You want to do this a fast as possible without burning any body parts (especially the delicate ones!).
Once you have managed to make this, making cocktails should be a walk in the park, really!
Let it cool down and then pour into the aforementioned bottle for easy storage.

OK, I will leave you with this (and the recipe for the fantastic tequila cocktail) for a day or so. But stay tuned as the words of bartending wisdom (not necessarily my own though) pours out onto these pages...