All photographs ©designsbysusy
cocktail
May I look again?
Another quick look at what happened in May 2016
All photographs ©designsbysusy
Mojito time
For one cocktail
1 shot of white rum
1/2 measure of sugar syrup
6 mint leaves
1 lime
crushed ice
soda water to top up
The famous Cuban cocktail, a Mojito is made by first “muddling” the mint and lime. This bruising releases the essential oil from the mint and juice from the lime.
If you looked very closely, I rolled the lime, which helps to get the maximum juice. I then sliced the end off, cut a thick slice, which I then quartered. I added the lime and small mint leaves to the glass. Using the end of a metal grater I ‘muddled’ away.
When I was all muddled, then I added the crushed ice, rum and sugar syrup which i gently mixed together. A top up of soda water and a touch more ice and cheers
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.
All photographs ©designsbysusy
Daiquiri
This rum based cocktail, named after the Cuban town Daiquiri, created by Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer who was working there in 1900. Rumoured to have run out of gin, he used rum with sugar and lime to create a new drink for his guests.
It still remained unfashionable as a drink until 1940s thought of as only a drink for sailors. At this time, whiskey and vodka were rationed, new trading and travel with Caribbean and Cuba, meant rum became readily available and it’s popularity changed. It became the favourite drink of the writer Ernest Hemingway and US president John F Kennedy, so clearly must give it a whirl then (please note interest in the Lost Generation in my first cocktail post).
Ice cubes
3 measures of white rum
1 measure of lime juice
2 teaspoons of caster sugar
slice of lime to decorate
Half fill the cocktail shaker with ice cubes.
Add rum, lime juice and sugar.
Shake well and strain into a well chilled cocktail glass.
Decorate with slice of lime.
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.
All photographs ©designsbysusy
Harvey’s Wallbanging
The 1960’s Harvey Wallbanger cocktail, a modern day classic, has quite story behind it. It seems to be named after a Californian surfer who drank so many he literally banged and bounced off the walls. Maybe the orange juice made the drink seem less intoxicating so clearly don’t do a Harvey and drink responsibly.
1 measure vodka
3 measures fresh orange juice
1-2 teaspoons Galliano
orange wheels to decorate
6 ice cubes
straws
Put half the ice cubes into the cocktail shaker, add vodka and orange juice. Shake until frost appears on the outside of the shaker. Add remaining ice cubes to a highball glass and strain contents of the cocktail shaker. Float the Galliano on top.
Decorate with orange wheels and straws.
While researching this cocktail, I came across this youtube clip, which tells a slightly different tale.
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs and avoid walls. Drink aware etc.
Recipe and information from The Classic Cocktail Bible
Is it cocktail hour?
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.
All photographs ©teaandtiffindesigns
I’m just an old fashioned girl
As usual, I looked through my cocktail books comparing
various recipes for an Old Fashioned cocktail before making
this week’s cocktail. Sugar cubes or syrup, orange bitters
or angostura, optional splash of soda etc, so I settled on
this one.
The ingredients in this 19th century drink, which I found
a tad strong to be honest, are muddled together.
My husband, however had no complaints!
Old Fashioned
2 parts Bourbon
1 teaspoon of sugar syrup
4 dashes of bitters
ice cubes and orange peel
Pour bourbon into a short glass, add some ice cubes.
Pour bitters and sugar over the ice.
Decorate with an orange rind twist.
Books featured in the post include my vintage cocktail book
‘Booze’ and my lovely new cocktail book ‘Cocktails The Present
from the Past’.
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.
All photographs ©teaandtiffindesigns
Kamikaze
Knocked back in one, this shot glass cocktail seems to have
been created in the disco party 1970’s. Maybe not quite as
stylish as the cocktails of the twenties and thirties, but
I thought we would try it out.
Kamikaze the Japanese word meaning divine or spirit wind
was given to their special attack pilots in the World War II,
so a cocktail with this name although it tastes quite tame
probably should carry a warning.
Half a measure of vodka
Half a measure of Triple Sec
Half a measure of lime juice
Ice cubes cracked.
Put the cracked ice into a cocktail shaker.
Add all of the ingredients & shake until a frost forms on the
outside of the cocktail shaker.
Strain into shot glasses.
Recipe was taken from The Classic Cocktail Bible
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.
All photographs ©teaandtiffindesigns
Moscow Mule? White lady?
This week it is the turn of the Moscow Mule. I had never had one before, in fact my only knowledge that the cocktail existed was from the advert shown below. Which obviously I now say each and every time “Moscow Mule” is mentioned, and yes I do try to sound like the barman.
Following research on Moscow mules, I discovered that they must (okay probably not must, but we are trying to be classic remember) be served in a copper mug, s lovely husband bought me a pair of copper mugs for my birthday last year.
The Moscow Mule seems to have been created as a clever marketing idea to sell vodka and ginger beer in America at a time when gin was the spirit choice. In the late 1930’s it was a collaboration between John Martin, a head of a food and alcohol distribution company who had bought the rights to Smirnoff vodka, and Jack Morgan president of a ginger beer producing company, which would lead to this cocktail’s creation. It was one evening drinking together, planning how to shift their products, which were not selling, that they came up with the now famous cocktail in it’s distinctive copper mug.
They took the Moscow Mule into bars across America, photographing the Smirnoff vodka alongside the copper mugs and by the 1950’s this vodka cocktail had become very popular.
2 parts vodka, juice of 2 limes, ginger beer to top up. Ice cubes & lime wheels to decorate.
Place cracked ice into a cocktail shaker, add the vodka and lime juice. shake until a frost forms on the outside of the shaker. Pour without straining into a copper mug. Top with ginger beer.
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.
I guess a White Lady should come soon
Designs by Susy 