Friday night

Mojito time

Image | | Susy

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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

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Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.

All photographs ©designsbysusy

Sling me a gin

Image | | Susy

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This week it is time for a Singapore Sling or Gin Sling. When researching cocktails it seems, as usual, there are many recipes for a gin based sling, so I used my copy of the The Savoy Cocktail Book for mine.
The Master of the Cocktail, Harry Craddock, doesn’t include the Grenadine and Benedictine that more modern recipes do. I feel less is more.

The juice of  1/4 lemon
1/4 of dry gin
1/2 of cherry brandy
soda water to top up and  ice cube

1 measure = 2oz
1/2 is a generous 1 oz
1/4 is a generous 1/2 oz

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Add lemon, gin and cherry brandy to the cocktail shaker.
Shake well and strain into a highball glass.
Top up with soda and add 1 lump of ice.IMG_4392

After tasting, my husband  felt that more gin was required, probably a bit too much soda too. So less, was in fact less and more was in fact required.

Recipe taken from Cocktails The Present from the Past, which includes a reprint of the original Savoy Cocktail Book published in 1930.

Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.

All photographs ©designsbysusy

Daiquiri

Image | | Susy

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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).

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Ice cubes
3 measures of white rum
1 measure of lime juice
2 teaspoons of caster sugar
slice of lime to decorateDSC_8098
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.
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Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.

All photographs ©designsbysusy

I’m just an old fashioned girl

| Susy

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!

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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.

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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

| Susy

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.

cocktail making

Half a measure of vodka
Half a measure of Triple Sec
Half a measure of lime juice
Ice cubes cracked.

make cocktailsshot glasses

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.

cocktailsKamikze cocktails

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?

| Susy

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.

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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

I’ll take Manhattan

| Susy

Next on my classic cocktail journey is The Manhattan. It’s history seems a bit unclear, the most interesting story suggests it is Winston Churchill’s mother Lady Randolph, who we should thank for this delicious grown up cocktail.  It seems she asked for it to be made for a party at The Manhattan Club in New York, back in 1870’s,  I like the link with England however possibly just a story. as she was not in New York and pregnant at the time.

2 parts Rye Whisky
1 part sweet vermouth
1-2 dashes of bitters
ice cubes and orange peel.

Place the ice into a cocktail shaker, add the whisky, vermouth and bitters.
Give a shake as per usual.
Rub the orange peel around the rim of the glass.
Pour into a chilled glass.

I prefer mine served on the rocks as it is quite strong.
Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.

Variations on a Classic Manhattan
A Dry Manhattan with dry vermouth instead of sweet.
A Perfect Manhattan equal parts of sweet and dry vermouth.
A Brandy Manhattan replacing Brandy with whiskey.

Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.

I found this amazing 1960’s cocktail book called Booze, it’s brilliant psychedelic design and illustration was the inspiration for my cocktail post.
Booze – by June Dutton and Edith Vanocur, illustrated by John Astrop and Eric Hill (Determined Productions Inc., 1967).

 

Dry Martini please barman, shaken not stirred…..

| Susy

A cocktail, well a Martini or a Manhattan, has become a Friday night ‘the weekend is here’ treat in my house.

I’m fascinated by the 1930s (some would say obsessed), The Lost Generation, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, The Murphys etc, so I decided to look into the history of cocktail making. Most famous was Harry Craddock, who moved from the USA to work at the Savoy in London during Prohibition. His Savoy Cocktail Book looks great, and my lovely husband has promised to find me a copy to test Harry’s classic cocktails each week.

So to start with, a classic Martini. Dirty? Dry? Shaken or stirred? Gin or Vodka? 

martini for two

Dirty means adding brine from the olive jar. Not sure about that personally, but I will try it in due course as part of the testing process. Dry means adding more Gin than Vermouth, and Mr Bond always went for “shaken not stirred”, so clearly he went against the opinions of barman and liked the over agitated, slightly diluted taste.

My experience thus far is just a Dry Gin Martini, shaken not stirred, 1 part gin to 1 part Vermouth. 

So a Dry Martini please barman, shaken not stirred….

So you will need
1 part Gin
1 part Dry Vermouth,
Ice cubes
Green Olives/Lemon twist.

Pour Gin and Vermouth into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes.
Either shake/stir (we are very 007).
Pour into chilled cocktail glasses, garnish with olives /lemon twist.

Proceed with caution, may cause wobbly legs. Drink aware etc.

I found this amazing 1960’s cocktail book called Booze, it’s brilliant psychedelic design and illustration was the inspiration for my cocktail post.

Booze – by June Dutton and Edith Vanocur, illustrated by John Astrop and Eric Hill (Determined Productions Inc., 1967).