Lemon cheesecake cocktail

Say cheers to the holiday season with this beautiful drink.

I adore this cocktail, I first tasted this at Restaurant bar and grill Liverpool. The smell of it before you even get to taste it is Devine! 
This was definitely one I wanted to recreate at home, and so I was thrilled to get the recipe from the mixologist. 

Despite it's name this cocktail boasts the holy trinity of festive smells and tastes, Cinnamon, Gingerbread and nuts making it the perfect Christmas tipple.

Visually it looks very much like that distinctive smooth yellow drink Advocaat we all associate with Christmas. 

So this year why not try this cocktail as the perfect alternative to Eggnog.

I used the Monin range of syrups. You can find these in any good supermarket, generally in the coffee section but if you have trouble finding a stockist, Costa coffee outlets sell them. It's the brand they use to flavour their coffee's.  

 

Ingredients

20ml Pinot Grigio

25ml Limoncello

5 ml Gingerbread syrup

5 ml Cinnamon Syrup

20 ml Frangelico hazelnut liqueur 

20ml cream

10ml milk

Glass style - Martini glass

Method - Shake with ice - Strain

Garnish - Sprinkle with cinnamon 

 

Method

Simply shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice just long enough for the cocktail shaker to feel cold, about 15 seconds. Pour into a Martini glass and dust the top with Cinnamon.

 Happy Christmas !
 

 

 

Rhuby Spritz the perfct summer cocktail

One of the most memorable cocktails I've had was during a visit to the OXO Tower London last summer, it was called Rhuby Spritz.  A rhubarb vodka muddled with redcurrants and charged with soda it was the perfect British summer drink. 

I say British as not only are rhubarb and redcurrants quintessentially British, the vodka in this cocktail is made by British distiller William chase, a Hereford potato farmer who brought us Terrell's crisps.

In Williams story he describes whilst travelling in the USA looking for packaging equipment for his crisps he stumbled upon a small distillery making potato vodka and thought this could be a great new chapter in his life. He reportedly sold his crisp business for £30 million deciding it would be more fun to make vodka ( have to agree there ) Chase vodka has since gone from strength to strength. In 2010 Chase was crowned the worlds finest vodka by a panel of 30 judges at the San Fransisco world spirit competition, beating the likes of Poland and Russia.

Distilling in a bespoke copper batch pot and using potatoes gives Chase vodka a natural sweetness and a much better taste than traditional methods of using cheaper wheat or rye grains.

I'm a big fan of trying to reproduce cocktails at home that I have tried and loved. Especially the classics that have an interesting story attatched to them. Although Rhuby Spritzs not in that category I loved it enough to want to make at home.

So I wanted to find out how to make this drink using the exact ingredients. 
The Mixologist at OXO kindly gave me the recipe.

Chase vodka is not cheap at £35 a bottle but the quality is amazing, and the taste of rhubarb comes through superbly.

Ingredients to make a Rhuby spritz


 

Ingredients
6-8 Redcurrants
1/2 tsp Caster sugar
15ml of lemon juice
50ml Chase Rhubarb vodka
Soda water

Glass style - Tall fluted - Highball
Method - Muddle - Shaken - Charge with soda
Garnish - Slice of lemon - String of recurrants

Method
Muddle 6-8 redcurrants with a 1/2 tsp caster sugar and 15ml lemon juice in a cocktail shaker
Add a double shot of Chase Rhubarb vodka, ice & shake
Strain into a glass filled with ice
Stir and top up with soda water
Garnish with a slice of lemon and some of the redcurrants.

Rhuby Spritz the perfect summer cocktail

Enjoy!

Singapore sling

On my last vacation I managed to tick off one of my bucket list goals of having a Singapore sling in the long bar at Raffles hotel in Singapore. But there was one small problem, understandably as Raffles sell over 1000 of these drinks a day they are pre mixed.

Undeterred to try a proper one I made a note of the recipe and once home sourced the drinks needed.

Ingredients
Metric Measurements as printed on the original raffles Hotel menu.

30ml Gin.
15 ml Cherry Brandy.
120 ml Pineapple Juice.
15 ml Lime Juice.
7.5 ml Cointreau.
7.5 ml Dom Benedictine.
10 ml Grenadine.
A Dash of Angostura Bitters.
Garnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry.

Method

Shake with ice. Strain into an ice filled collins glass.

Garnish with cherry and slice of pineapple.

Recipe for those preferring to use fluid oz

1 1/2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce cherry heering
1/4 ounce Cointreau liqueur
1/4 ounce benedictine
4 ounces pineapple juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/3 ounce grenadine
1 dash bitters

A fantastic cocktail, every time I make a singapore sling I will now be able to visualise walking the beautiful courtyards of Raffles and of course sipping at the long bar with the mechanical fans wafting over my head. Oh and I mustn't forget, to make it truly authentic I must have a bowl of monkey nuts.

Ingredients for a Singapore sling (Raffles)

 



Forgive the terrible attempt to garnish, In my eagerness to get home and make them I forgot to but Pineapple and cherries. Glace it had to be :0)

 

Chocolate Martini

I love a Chocolate Martini and have had a few over the years but the best one I ever tried was in the bar of the Waldorf hotel in New York.

After asking the barman what ingredients he used there was only one I could remember and that was Van Gogh Dutch Chocolate Vodka.

A Chocolate Martini can be made in many different ways. Pick your favourite base spirit such as light rum, vodka or brandy to mix with a chocolate liqueur.

The other ingredients in this recipe are a mix of what I have seen in various recipes on the Internet and have chosen these for my personal taste.

Ingredients:

2 oz Base spirit (vodka, light rum or brandy) I used the Van Gough Chocolate vodka.
1/2 oz Chocolate liqueur
1/2 oz Dark crème de cacao

Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a martini glass.

Ingredients for Chocolate Martini