Soldato
You could try making a Vesper with Cassis instead of Kina Lillet?
You will have a good night guarenteed.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesper_(cocktail)
The Cocktail Thread
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You could try making a Vesper with Cassis instead of Kina Lillet?
You will have a good night guarenteed.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesper_(cocktail)
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After a trip to South America a few years back I cant get enough of Caipirinha. Excellent drink for the summer.
Method below snaffled from another site:
50ml Abelha Cachaça Silver or Abelha Cachaça Gold (Swap out for Vodka if not available) becomes a Caipiroska
1/2 a Lime
2 heaped teaspoons Castor Sugar (fine white sugar)
Ice
Method
Cut the lime into quarters. If you can be bothered, cut out the white core of the lime – it’s bitter. Cut the corners into smaller bits, and put half a limes worth in the tumbler glass.
Add 2 heaped teaspoons of castor sugar. We use castor sugar because it dissolves consistently, rather than half-dissolving and sitting in the bottom of the glass, leaving the sweetness unpredictable. Same reason we don’t use syrup – you can’t ensure the consistency of it – also for those making it at home, it saves you making syrup.
Muddle (squish) the limes. If you don’t have a muddler, here are some kitchen items that are good – a fixed gear rolling pin, a wine bottle upside down, the bottom of a small bottle – e.g. Worcester sauce.
If you have no suitable implement, squeeze the juice out of the lime bits with your fingers as you add them. it’s vital that you get all the juice out the lime bits.
Crush some ice. How you crush your ice is very very important to how your drink comes out. This is because the finer the ice, the faster it melts, and the more dilute the drink. Not fine enough, and the drink tastes too strong.
If you don’t have an ice crusher, I recommend wrapping ice cubes in a tea towel and smashing them hard about 10 times on a hard wall or floor. When you are done, there should be a little bit of ‘snow’. Fill the glass 3/4 full with this crushed ice.
Pour a 50ml shot of Abelha Cachaça over the ice. This is starting to look real good.
Take a cocktail stirrer (or the back of a fork, or a chopstick), place your left palm over the glass, leaving space where your thumb nook is to insert the stirrer, and mix it. Don’t stir, it’s more like whisking. If you use crushed ice, and muddle well, there is no need to use a cocktail shaker to make a caipirinha.
Top the glass up with ice, un-crushed or crushed, and stick a straw in it. You are done.
Method below snaffled from another site:
50ml Abelha Cachaça Silver or Abelha Cachaça Gold (Swap out for Vodka if not available) becomes a Caipiroska
1/2 a Lime
2 heaped teaspoons Castor Sugar (fine white sugar)
Ice
Method
Cut the lime into quarters. If you can be bothered, cut out the white core of the lime – it’s bitter. Cut the corners into smaller bits, and put half a limes worth in the tumbler glass.
Add 2 heaped teaspoons of castor sugar. We use castor sugar because it dissolves consistently, rather than half-dissolving and sitting in the bottom of the glass, leaving the sweetness unpredictable. Same reason we don’t use syrup – you can’t ensure the consistency of it – also for those making it at home, it saves you making syrup.
Muddle (squish) the limes. If you don’t have a muddler, here are some kitchen items that are good – a fixed gear rolling pin, a wine bottle upside down, the bottom of a small bottle – e.g. Worcester sauce.
If you have no suitable implement, squeeze the juice out of the lime bits with your fingers as you add them. it’s vital that you get all the juice out the lime bits.
Crush some ice. How you crush your ice is very very important to how your drink comes out. This is because the finer the ice, the faster it melts, and the more dilute the drink. Not fine enough, and the drink tastes too strong.
If you don’t have an ice crusher, I recommend wrapping ice cubes in a tea towel and smashing them hard about 10 times on a hard wall or floor. When you are done, there should be a little bit of ‘snow’. Fill the glass 3/4 full with this crushed ice.
Pour a 50ml shot of Abelha Cachaça over the ice. This is starting to look real good.
Take a cocktail stirrer (or the back of a fork, or a chopstick), place your left palm over the glass, leaving space where your thumb nook is to insert the stirrer, and mix it. Don’t stir, it’s more like whisking. If you use crushed ice, and muddle well, there is no need to use a cocktail shaker to make a caipirinha.
Top the glass up with ice, un-crushed or crushed, and stick a straw in it. You are done.
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Make it with Vodka and it magically becomes a Caipiroska.
Delicious drink.
Delicious drink.
Soldato
Any decent white/gold rum (fresh cane rum, not molasses based). Not as authentic but no one will taste the difference
Love Caipirinhas. Only problem is every other drink tastes bland after because of all the lime and sugar!
Me too, love em, strong with a great sweet and sour hit, I would drink them by the pint if it were socially acceptable! Cachaca is in plenty of places online, might be a little more difficult to pick up in person as im not sure the big supermarkets stock it. A good rum would be the best sub as Cachaca is cane rum
However, whilst I appreciate that the caipiroska exists, vodka should not be subbed in for any drink, by its very definition is flavourless alcohol and a more interesting spirit should always be sought. See red snapper vs bloody mary, gin vs vodka martini etc.
I think 12 Bottle Bar puts across a good argument.
http://12bottlebar.com/2010/07/and-the-rest/
12 Bottle Bar said:
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I hate that pretentious nonsense xarr. Vodka is incredibly flavourful, and each brand has differences thanks to the ingredients and production process. It's madness to suggest that there is no flavour in vodka and that it shouldn't be considered a worthy spirit.
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Get some Polish Bison Grass vodka.
I've made them with that and they were delicious.
I've made them with that and they were delicious.
I don't know about the UK but in Switzerland it was in the supermarkets (and Swiss supermarkets are pretty bad for alcohol) and in the US most of the liquor stores (supermarkets don't sell spirits) so I would be surpised if you can't just pick a bottle up from Tescos.
I'm currently sipping a Hendricks Gin & Tonic with cucumber. Very refreshing 
I posted this here a couple of years ago...
This bit of hot weather has given me a thirst for one of my favourite drinks. A Margarita. I had all the ingredients apart from Triple Sec but I improvised with Blue Curacao, giving the Blue Margarita.
The ingredients are as follows:
Before you do anything you need to make up and cool down your sour mix. To do this, get a fairly large saucepan filled with your one part of water. Heat it to just before the boil and throw in your equal part quantity of sugar. Mix the sugar until the mixture is clear, being careful not to boil it. Once the mixture is clear, turn off the heat and throw in your equal parts of lemon juice and lime juice. To make just under 2l of sour mix I used 500ml water, 500ml lemon juice, 500ml lime juice and measured out 500ml of sugar.
Once made up, put it in a bottle and put it in the fridge to cool.
Next, take your glass and fill it with ice to chill it. I used a plain tumbler but you can use a proper Margarita glass if you have one.
Now take your shaker and fire in the ingredients. My preferred ratio is 3 measures of tequila, 2 measures of blue curacao and 5 measures of sour mix. Squeeze in half a lime to give it a bit of kick.
Then, empty the ice from your glass into the shaker.
Once you have done that, take a slice from your remaining half of the lime and rub it along the rim of the glass being careful not to leave any unsightly bits of lime stuck there.
Empty some salt onto a plate and then dunk your lime juice rimmed glass into it...
Leaving you with....
Shake the contents of your mixer a few times and then strain it out into your prepped glass, being careful not to spill any over the salted rim.
Stick your lime slice on the rim and there you have it. Take it outside into the sun and pretend you're in paradise
Beats cleaning the cooker...
I posted this here a couple of years ago...
This bit of hot weather has given me a thirst for one of my favourite drinks. A Margarita. I had all the ingredients apart from Triple Sec but I improvised with Blue Curacao, giving the Blue Margarita.
The ingredients are as follows:
- Tequila, preferably a reposado. Blanco (silver) can be used but doesn't taste as good IMO.
- Blue Curacao. This is an orange liqueur used in place of Triple Sec or other fancier alternatives such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau. Any of these can be used but I used Blue Curacao since it's all I had and it looks cool
- Sour mix - This is made up of equal parts lemon juice, lime juice, water and white sugar.
- Coarse salt - I used some Cornish sea salt
- A fresh lime
- Ice
Before you do anything you need to make up and cool down your sour mix. To do this, get a fairly large saucepan filled with your one part of water. Heat it to just before the boil and throw in your equal part quantity of sugar. Mix the sugar until the mixture is clear, being careful not to boil it. Once the mixture is clear, turn off the heat and throw in your equal parts of lemon juice and lime juice. To make just under 2l of sour mix I used 500ml water, 500ml lemon juice, 500ml lime juice and measured out 500ml of sugar.
Once made up, put it in a bottle and put it in the fridge to cool.
Next, take your glass and fill it with ice to chill it. I used a plain tumbler but you can use a proper Margarita glass if you have one.
Now take your shaker and fire in the ingredients. My preferred ratio is 3 measures of tequila, 2 measures of blue curacao and 5 measures of sour mix. Squeeze in half a lime to give it a bit of kick.
Then, empty the ice from your glass into the shaker.
Once you have done that, take a slice from your remaining half of the lime and rub it along the rim of the glass being careful not to leave any unsightly bits of lime stuck there.
Empty some salt onto a plate and then dunk your lime juice rimmed glass into it...
Leaving you with....
Shake the contents of your mixer a few times and then strain it out into your prepped glass, being careful not to spill any over the salted rim.
Stick your lime slice on the rim and there you have it. Take it outside into the sun and pretend you're in paradise
Beats cleaning the cooker...
My favourite cocktail is the El Presidente.
50 ml Good Rum (I like Havana Club Anejo Especial)
25 ml Triple Sec (Or Cointreau, Grand Marnier etc)
25 ml Dry Vermouth
Dash of Bitters
Dash of Grenadine
Shake with ice, strain into a martini glass and garnish with flamed orange. Rocket fuel.
50 ml Good Rum (I like Havana Club Anejo Especial)
25 ml Triple Sec (Or Cointreau, Grand Marnier etc)
25 ml Dry Vermouth
Dash of Bitters
Dash of Grenadine
Shake with ice, strain into a martini glass and garnish with flamed orange. Rocket fuel.
I'm currently sipping a Hendricks Gin & Tonic with cucumber. Very refreshing
I posted this here a couple of years ago...
This bit of hot weather has given me a thirst for one of my favourite drinks. A Margarita. I had all the ingredients apart from Triple Sec but I improvised with Blue Curacao, giving the Blue Margarita.
The ingredients are as follows:
- Tequila, preferably a reposado. Blanco (silver) can be used but doesn't taste as good IMO.
- Blue Curacao. This is an orange liqueur used in place of Triple Sec or other fancier alternatives such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau. Any of these can be used but I used Blue Curacao since it's all I had and it looks cool
- Sour mix - This is made up of equal parts lemon juice, lime juice, water and white sugar.
- Coarse salt - I used some Cornish sea salt
- A fresh lime
- Ice
Before you do anything you need to make up and cool down your sour mix. To do this, get a fairly large saucepan filled with your one part of water. Heat it to just before the boil and throw in your equal part quantity of sugar. Mix the sugar until the mixture is clear, being careful not to boil it. Once the mixture is clear, turn off the heat and throw in your equal parts of lemon juice and lime juice. To make just under 2l of sour mix I used 500ml water, 500ml lemon juice, 500ml lime juice and measured out 500ml of sugar.
Once made up, put it in a bottle and put it in the fridge to cool.
Next, take your glass and fill it with ice to chill it. I used a plain tumbler but you can use a proper Margarita glass if you have one.
Now take your shaker and fire in the ingredients. My preferred ratio is 3 measures of tequila, 2 measures of blue curacao and 5 measures of sour mix. Squeeze in half a lime to give it a bit of
Then, empty the ice from your glass into the shaker.
Once you have done that, take a slice from your remaining half of the lime and rub it along the rim of the glass being careful not to leave any unsightly bits of lime stuck there.
Empty some salt onto a plate and then dunk your lime juice rimmed glass into it...
Leaving you with....
Shake the contents of your mixer a few times and then strain it out into your prepped glass, being careful not to spill any over the salted rim.
Stick your lime slice on the rim and there you have it. Take it outside into the sun and pretend you're in paradise
Beats cleaning the cooker...
I don't want to be a cocktail snob, for imam a complete novice, but you really have to use the juice from fresh limes. Bottled lime juice is convenient but has a completely different and IMO somewhat unpleasant taste compared to the zesty freshness of a real lime. That fresh lime juice taste is the key to many cocktails like margaritas, campaninha, mojito etc. there really is no substitute.
Fresh lime is much more important than quality of the tequila imo, Cuevo Gold is normally sufficient.
What I forgot to say is that you can make a lime syrop much as you demonstrated by squeezing fresh limes with a some of the zest into the sugar water. Not really needed for a margarita which is relatively sour but takes its sweetness from Tripel sec/grand mariner (which a you said you didn't have)
I completely agree. I didn't have enough limes to get the juice at the time though.
Went to bug some fresh limes and they had sold out so making margaritas with fresh lemons, tasty but still not right....
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I'm a rum person and make Margaritas for the missus who is a Tequila fiend
According to her:
- If you use anything but fresh limes and a GOOD triple-sec like Cointreau then it just won't taste right
- As mentioned above the sweetness to balance the lime comes from the triple-sec. Never use sugar or sugar syrup
- Always chill the glass - it makes a big difference apparently
- Using a top tequila does make a big difference in smoothness, but not everyone can afford £40+ bottles of tequila so save it for a special occasion
According to her:
- If you use anything but fresh limes and a GOOD triple-sec like Cointreau then it just won't taste right
- As mentioned above the sweetness to balance the lime comes from the triple-sec. Never use sugar or sugar syrup
- Always chill the glass - it makes a big difference apparently
- Using a top tequila does make a big difference in smoothness, but not everyone can afford £40+ bottles of tequila so save it for a special occasion
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Associate
Long island ice tea, mojitos and strawberry daiquiri
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Dark 'N' Stormy