Making classic cocktails when you're not a bartender
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: making classic cocktails when you're not a bartender.
Do you love cocktails but don't have the skills or the tools to shake them like a bartender? These cheat cocktails taste like the real deal and you make them like this.
The bartender
Master of an impressive array of finger-bending techniques, an encyclopedic mind, the day and night rhythm of a bat, and the creativity of an artist. I'm not talking about an 18th-century composer here, but about a mythical figure from a more modern era: the bartender.
Shaken or stirred? None of that!
Unless deep down you secretly aspire to a career as a mixologist developing the above competencies takes (too) much of your time, energy, and health. Fortunately, there are a number of clever tips available, allowing you as a novice to put a classic on the table in no time. Shaken or stirred? None of the above.
Mai Tai
This legendary Tiki cocktail tastes as tropical as it sounds and has a Polynesian origin. The story goes that Trader Vic, godfather of Tiki cocktails, hosted a number of Tahitian friends in 1944 and made the first Mai Tai for them. The group enthusiastically shouted: ‘Maitai roa!’ or: ‘Very good!’ The recipe calls for a number of obscure liqueurs, homemade syrups, two types of rum, and four years of your life. But don't worry: for our version, you only need three ingredients and an equal number of minutes. Here it comes.
Ingredients
40ml Plantation Xaymaca
120ml Three Cents Cherry Soda
15ml lime juice
a slice of lime + a sprig of mint (for garnish)
or a slice of pineapple + a few cherries (for garnish)
Method
Pour the rum and lime juice into a glass filled with ice. Top with Cherry Soda and garnish with some mint and a lime wedge, or with pineapple and cherry. That's it. Really.
Penicillin
The antibiotic for another kind of ailment: the Penicillin. A whiskey cocktail with balls and a recipe that you'll understand the balls of. Not today! At home, you can make it in no time.
Ingredients
40ml Sheep Dip
120ml Three Cents Ginger Beer
15ml lemon juice
a splash of honey
fresh ginger (for garnish)
Method
Pour the whiskey, lemon juice, and honey into a glass and stir well. Then add ice, top with Ginger Beer, and garnish with a piece of fresh ginger. There you go, cured!
Margarita
The name of an Italian queen, your favorite pizza, and the world's most famous cocktail: the Margarita. In America, you buy it in a ready-made bottle or in powdered form. The ultimate cheat, the ultimate desecration. With this slightly-less-cheaty-cheat Margarita, you'll still be welcome in tequila heaven.
Ingredients
40 ml Tequila Corralejo Reposado
120 ml bitter lemon
15 ml lime juice
a slice of lime (for garnish)
Method
Pour the tequila and lime juice into a glass filled with ice. Top it off with Bitter Lemon and garnish with a slice of lime. Salud!
