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Cocktail of the Week

Cocktail of the Week | Margarita

margarita

We have been doing the cocktail of the week for a few months now and are just making a dent in the spirit collection! It seems Calum did spend much time buying spirits for no real reason!  As it is now September and the last of the summer days are on us, we are squeezing the last out of them by wearing shorts and making typically summer cocktails. This week we went for a classic summer drink for Cocktail of the Week, the margarita!

The history of the margarita seems to hold many owners and no one theory or ownership sounds disputable. There are versions dating the cocktail back to 1938 and as recently as 1961 and appears to have been ‘inspired’ by many women, including Margarita Henkel, the daughter of a German Ambassador to Mexico or popularised by various people including the Hiltons (of the hotel fame). It is likely the drink comes from Mexico, although the Peggy Lee history myth has the drink coming from Texas.   One thing for certain is that the drink under the name ‘margarita’ first appeared in Esquire magazine in December 1953.  A cocktail called ‘Tequila Daisy’ appearing in 1930’s cocktail book, which could be an early contender for the drink as Daisy in Mexican is Margarita.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need;

  • 2 measure tequila
  • 1 measure triple sec
  • 1 measure lime juice
  • salt

To make the cocktail, pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake.  Once you have done that, take a plate and pour some salt on to it.  Take the glass and place the rim in a few millimeters of water before placing the glass in the salt to rim the glass.  Carefully place some ice in the glass without knocking off the salt and pour in the mixed drink.  Garnish with a lime and you have the cocktail of the week, a Margarita.

In recent years there has been a desire for frozen margarita’s and we can safely say this is a better version of the cocktail. The lime cuts through the tequila giving you a refreshing drink perfect to soak up the last of the sun!

margaritamargarita

margarita
8th September 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | The Bee’s Knees

The Bee’s Knees

On a recent trip to the Cinema, we stopped off at Bill’s beforehand to have some dinner.  Whilst perusing their cocktail menu to gain a few ideas for the future cocktail of the week, we came across a cocktail called the Bee’s Knees.  We were interested in this as every drink ordered; 25p is donated to the Royal Botanical Gardens campaign to highlight the importance of bees.   Whilst we were not in a cocktail mood that night, we did want to try it and took a sneaky pic.  To be fair to the Kew Gardens and Bill’s collaboration project, we will still be donating to the Kew Gardens Hive project.

The bees knees cocktail is a gin based cocktail that dates back to the prohibition era in the 1920’s and 30’s where a ban on alcohol was in place.  The phrase ‘bee’s knees’ was a colloquial term at the time for ‘the best’.  The poor quality bathtub gin was mixed with citrus, honey and other mixes to improve the taste and hide the smell of the gin.  The cocktail comes in various measures and combinations depending on where you ordered the drink, for ours, we stuck with the cocktail that came from Bill’s.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need;

  • 1 measure of gin (bath tub gin is still available if you wish to have the authentic mix!)
  • 2 tablespoons honey syrup
  • Juice of one lemon
  • Pink lemonade
  • Sprig of thyme

Firstly, to make the honey syrup, use the sugar syrup I describe before on the Raspberry Collins.  Replace the sugar with the same quantity of honey.  In a tumbler glass, add the gin, honey syrup and lemon over ice and stir.  Fill the remainder of the glass with the pink lemonade.  Add the sprig of thyme and you have the bee’s knees of our cocktail of the week the Bee’s Knees!

You can have this as a virgin cocktail and tastes the same without the gin, which is useful as it was designed to hide the taste of the gin!  It is a good, flavoured cocktail and definitely one to try if you don’t like gin.

The Bee’s KneesThe Bee’s Knees

The Bee’s Knees
1st September 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Caipirinha

Caipirinha Brazilian Cocktail

With the Olympics ending, we thought there would be no better way to celebrate the Olympics, and the rather splendid efforts by Team GB than to enjoy a Brazilian themed BBQ on Saturday night.  You can read about the food we cooked here.  The only cocktail to accompany anything Brazil-based has to be the Caipirinha, Brazil’s national drink.  As such it became our cocktail of the week.

The origin of the Caipirinha is unknown and did not appear in São Paulo until 1918 as a remedy for the Spanish Flu.  It was originally made with only lime, garlic and honey with a spirit added to the home concoctions.  It is still commonly used in this format as a cure for common colds.  As with all cocktails, someone decided to experiment!  Removing the garlic and honey and adding sugar helped make it a ubiquitous drink across Brazil.  The word Caipirinha comes from the word caipria, which in Portuguese refers to someone from the Countryside. A similar word in English would be a ‘hillbilly’.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need;

  • Crushed Ice
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 lime cut into 8 parts & a slice for garnish
  • 1 large measure of Cachaça

To make this week’s cocktail add the chopped lime and the sugar to a sturdy glass.  Use a muddler and crush the fruit and mix the sugar together.   Add the cachaça and give the mix a stir.  Top the glass with ice and stir again.  To finish place the garnish on the glass and lá vai vocé de uma caipirinha (there you go, a caipirinha).

The caipirinha is a great drink if you like lime and sweetness.  We would be happy to continue drinking these in the sun watching the Olympics; sadly, all good things must come to an end!

Caipirinha - 4 Caipirinha - 3Caipirinha - 5

Caipirinha Brazilian Cocktail
25th August 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Kir Royale Champagne Cocktail

Cocktail of the week | Kir Royale

To top off the week long celebrations for Calum’s birthday we hosted a french style dinner party for a dozen of our friends.  Like any good meal, it should always start with a cocktail as a welcome drink. As we went for a French theme dinner, we pulled out the Crème de Cassis, a blackcurrant liqueur, and the champagne that we picked up on our recent trip to France and created our cocktail of the week, a Kir Royale.

The Kir Royale is based on the Kir cocktail, in which white wine is used rather than champagne. The Kir was originally called a blanc-cassis and can be dated back to 1841 following the increased production levels of the Crème de Cassis. It was usually made with red wine, but after a man called Fèlix Kir, who was the mayor of Dijon after World War II, made the drink popular by presenting it at hosted events to visiting dignitaries, it was renamed. There are thoughts to suggest that the drink was reintroduced as the German Army ‘confiscated’ all the red in Burgundy during the war and left with a large amount of white. The drink has evolved greatly in recent years with the inclusion of many other versions with different liqueur such as peach, or different drinks such as beer, cider and even milk.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need:

  • Crème de Casis
  • Champagne or other sparkling wine
  • Flute glass

To start, make sure the sparkling white you use is chilled. Add two teaspoons of crème de casis to the flute and fill the glass with the sparkling wine. Then sit back and enjoy this week’s cocktail, the Kir Royale.

It is a perfect drink to use as an aperitif and to add a slight difference to serving just champagne.

Kir Royale
Kir Royale - 4

Champagne Cocktail | Kir Royale
18th August 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Negroni

Negroni Cocktail

For this week’s cocktail of the week, we took inspiration from a recent Italian themed dinner party we had.  There are a plethora of Italian cocktails that we could have tried, but the Negroni was the one cocktail neither of us had sampled before and thought it would be giving it a try, especially as it used up some of the red Vermouth we have!

The Negroni has a link to Italian nobility through Count Camilo Negroni.  It was reportedly first mixed in Florence in 1919 where the Count asked his bartender to boost his favourite cocktail the Americano.  His bartender, Fosco Scarselli, replaced the soda water in the Americano with gin and gave it an orange garnish to distinguish it as a different drink.  Given that the family started producing a ready made version of the drink in 1919, it is possible that this story is a little bit of a corporate myth.  On the other hand, if it is true, it is a good start to how most cocktails are made, by experimentation.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need:

  • 1 measure of gin
  • 1 measure of sweet red vermouth
  • 1 measure of Campari
  • Ice
  • One orange for garnish

To make the cocktail, take a tumbler or old fashioned style glass and add the ice.  Pour in the gin, red vermouth and Campari over the ice.  Stir the mix and add the orange for the garnish and there you have the cocktail of the week, the Negroni.

The cocktail has a very dry, bitter taste and probably needed more ice than we added.  However, as Orsen Wells stated when he came across the drink “The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other”, we will take that as a sign that we made it correctly.

Negroni - 3 Negroni - 4Negroni Cocktail

Negroni Cocktail
11th August 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Basil & Lime Cooler

Basil & Lime Cooler

When we returned from France in June, we brought back a basil plant.  There is something different about the way it is grown in France that gives it a stronger flavour.  It has been sitting on the window sill since we returned getting used for the odd meal and we thought we should try to use it as the base flavour in our cocktails.  We came across a Basil & Lime cooler on The Italian Dish blog whilst doing some research for an Italian themed meal and thought would be great to use the basil and the Cointreau we picked up on holiday.

Our basil usually ends up in the ratatouille rather than a cocktail, but being the adventurous type we are, we were up for the experience.  As an ingredient, it has been around for 5,000 years and is known in some parts of the world as the ‘king of herbs’ or the ‘royal herb’.  The world basil comes from the Greek word basileus.  It has slightly odd cultural and fictional associations including being carried in passage to the after life or smelling too much can cause scorpions to breed in the brain and in some parts of Mexico, it is used to draw fortune.  For the record, we now have two basil plants!

For this weeks cocktail, you will need;

  • 10 small to medium basil leaves
  • 1 Lime
  • 2 measures of tequila
  • 1 measure of Cointreau
  • 1 tablespoon of simple syrup
  • 4 measures of club soda
  • Ice

To make the cocktail, slice the lime in half and take one half and slice it into quarters. Add the lime and the basil to a cocktail shaker, use a muddle to extract the juices.  Add some ice to the cocktail shaker, along with the remaining ingredients and give it a quick shake.  Too much and you will loose the bubbles from the club soda.  Stain the mix in to a glass filled with ice, garnish using the remaining lime and there you have this weeks cocktail, a Basil & Lime Cooler.

The cocktail is certainly one to keep in mind.  The flavour of the basil comes through well and compliments the other ingredients perfectly. We are now thinking what other cocktails can we create or improve with basil!

Basil & Lime CoolerBasil & Lime Cooler

Basil & Lime Cooler
4th August 2016
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The Cocktail of the Week | Watermelon Daiquiri

As it is now officially summer, Calum has done his traditional thing and bought a watermelon!  As he grew up in Hong Kong, it is one of the things that reminds him about living there.  Due to their size, eating it all in one sitting was not an option so we needed to find something else to do with it!  Sliced and packed into the freezer we started our weekly mission to find a cocktail of the week.  Relatively quickly we decided on a Watermelon Daiquiri.

The history of the daiquiri is rather interesting!  The name ‘Daiquiri’ is a Taíno word that comes from the indigenous people of Cuba and is also the name of a local beach and iron mine.  Origins of a drink similar to the daiquiri can be traced back to the 1740s.  A drink call grog was made at the time that British Navy sailors would drink.  By the end of the century, the sailors had as part of their grog rations, the key ingredients to the drink now known as the daiquiri; rum, water, lemon or lime and sugar.  The drink became common across the Caribbean where it reappeared in Cuba in the late 1890’s.

It is likely that the drink was an established Cuban speciality when it was introduced to the Americans.  An American expat called Jennings Cox who ran out of gin whilst entertaining and created something similar to the drink.  It wasn’t until 1909 when a US Navy officer tried Cox’s drink and introduced it to the Army and Navy Club in Washington where its popularity grew.  It was also thought to be a favourite of Ernest Hemingway and JFK.  Variations of the drink have become popular over the last few years with frozen and fruit versions.

For this weeks cocktail you will need;

  • 1 cup of watermelon, sliced into inch cubes and frozen
  • 1 measure of rum
  • 2 teaspoon of sugar syrup
  • 1 teaspoons of lime juice
  • Zest of half a lime
  • 1 watermelon slice with the rind for garnish

To make the drink, place all the ingredients in a blender and blitz until you have a smoothish liquid and pour into a glass.  Garnish with the watermelon slice and you have a Watermelon Daiquiri.

Its great to think that a drink started by the British Navy with the rum rations, popularised in the Caribbean and adopted by the American Navy and Army is still going today.  Sadly (or rather sensibly), as the rum rations were ended in 1970 on a day known as Black Tot Day, we probably won’t have the British and American Navy for another interesting cocktail.


28th July 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Cucumber & Thyme Spritz

As we have finally hit summer with the temperatures hitting 33 degrees, it was time to find a refreshing drink for this week’s cocktail of the week.  Once again taking inspiration from the garden, where our cucumber plant has just started to flower, and the spirits we have in the cupboard we stumbled on a Cucumber and Thyme spritz.

This is not your usual cocktail combination, but that is the joy of cocktails, a little bit of experimentation. It is also one of the things Calum enjoys about cooking.  Needless to say, experimentation does not always work, but it does give you some great and, sometimes, surprising results. The only thing to remember when you are experimenting is to write down what you do, if you don’t and it turns out great, you won’t be able to recreate it!  We found this drink on belvederevodka.com and thought it was a good use of the ingredients we are growing in the garden and an opportunity to use up some more of the vodka collection Calum has amassed over the years!

For this weeks cocktail, you will need:

  • One measure of dry vermouth
  • One measure of vodka (as we used a Belvedere recipe, we thought it right to use Belvedere)
  • Soda water
  • Tonic water
  • Three ribbons of cucumber
  • One sprig of thyme
  • Ice

To create the drink, place the tall glass you intend to use in the fridge to chill them.  Take the cucumber and peel across the length to create the ribbons. Take the glass from the fridge and place the cucumber and thyme in the glass followed by a handful of ice.  Pour in the measure of dry vermouth, the measure of vodka and use equal parts of tonic water and soda water to fill the glass. Once full, give the mix a little stir and there you have this weeks cocktail, a Cucumber and Thyme Spritz.

We found the cocktail to be a good savoury drink, if a little drier than we normally would like.  It is certainly a summer drink to enjoy on a hot afternoon to keep your sprits up when drinking cocktails!

Cucumber & Thyme Spritz

<Orchard Blog | Cucumber & Thyme Spritz/div>

21st July 2016
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Cocktail of the Week | Firework

Digging in the drinks cabinet we found more vodka! Calum seems to have been on a vodka shopping spree at some point. Thankfully, as it is versatile drink, it can be used in a large range of drinks. As it was 4th July weekend in America, it was a must to celebrate with an appropriate cocktail. Looking for a cocktail that was subtle in look to celebrate this weekend was not an easy task, but we did come across a cocktail known as a ‘firework’.

The 4th July, as we know, is the USA Independence Day and celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on the 4th July 1776. As a holiday it is really an excuse to spend time with family and friends. The times Calum has spent there on 4th July it has involved beaches, BBQs and fireworks. So what better way to try out this as the cocktail of the week.

For this week’s cocktail, you will need:

  • Ice
  • 1 measure Vodka
  • Handful of cherries (pitted)
  • ½ a lime
  • ½ Measure of sugar syrup

Start by putting the cherries, lime and sugar syrup into a cocktail mixer and muddle them together. If you don’t have a muddle, the back of a spoon will work. Once the fruit is mushed add the vodka and some ice, then the lid and shake. Once you have a cooled liquid, strain the mix in to two glasses getting as little of the fruit pulp in the glass.

This was a sweet cocktail that would have probably been better with pepper vodka to cut through the sweetness and give it some fire, but as a single glass to toast a day of celebration, it works as our cocktail of the week.

It only leaves us one thing to say! Happy 240th Birthday America!

Firework

Orchard Blog | Firework
7th July 2016
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