Missoni Hotel Edinburgh

Went to the Missoni Hotel Bar Edinburgh on Friday night for a couple of cocktails after swinging by Villager. It is quite possibly the coolest looking place I have ever been in; a 'Luxury Unique Design Hotel', it features crazy patterns and odd furniture all over the place. I absolutely love it, the only thing I struggle with is the high, high price of some of the cocktails. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand how and why they can charge over £10 for a cocktail, but I think given the level of innovation, quality of ingredients etc £8 would be more acceptable. That said, I did spy a Tanqueray Ten Martini for about £8, so perhaps all is not lost financially!

My Biennale was superb, high quality home made fig and vanilla conserve topped with Prosecco for (if memory serves correctly, which I'll be honest it will not after the rest of that night...) was around £7.

The staff are fantastic, all smiles, manners and attentiveness. Even when I asked for a glass of water it was crafted rather than made, shaken for instant chill and with a carved oval of cucumber. This is what Edinburgh has been missing, a style bar that includes its customers in its coolness. Every table was full and most of the seats around the bar were taken, yet with 6 staff on the wait was never lengthy, we were given wee nibbles to enjoy whilst our drinks were being made, and I didn't spy a single dirty glass in the whole bar.

Hats off to you, Missoni - You are a shining example for Edinburgh style bars, and I for one wish they would catch up soon.

Much Love,

Tom x

Mulata Daisy

What a beauty. Created by Agostino Perrone (Head Mixologist, The Connaught, London), this one is a very, very nice twist on a classic. It was the UK 2010 Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition Ultimate Winner, the same comp that launched the sick videos I mentioned last time.

"The first impression that you get of my drink is of the generous and sensual curves of the glass dusted with the powdered chocolate.
This is where the name comes from; it takes me straight to a sun-drenched Cuban street where I see a beautiful Latina flower seller walking past swinging her hips.
The rich dark chocolate liqueur blends with the vanilla sweetness of the rum, but it is the light nutty aniseed of the fennel where the drink really comes to life. This gives it depth and intrigue, with the floral-herbal notes of the Galliano teasing out the finish.
The glass is like a basket of flowers held high, with the most wonderful and seductive bouquet of aromas that you cannot help but follow. Just like the girl."

Phwoar. You smooth bastard Agostino. Here's the recipe listed on the website; if this doesn't get you excited wait till you've seen him make it....I think it's his accent but I've never heard anyone make a drink sound this good...

• 40 ml BACARDI Superior rum
• 25 ml Crème de cacao dark
• 20 ml lime juice
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 10 ml Galliano L’Autentico
   

Step 1 - Dust the rim of a coupe glass with chocolate powder and carefully rinse it with the Galliano L’Autentico

Step 2 - In a shaker muddle the fennel seeds 

Step 3 - Add the other ingredients with cubed ice
Step 4 - Shake hard and fine-strain into the glass

I'm off for a cheeky drink at The Meadows Hotel, will definitely be asking my friend to make me one of these!


Much Love,


Tom x

True Originals

True Originals is the new campaign from Bacardi, promoting their 'Legacy' cocktail competition. After sifting through the obvious entries and user uploaded videos, you'll eventually come across some of the advertisement videos featuring various mythical cocktail legends demonstrating their takes on classic cocktails. I absolutely love these four videos, they literally give me goosebumps. 

No.1 is the epitome of Japanese cool, The Samurai. The Samurai pours the perfect simple Daiquiri for our slightly evil looking narrator, and is rewarded with a black and red coin I presume is an invite to some super-awesome competition, like Mortal Kombat but for cocktails. Mortal Cockbat perhaps.

No.2 is my latest crush, The Hummingbird. Her challenge is a Pina Colada, which she dispatches with ease. She too earns her multi-colour poker chip. I have little else to say here, the bar looks similar to where I work, but with more beautiful people.

On to No.3 then, and our sinister host (who it has just hit me looks kind of like a sleazier, more Spanish version of the bad guy in X-men: Wolverine) makes his way to foggy London town, correctly represented as a medieval farming commune. In The Apothecary he challenges the bartender/farmer to make him a Mojito; of course to be an original with this drink he really has to pull out all the stops. Apart from stressing the use of 'not just any mint, it has to be Yerba Buena' (which you can read more about in my previous posts!) I was most struck by the idea of using Australian eucalyptus leaves as a base before adding the usual mix. Can't even begin to fathom what it would taste like but I have no doubt it would be awesome.

And finally No.4, the biggest Lad I've seen in a while, The Outsider. It's a Cuba Libre Jim, but not delivered like we know it.

Take me now, you beautiful beautiful man. Well teach me how to be so bloody cool at least, love making can wait.

Hats off to Bacardi for some seriously awesome marketing here, I really hope these videos become well known in UK bartending circles.

Before you go, watch The Outsider video again. Hell yeah.

Much Love,

Tom x

The Caipirinha...

Bom dia e boas-vindas! Good day and welcome!

Yeah that’s pretty much the whole of my Portuguese vocabulary. Apart from ‘espetada de frango’, which means ‘chicken kebab’. Got the basics covered then. But why, I hear you ask, are you talking in Portuguese?! A fair question indeed. Well today’s cocktail is from Brazil, home of beautiful football, beautiful women, and beautiful Caipirinhas! 

The Brazilian national drink, the Caipirinha, is a pretty simple cocktail, using pretty simple ingredients. The base spirit is cachaça, added to muddled limes and sugar. The key ingredient here is the unique cachaça; a spirit very similar to rum (derived from sugar cane), although most rums use molasses. As such it is the spirit of the Brazilian peasantry, mixed into caipirinhas and consumed on a daily basis. As is becoming tradition, I like to use the International Bartenders Association official cocktail list to get the basic recipe down. The Caipirinha is listed under ‘Popular Drinks’ –

CAIPIRINHA - (old fashioned glass)
5.0 cl.Cachaça
1/2 Fresh Lime cut into 4 wedges
2 teaspoons sugar
Place lime and sugar into old fashioned glass & muddle. Filled glass with ice and add Cachaça.
(Note: Caipiroska - instead of Cachaça use Vodka)

The name is most likely taken from the Portuguese word ‘caipira’, which my translator tells me means ‘yokel’, or ‘country folk’ – which obviously makes a lot of sense given the drinks background in the poverty stricken communities of Brazil, using native produced ingredients.

As we already know the spirit used is cachaça, so I should probably give you a little more info on this surprisingly uncommon (in the UK at least) spirit.

Cachaça (ka-SHAH-sa) is made from fresh-pressed cane juice fermented and distilled, and can only come from Brazil. Interestingly, despite being the third most consumed spirit in the world the USA has laws defining all sugar based spirits as Rum, so cachaça imported into the US must have the label ‘rum’ somewhere on it – brands get around this using the moniker ‘Brazilian Rum’. There is a growing campaign to ‘Legalize Cachaça’, asking the trade bureau to recognise the spirit as separate to rum (an almost insulting idea as cachaça predates rum by well over 100 years).

Sagatiba is probably the most common cachaça in the UK at the moment, however my eye has been caught by Leblon, not least due to the wide and varied selection of innovative cocktails showcased on their site. Their cachaça was awarded a Gold Medal at the Annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, a 5-consecutive-year run, which is a first for any cachaça. It was also named "Top Cachaça" by a judging panel of influential spirits industry professionals in the U.S. Not bad for a brand that was only formed in 2005!

And for those of you that like the tasting notes...

‘Leblon traps a tequila-like nose with transparent fruity and herbal notes and undertones of vanilla. The full-bodied palate is smooth with complex layers of citrus, vanilla, pepper and the most subtle oak. For such a lively spirit, the warm, velvety finish is a lasting surprise.'

So there you have it, a simple summer cocktail straight from Brazil into your lovely minds via me. On a separate note, I’ll be back in Edinburgh in less than 48 hours, meaning I can get back in the bar and taking pictures for you! Till next time...

Much Love,

Tom x

Ps. Whilst reading up for this article I learned that in 1808 the capital of Portugal was in fact... Rio De Janeiro. Which is in Brazil. Follow the link for a big long historical explanation courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Mojito

Hello once again! I'm back from the depths of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, and am now relaxing in beautiful Yorkshire. Good times. This post has got a little bit out of hand; I said I wouldn't do such gigantic posts regularly, yet here it is... Next time, I promise it will be short and sweet, filled with much more of my usual wit and charm, and less clunky history and recipes.

The Mojito...

 

The Mojito is a traditional Cuban highball, made famous by Ernest Hemingway and finding increasing popularity amongst young people seeking a refreshing summer drink. As usual, we’ll start by checking the International Bartenders Association spec to get an idea of the standardised Mojito - 

IBA recipe - MOJITO (highball glass ) (popular cocktail) -
4.0 cl White Rum
3.0 cl Fresh lime juice
3 sprigs of Mint
2 teaspoons Sugar
Soda Water
Muddle mint sprigs with sugar and lime juice. Add rum and top with soda water. Garnish with sprig of mint leaves. Serve with straw.

The preparation of these ingredients is slightly different to the average ‘build and shake’ cocktail, due to a technique called ‘muddling’. The generic Mojito is made by adding lime juice/wedges, sugar/syrup and mint to a glass and muddling gently to release the essential oils and increase the aroma of the mint. The rum is then added, followed by crushed ice and soda water to top. Mint sprigs and lime wedges can be used as garnishes. 

The best way to learn how to make a traditional Cuban Mojito is to visit the interactive Havana Club Website. This very impressive site features sections on events, music, heritage, rums, cocktails, mojitos and a bartender’s guide. Browsing this site makes me happy, the chilled out Latin music with slick presentation on rum based cocktails is my idea of internet heaven! Hopefully next summer will hold a cheeky trip across the world to Cuba, fingers crossed...

ANYWAY, on our quest for Mojito based knowledge we can do worse than check out Havana’s video tutorial from the Bodeguita del Medio (the Havana bar famous for keeping Ernest Hemingway constantly half-inebriated).

From 1942, Hemingway would swing by for Mojito nearly every day, and as a result La Bodeguita still has his handwritten message to the bar on their wall; the now famous expression, ‘My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita’. As the bars fame spread, its clientele grew more distinguished; Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole, Ava Gardner, and more recently Mohammed Ali and Naomi Campbell. Wherever and however the Mojito originated, it is now almost impossible to separate it, La Bodeguita, and the prestige the two share.

I’ve noted down the Havana Club recipe from the tutorial here -

 2 teaspoons white sugar

Half a lime/lemon juice, enough to cover all sugar

2 mint sprigs

9cl sparkling water (2 parts)

Muddle

4.5cl Havana 3

4 ice cubes (1part)

Stir well.

Everybody knows the Mojito is from Cuba, but very few of us have any idea how exactly it was created. One story that seems to be most popular is the ‘El Draque’.

A 16^th century cocktail called ‘El Draque’ (or sometimes a ‘Draquecito’) is very similar to our Mojito, and is fact named in honour of Captain Sir Francis Drake. The key ingredient here was actually aguardiente, a very primitive ancestor of modern day rum, closer to cachaca. To hide the harsh taste of this rather unrefined spirit, and also possibly in keeping with sailors anti-scurvy techniques, large amounts of lime and mint were added. Around 1650, rum became more widely available to the British, and it replaced aguardiente in El Draque. At some point between then and now, this concoction became known as the Mojito.

The Bacardi Mojito website also tells this story in detail, explaining that in 1586 Francis Drake headed the British fleet, and during these adventures, his subordinate Richard Drake invented the ‘Draque’ cocktail. They point out it was served with a wooden spoon, and was consumed mainly for medicinal purposes.  1833 and 1868 saw serious cholera outbreaks in Havana, and Bacardi claim ‘narrator Ramon De Paula’ wrote “Every day at eleven o’clock I consume a little Draque made from aguardiente and I am doing very well”. Admittedly, a little research on Mr De Paula grants us nothing but recycled Bacardi website quotes, but we can imagine the Spanish elite relying on this mix of vitamin C and alcohol-sterilised water to keep cholera at bay.

The website goes on to claim that in the mid 1800s, around the time Don Facundo Bacardi Masso established the Bacardi Company, the Draque recipe was changed to include rum. This is what we now call the Mojito.

This last claim is at odds with other accounts of the Draque/Mojito transition, and to be honest may well be clever marketing by Bacardi to further monopolise the Mojito market. (Thanks to the Bacardi Mojito tent at ‘T In The Park’ festival, my summer masterclasses are full of people berating me for not using ‘proper’ rum in my mojitos and telling me proper mojitos aren’t muddled...)

The Draque story at least is given weight by the wikibook on bartending; their page on Mojitos cites the Draquecito as an early influence, saying ‘The mojito is a descendant of the Draquecito, named after Sir Francis Drake and said to be his favourite drink before pirate battles. That drink is made with aguardiente rather than rum, and uses water instead of ice and soda, neither of which would have been available to Drake on the high seas.’

Even the name of the Mojito is a subject of contention. One theory is that Mojito is a derivative of ‘mojadito’, Spanish for "a little wet", or simply of "mojado" (wet). Whilst possible due its Spanish/Cuban linguistic roots, I’m not entirely sure that what defines this cocktail amongst others is the fact it is ‘a little wet’. Slightly more believable is the claim that mojito is an extension of ‘mojo’, a Cuban seasoning made from lime and used to flavour dishes. The translation I have heard from a few bartenders recently is that ‘Mojito’ is taken from an African Tribal language word – ‘mojo’, meaning, ‘to cast a little spell’. I think this is my favourite, although that is probably based more on the magical connotations (and in part due to Austin Powers’s references to his mojo) than any tangible proof.

On to the variations then. Every cocktail has them, and the mojito is no exception.

Firstly, I found out quite recently that due to a long standing trade embargo on Cuban/American exchanges, Cuban rum cannot (legally) be purchased in the United States. I guess this means Mojitos in the states just use other white rums?

Also worth noting is that the drink is also spelled Mohito and Moxito in certain areas of Cuba – I believe this has the same or very similar pronunciation.

For the increasingly popular fruit flavoured mojitos, use fruit purees or fruit flavoured vodkas and rums. Raspberry, mango, strawberry, lychee or mandarin, are often used.

Here are a few more twists on the original, some from bars I’ve worked in, bars I’ve been in, some from my own noggin, from my friend’s noggins; really just a quick overview of what can be done with the Mojito premise.

Firstly, probably the most popular commercial variation in Britain is the Bison Grass Mojito. You might not think you’ve had it, but read on. This mojito was created by the Vodka Revolution bar chain in the UK, as until last year their menu policy restricted them to vodka based cocktails. As a result, customers ordering Mojitos were just given Revolution’s twist. I will not have a bad word said about this cocktail, it’s one of the most refreshing mojitos I’ve ever had! The recipe is explained in this article - 

3 tsp Demerara sugar/15ml gomme syrup, 8-10 fresh mint leaves, and 5 lime slices all muddled in a glass.

Then add half the ice, 25ml Havana Club Rum, 25 ml Zubrowka Vodka and 50ml apple juice.

Shake, add the rest of the ice and mint sprig to garnish.

Another twist some female friends were experimenting with was simply replacing standard rum with Malibu (or Koko Kanu), and replacing soda with either lemonade or pineapple juice. This can be a little sweet, so I would perhaps recommend not using sugar in this one. On the topic of flavoured rums, Sailor Jerry’s Spiced Rum has a very distinctive flavour that is only complemented by the mojito base. I like to give a nod toward the Dark and Stormy cocktail by combining dark/spiced rum like Jerry’s with ginger beer and a mojito base. The flavour is quite unique, refreshing yet layered due to the medium sweet nose filled with vanilla and oak. The sharpness of the mint is countered perfectly by the cinnamon and clove flavours of the rum.

Banyan in Harrogate used to do a Gingerbread Mojito; although it doesn’t seem to be on the menu any more I’m sure any bartender that remembers it won’t object to making one. From what I could gather it involved the usual mint, lime, sugar combo, then a spiced rum, half a teaspoon of cinnamon, topped with lemonade or soda. It tasted like gingerbread men, and this impresses me. Although to be fair that night a lot of things impressed me, hence why I’m a little hazy on the recipe.

Another nice twist is the fairly obvious Raspberry & Pear Mojito. This recipe is taken from 56 North, not because I think they invented it, but because it’s the last place I had one.  Their fun menu lists this one as ‘Bacardi, Xante cognac, fresh mint, raspberries and limes over cracked ice refreshed with a splash of soda water’. This is perfect for those warm summer days when 56 opens its window/door things onto the pavement, relaxing on their comfy leather sofas.

Whilst we’re here I should probably mention rum a little bit. As you’ve probably gathered, Mojitos don’t really require top quality rum, but if you want to experiment a little more with rum then simply Bacardi Superior and Havana 3 Anos probably won’t cut it.

So first off, an interesting little number from Venezuala. Pampero (owned by the prestigious Diageo Company), is a good quality blended rum. It comes with the somewhat extraneous accolade of being Venezuela’s best selling rum, and is rich, sweet and concentrated with flavours of ripe orange and pure sugar cane. Previously little known, it is slowly making its mark on the European market with great popularity in Italy and Spain. As far as I’m aware it’s a house pour for a couple of bars in Edinburgh now, namely Below Stairs/Hawke and Hunter and possibly Amicus Apple, but don’t hold me to that.

A notable sister of this rum includes the slightly less classy Captain Morgan’s/Morgan’s Spiced rums. Their website actually includes a recipe for a ‘Jamaican Mule’, which is pretty much a Dark and Stormy, and also a ‘Spiced Mojito’, which simply substitutes white rum for their spiced rum.

If Pampero is the middle class young undergraduate of the family, and Morgan’s is the slightly slutty 16 year old sister, then Ron Zacapa is most definitely the distinguished, qualified accountant older brother of the family.

Ron Zacapa hails from Guatemala and is famous for being the rum ‘aged in the town above the clouds’. It’s also famous for producing (as of yet) four dark super-premium rums ranging from £50 to £100. Here’s what the judges of The International Cane Spirits Festival 2007 had to say about the Ron Zacapa Centenario Rum Sistema Solera 23 (near the bottom of the range) -

‘Nose full of apricots, citrus fruits, vanilla, cocoa and bourbon; rich and full-bodied with spicy chocolate flavours and a pleasing tannic bite; very long finish, clean and rich with a lovely liqueur-like density.

Award: Gold Medal, Best In Category (Aged Rums 15+ Years Old)’

Not bad.

Obviously Zacapa and other ultra premium aged rums are meant to be drunk neat or on the rocks rather than mixed in mojitos, but since we’re on the topic I thought I’d share them with you!

Thats it for this week, and thanks for stopping by yet again to listen to my ramblings once again. I hope this has made you yearn for refreshing Mojito at your local cocktail bar (and I do mean cocktail bar, not pub or regular bar...) over the summer!

Next post will be when I’m back in Edinburgh; hopefully I can include either something I’ve thought of, or a local gem.

Till next time,

Much Love, Tom x

The Banoffee Martini

As promised in my last post, this special wee cocktail needs a quick mention. And as I have a couple of weeks before I go away to Croatia/Montenegro/Serbia for a couple of weeks (I know, get me with the travel – EXIT BABY!!), I thought I’d go back to the original idea of doing smaller posts about cocktails I find interesting.

So this one is from Edinburgh’s own ‘Villager’, on George IV Bridge. For those of you familiar with Edinburgh cocktail bars; this place is owned by Blue Steel, the same three guys that used to own Dragonfly on the grass market, and now operate The Voodoo Rooms on West Register Street.

According to The List, Villager opened in 2003 and has been serving quality food and exciting drinks ever since. I love to go either for some mid afternoon grub or early evening cocktails; the food menu boasts both classics and oddities such as the Vodka Martini mussels, all served with a carafe of water filled with large slices of (if I remember correctly) watermelon and/or cucumber. Easily entertained I may be, but that is pretty cool.

Their cocktail menu is our main concern, and trust me it does not disappoint. As you probably gathered, I like things that are a little bit clever, different, stylish  - and Villager’s menu, divided into self-explanatory sections such as ‘Man drinks’ is certainly all of the above. The Banoffee Martini is in the ‘Decadent’ section, fairly obvious why.

Here’s the recipe (thanks to Kyles at Villager/Blue Steel  for emailing me this).....

Villager Banoffee Martini (cocktail glass)

25ml Absolut Vanilia

12.5ml Crème de Bananes

12.5ml Techienne Butterscotch

1 barspoon Maple Syrup

25ml Half and Half (milk and cream)

1/3 of a banana

Muddle 1/3 banana in shaker tin, add ice and remaining ingredients. Shake vigorously, and double strain in a chilled martini glass. Garnish with chocolate dusting, and a slice of banana.

I'm actually struggling to actually describe the taste without sounding like an idiot - it tastes of banana....but a bit like toffee....kind of like...banoffee..? It is simply sublime; the thick creamy texture is perfectly reminiscent of its pie-related namesake, the banana flavour strong, and the maple syrup satisfying any sweet tooth. I think what impresses me most is simply how accurate in taste it is, it has to be seen (or drunk) to be believed. On top of that, muddled bananas and maple syrup aren't exactly the first things you reach for when thinking of cocktails. Make sure you pop into Villager and get acquainted with one some time soon.

Here's a not particularly good photo by myself of said cocktail -

The Banoffee Martini

For a little more insight into Villager’s origins, see THIS INTERVIEW with the founders by Alice Whitehead.

Thanks for tuning in again, hope I've inspired you to go out and find some exciting creations for yourself!

Much love, 
Tom x

The Margarita

This bumper length post is to keep you all going for a couple of weeks as I jet off to Portugal in a few days. Don’t expect this epic amount of essay every week, mainly because other than on Mojitos I’m not even sure I could write this much every week! 

Without further ado....The Margarita...

The Margarita generally consists of tequila mixed with orange-flavoured liqueur and lime or lemon juice, often served with salt on the glass rim. It can be served in a variety of ways; probably most commonly either straight up, blended with ice (frozen margarita), or on the rocks (this is more common in the USA than UK). As with any cocktail there are literally thousands of different recipes around, so I like to check the International Bartenders Association website for a standardised starting point. They tend to be very good at keeping their ‘classics’ recipes simple, a rarity on the web! Although having said that their ratio is 7:4:3; I’m sure it tastes awesome but I prefer slightly stronger and less sour 2:1:1!

They list the Margarita as a ‘Pre-Dinner Cocktail’, making it sound jolly civilised indeed, and give the following recipe -

MARGARITA Pre dinner (cocktail glass)
3.5cl Tequila
2.0 cl Cointreau
1.5 cl Fresh lemon or lime juice
Pour all ingredients into shaker with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain into chilled cocktail glass rimmed with crusted salt.
(Fruit Margarita - blend selected fruit with the above recipe)

Whilst we’re on the topic of tequila, I’d like to quickly dispel a myth I hear in my masterclasses literally every week -  brought to you by Jose Cuervo Tequila – ‘‘Why is there a worm in my Tequila bottle?
THERE ISN’T. What you have is not a bottle of Tequila. The worm is found only in certain bottles of mezcal. The worm is nothing but a marketing gimmick!’’

And the definition of tequila, if you were wondering - , ‘According to the DOT (Declaration for the Protection of the Denomination of Origin—this is the Mexican law that oversees the protection of Tequila), only alcoholic beverages made with Blue Agave or agave azul (Agave Tequilana Weber blue variety) grown in the states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, Guanajuato and Tamaulipas can be labelled as Tequila.’ (http://www.cuervo.com/tequila_facts/)

Back to Margaritas however, and of course there are many stories about how they were invented. Many involve people creating it ‘by accident’, a couple are attributed to barmen naming their creations after celebrities (Peggy Lee and Rita Hayworth; both real names Margaret; , Marjorie King, to name a few), and the one I believe to a certain extent attributes it to a 1940s socialite.

Marjorie King is said to have inspired a certain Danny Herrara of the Riviera del Pacifico Hotel to create the Margarita due to her inability to drink pretty much anything from what I can gather! Apparently the only spirit she could drink was tequila, yet hated the taste of it neat (awkward if you ask me), which prompted Herrera to experiment with different combinations of flavours until he created one she liked – The Margarita.

The next story is one that I think is a bit more credible, especially as it has a specific recipe to go with it. It’s also the recipe I tend to use for its simplicity.

Margaret Sames threw fantastic parties in her Acapulco retreat, filled with socialites and important people in the hotel and restaurant businesses. At one of her winter parties in 1948 (and here the story divides) she either – a) was asked for a martini but ran out of the right ingredients and had to improvise something with what she had left, b) invited guests behind the bar to create their own drinks, one such produced became the Margarita, or c) was a genius and deliberately created this for her guests. It doesn’t really matter, the point is somehow the Margarita was created. Her measurements were a 2:1:1 ratio - 50% tequila, 25% Cointreau, 25% fresh lime juice.

This is as much a learning curve for me as you guys; obviously I have a firm grasp of the basics and a little more, but researching these articles lets me find out things I never knew. Such as pretty much every premium tequila brand website features recipes that are very heavy on the sour mix element as opposed to the tequila (surprisingly).

The Jose Cuervo website suggests a ‘Jose Cuervo Tradicional Margarita’ –

1 oz. Jose Cuervo Tradicional®
2 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier®
1/2 cup ice (or more)
Salt
Lime wedge

Sauza Tequila’s website also suggests a weaker margarita than I make; with one part tequila, ¾ part triple sec, and one part sweet and sour mix. I must admit I haven’t tried their tequila so shouldn’t comment on the recipe but I expect this yields a somewhat softer Margarita due to the comparatively large amount of both lemon/lime and sugar.

El Jimador (named after the farmers that harvest the agave) doesn’t buck the trend here, although the homepage has such good music it makes you want to elope to Mexico with the nearest person, but I digress. More interestingly, it has a recipe straight after my own heart. As anyone that knows me will tell you, my food is covered in hot sauces and spices of every kind, my regular drinks are recklessly sour. And when I’m the mood for a proper drink, the tequila shots come out. So I’m somewhat ashamed of myself for not thinking of this one; a simple Margarita, heavy on the lime, with a few drops of Tabasco. I’m definitely going to give this one a try, and in the name of science will be making one with my favourite sauce at the moment (it changes regularly), Encona West Indian Original Hot Pepper Sauce. Will have to let you know how that one goes; I’m thinking it will either be most excellent or rather dreadful. Fingers crossed then.

Another wee experiment I intend to undertake is with my favourite spirit right now; Patron Cafe, a coffee flavoured tequila. It’s awesome tasting, and looks cool because its jet black. What’s not to like? And, as fine gentleman from Edinburgh’s Amicus Apple told me, it’s owned by the same people as Ultimat vodka and Pyrat rum (potentially more on rum stuff next week). Website is a bit naff though....fantastic selection of cocktails, just hard to navigate. And not many simple margaritas, which is what I wanted to look at. Swing by though, and grab a bottle of either the Silver or Cafe XO. - http://patrontequila.com/

Finally, a massive shout out to the boys at Tonic on North Castle Street, Edinburgh for creating a truly fantastic, and innovative Margarita. I’ll try obtain the recipe for next time, but the focal point is the theatrical burning of a rosemary sprig with a blowtorch on the bartop...impressive. A cute glass mug is smoked using the burning rosemary, then filled with a small iceburg, followed by a sharp silver Margarita. Fighting with Villager’s Banoffee Martini (more on this one in the future I assure you!) for one of the cleverest and best tasting cocktails I’ve had in Edinburgh.

 

Much Love,

Tom x

PS. Have a quick LOL on me ;) - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375488/Toddler-accidentally-served-margarita-mix-Applebees.html


EDIT: PHOTOS!

Ok here are some photos from yesterday, featuring a Gold Margarita (my favourite, using Jose Cuervo Especial), the mythical Encona Hot Sauce Margarita, and the incredible Patron Margarita.

Firstly, the Gold Margarita.

The Encona Hot Sauce Margarita.

The Hot Sauce Margarita wasn't quite as successful as I'd hoped in all honesty; half a shot is WAY too much. I put this stuff on everything I eat and still only just finished the cocktail! I do think the flavour (once the burning left your throat) was a good one though, so perhaps just a droplet would make a nice novelty cocktail sometime.

The Patron Margarita.

Oh my word. This one is incredible (if I do say so myself). 50ml Patron, 12.5ml Cointreau, 20ml gomme syrup, 25ml fresh lemon and lime juice, and a few drops of juice squeezed from an orange shaken with ice, then double filtered into a cocktail V glass. Served neat with a flamed orange slice.
I expected this one to be different, and quite good but I honestly didnt expect it to be this good! The rich coffee flavour hits first, and is then tempered by the alcoholic kick and orange undertones.
Here's another picture with the bottle more in focus - 

Patron Cafe Tequila.

Finally a completely unrelated cocktail, just thought I'd put it up because my friend Sarah 'Choccy' Cheung made it as I was pouring tequila everywhere and setting fire to oranges. From what I can gather it was around 20 muddled blueberries, 25ml Sailor Jerry's Rum, 12.5ml Wyborowa Apple Vodka, 25ml gomme syrup and a splash of elderflower cordial shaken with ice and doubled filtered into a cocktail V glass. Served neat sans garnish.

The Choccy Surprise - The surprise being 'Choccy' is the creator and has nothing to do with the flavour. Thanks to Cesca for donating her blueberries!x

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Till next time x

Me with the Hot Sauce, Gold and Patron Margaritas.