I do have the odd drink at home and occasionally even whip up a cocktail. But I have to admit that mixing drinks often feels too much like work on my days off. Now if I really want to unwind on a Sunday it’s by cooking – a creative outlet that many bartenders not only enjoy but often excel at.
Recipes
Drinks
A witch with which to sip By Gary Regan I’ve a witch living not too…
There was a time – not that long ago – when bars were filled with the sound of whirring metal blades blitzing ice and fruit and booze; a time when the cocktail glasses were large, the drinks coloured bright, and the bartender was the boss of the blender.
Tequila. I love it. You love it. Heck, even punters are coming around to its agave spirit goodness be it sipped neat or quaffed in mixed drinks. But for a long time tequila has been viewed as a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to cocktails.
You have six packs of cream charges, a cream canister, a load of fresh berries and all sorts of party supplies like balloons and cocktail parasols. You make a note to ignore the knowing looks you get from the barely post-pubescent checkout guy.
By Gaz Regan. “What do you like to mix with Cynar?” fellow cocktail scribe Warren Bobrow, who writes for the likes of Foodista.com and the Williams-Sonoma blog, asked me recently. And I had to admit that I’d never really fooled around with this Italian aperitif/digestif. It wasn’t entirely off my radar, though.
Vermouth. It’s taken some doing, but bartenders are starting to slosh the stuff around like it’s the 1890s again. It’s a good thing too as it means a mix like the Affinity Cocktail, presented here, might actually get a run.
Happy Repeal Day! Toast the occasion with this classic, the Scofflaw, and be thankful the bars are open tonight.
Aromatic bitters: it is a trickier category for tastings than most, and requires a little more experience as bartender than do other drinks categories. Just as well we were at the Hazy Rose, in Darlinghurst. We sourced a surprise for this the issue, with the Hazy Rose crew among the first bartenders in Australia to get their hands on the Dale DeGroff Pimento Bitters.
Q.F.s, B52s and Slippery Nipples were some of the first drinks I learnt behind the bar whilst pouring pints at a beer barn in south-eastern England. What I wasn’t aware of at the time was that I was making a Parisian café drink popular in mid-19th century America.
It’s probably one of the most common ingredients in classic cocktails, however vermouth is most likely the stuff that you end up cleaning of your bar mats! It hasn’t always been this way, with the Vermouth Cocktail considered quite a hit back in the late 1800s, but sadly today you’ll not often hear, “Barkeep – a wine glass of dry vermouth, chilled and garnished with lemon. Up.” Hopefully however after reading this month’s Trend piece you’ll be more inspired, confident and determined to offer up a vermouth focused cocktail – or tasting flight – to your bar’s tipplers.
We visited the Mayor Bar & Dining in Neutral Bay with these five unique and striking vodkas.