Holiday advice for home bartenders, plus 4 festive cocktailshttps://apnews.com/article/food-drinks-cocktails-holidays-bartending-recipes-b2d7260410a2bfed077b9c51566e2917Currently at the cocktail bar Velvet, at London’s five-star Corinthia hotel, Calabrese goes by the nickname “The Maestro.”
And The Maestro’s advice?
First, choose the right glassware.
“The glass is the star. It’s the canvas of the drink,” he says. So if it looks elegant, things already feel festive.
Next, think about the quality of the ice and how it dilutes the drink.
“Remember, ice is like the heat for the chef when he is cooking,” Calabrese says.
Jake Burger, co-owner of The Distillery, a 19th century pub and gin distillery in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood, says that knowing when to shake and when to stir is something a lot of home mixologists get wrong.
“It’s fun using a cocktail shaker, so people think we should shake everything,” he jokes. But it’s only really needed when using fruit juices, egg whites or cream, he says. Otherwise, stirring is best.
“As a general rule, if all the ingredients are alcoholic, you probably don’t need to shake it,” says Burger. “So as an Englishman, it pains me to say it, but James Bond got it wrong. A martini should definitely be stirred, not shaken.”
Four cocktail recipes:—-
WINTERTIME NEGRONI, from The Distillery
1 ounce London Dry Gin
1 ounce Campari
0.5 ounces sweet vermouth
0.5 ounces sloe gin
Mix ingredients together over ice and stir. Serve over fresh ice and garnish with an orange wedge studded with cloves.
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SCROOGE SOUR, from Common Decency, at The NoMad Hotel London
1 egg white
0.75 ounces simple syrup
0.75 ounces lemon juice
2 ounces Irish whiskey
Pour the egg white into the larger tin of your shaker, and the simple syrup and lemon juice into the smaller tin. Dry shake together in the shaker to emulsify the egg and the alcohol.
Then hard shake with ice and pour over a strainer into your glass.
Add 0.75 ounces mulled wine slowly into the corner of the glass, and then sprinkle edible gold dust over the half of the surface to cover and garnish.
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TRUFFLE SAZERAC, from Velvet, at Corinthia London
0.8 ounces Bourbon
1 ounce Cognac
Homemade truffle syrup (you can make your own by heating a few drops of truffle oil with a teaspoon of sugar)
A few drops of orange bitters
Mix ingredients together over ice and stir. Serve over fresh ice and garnish with a slice of fresh truffle.
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MASON’S CHOCOLATE ORANGE MARTINI
2 ounces chocolate vodka
1 ounce triple sec
Mix ingredients together over ice and stir. Serve in a martini glass and garnish with a chocolate-dipped, candied orange segment.
