Election Night

It’s Election Day in the UK and while voters shuffle to the polls to put a cross in a box and thus become entitled to complain about the Government for the next five years, The Times asked Luca Corradini, bartender at The American Bar at The Savoy to create a drink for each of the main UK parties.

As several Election Night traditions revolve around waiting up for the results and toasting the demise of some of the best-loathed members of the political establishment we provide reviews of each below and, with a nod to the democratic spirit of the day, give you the chance to vote for your favourite.

A General Election of booze – what’s not to like?

Conservatives

As the largest party in the Government that has run Britain for the last five years, the Tory drink is called Current No 10.  A floral gin-based drink with a hint of spice from the Kummel.  Many will find this one difficult to palate.

1. Stir 50ml gin, 15ml creme de violette, 10ml kummel, 10ml Cocchi Americano and a dash of rose water with cubed ice for sixty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with dried lavender.

Labour

The main challenger (at the ballot box at least) and determined to show their leader has what it takes to be taken seriously on the world stage.  The Labour drink is called the Anything But Mili-bland and is a bitter sweet combination of characters, so it’s a relief to see this one end up moderated somewhat with soda water.

1. Shake 50ml vodka, 10ml Campari, 30ml fresh lemon juice and 15ml grenadine with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled highball glass and top with soda water.
3. Garnish with a lemon twist and a raspberry.

Liberal Democrats

Once the darlings of the disaffected, but now battered and bruised by a punishing five year stint as junior coalition members.  Hoping their pleas to be allowed to moderate the extremes of the major parties will encourage the electorate to let them have another go in charge, albeit under close supervision.  The drink, the Señorita tries to appeal to a broad range of tastes, but ends up putting a lot of people off as a result.  Some of its decisions may take a long time to be forgiven.

1. Shake 50ml tequila, 15ml elderflower, 10ml fino sherry, 30ml pineapple juice and 15ml (2:1) pineapple syrup with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a cobbler glass with ice.
3. Garnish with a slice of cucumber and mixed berries.

UKIP

Angling to replace the Liberal Democrats as the protest vote for those disaffected with the ‘old way of doing things’ UKIP advocate a return to a more insular protectionist time when Britain still had an Empire. The Love It Or Hate It shows a nod to this with a combination of dark rum, spice, egg white and pale ale which will make a handful of adherents go crazy, but leave most people mildly disgusted and hoping it will go away.

1. Shake 50ml dark rum, 15ml Grand Marnier, 10ml pimento dram, 20ml fresh lemon juice, 15ml sugar syrup and 10ml egg white with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled pint glass and top with pale ale.
3. Garnish with a small broken meringue.

Green Party

Hoping to build on the breakthrough the made in 2010 winning their first MP the Green party is striving to move away from its single-issue image with some daring economic policies.  The drink appears to be the most attractive of the lot, and as a result is unlikely to garner much attention and will be largely overlooked on a menu of brash extremes.

1. Blend 50ml vodka, 10ml green Chartreuse, 20ml fresh lemon juice, 15ml sugar syrup, four basil leaves, three dashes of absinthe and an egg white and then shake with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with a basil leaf.

SNP

The Scottish Nationalists have been the rising stars of British politics since coming so close to achieving their main aim of secession in the 2014 referendum.  Having dropped their promise to abstain on non-Scottish matters in Westminster they look set to wield real influence in the next Parliament.  This drink, Sturgeon’s Sharper, serves as a reminder of what the UK would lose if Scotland went its own way.  Built on reassuringly familiar foundations, the addition of cacao seems a rash decision, and an unnecessary amount of sugar, which may have far-reaching consequences.

1. Stir 50ml Mortlach 13yo whisky, 20ml Grand Marnier, 15ml creme de cacao and 10ml Cocchi Americano with cubed ice for sixty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with an orange zest.

Plaid Cymru

The Welsh national party is not going to cause as much of a stir on the Westminster stage as the SNP, but a strong showing could eat into the Labour vote and make another Conservative-led coalition more likely. The Red Dragon is a welcoming and quite one.  While cynics may say it is just here to make up the numbers, if they were to look a little more closely they may well be surprised by how much they like what they see.

1. Blend 60ml Penderyn Welsh whisky, 30ml fresh lemon juice, 15ml calvados, 10ml raspberry eau de vie, half an egg white and a small piece of red apple and then shake with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe.
3. Garnish with a dehydrated apple slice.

Now, for the enfranchisement – vote for your favourite below:

Easter Cocktails

Hopefully you’re all on your Easter holidays, so maybe it’s time for the first drink of the long weekend? Here are a few of our Easter favourites, ranging from fresh, floral spring-inspired recipes, through tangential puns to sickly sweet chocolate concoctions.

May the bunny be good to you!

Nutella Negroni (Duck & Waffle)

Equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth and a Nutella infusion stirred, strained and served in a recycled Nutella jar.  A bitter chocolate orange and hazelnut twist on the Italian classic.

Applejack Rabbit (Savoy Cocktail Book)

One for the Fox to chase.  Shake 50ml applejack, 20ml fresh lemon juice, 20ml fresh orange juice and 15ml maple syrup with cubed ice for twenty seconds.  Strain and serve in a chilled coupe glass.  Maybe leave one out for the Easter Bunny?

Easter Spritz (Fox & Beagle)

A long martini style drink with birch vermouth and a mist of Elderflower to welcome the incoming British spring weather. Stir 35ml gin, 15ml Blackdown silver birch dry vermouth with cubed ice for thirty seconds. Strain into a chilled highball glass and top with soda, a barspoon of Orgeat (almond syrup) and a mist of elderflower liqueur.

Milkybar Snowball (Duck & Waffle)

Another special edition from the chaps at the top of the Heron Tower, this features Milkybar infused Advocaat, distilled lemon and sugar finished with a prosecco spritz.  One for the white chocolate fans.

Hot Cross Rum (Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings)

Not just a pretty pun. This modern twist on a classic flip (a rum, egg and sugar concoction ‘flipped’ with a hot red poker). This drink combines dark rum and a home-made hot cross bun syrup which are shaken with a whole egg and finished with a cross of cinnamon.

Gin Fizzes

Ramos Gin Fizz by ReeseCLloyd, some rights reserved

The Fizz Family is an extension of another famous cocktail family; the Sours. For every Sour there is a Fizz, and for every Fizz there is a Sour, it’s just that for some spirits one is usually more successful than the other. That is why we find the Gin Fizz and not the Gin Sour, and the Whiskey Sour but not the Whiskey Fizz on the list of all time classic mixed drinks.

A Fizz, in its simplest form, is just a Sour with the lengthening addition of soda water. A creation of the late nineteenth century, when mixed drinks began to emerge from the bittered sling category and include some of the first variants that allowed them to be considered, long, cooling, refreshing drinks.

The Gin Fizz opens itself up to a number of variations, but we start with the basic:

1. Shake 50ml gin, 25ml fresh lemon juice 12.5ml of sugar syrup with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Double strain into a chilled highball glass (without ice) and top with soda water.
3. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint.

The Ramos Gin Fizz, however, is anything but basic, and also requires you to have some time on your hands.  For a start it includes a number of controversial ingredients (orange flower water?  Heavy cream?) and then it comes with the firm instruction to shake for no less than twelve minutes.  It is not a drink to make if you are concerned about dying of thirst.

Invented in New Orleans in 1888 by barman Henry Ramos it is a silky smooth concoction which, if made to the exact recipe is a perfectly balanced masterpiece finished in ostentatious and labour-intensive style:

1. Shake 50ml gin, 25ml double cream, 12.5ml egg white, 15ml fresh lime juice, 10ml fresh lemon juice, 12.5ml sugar syrup and a barspoon of orange flower water with cubed ice for no less than twelve (12!) minutes.
2. Double strain into a chilled highball glass (without ice).
3. Garnish with a slice of lemon.

Or, if you want a halfway house and don’t have an army of shaker boys or twelve minutes to wait, try the Elder-Gin Fizz, a British summer time classic:

1. Shake 25ml gin, 25ml elderflower liqueur, 12.5ml simple syrup, 12.5ml fresh lemon juice and 12.5ml egg white with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain back into the shaker and dry shake (without ice) for a further ten seconds.
3. Double strain into a chilled highball glass (without ice)
4. Garnish with a slice of lemon.

Rusty Nail

Photo courtesy of Clearly Ambiguous, some rights reserved

Rugby and drinking go hand in hand, and you need look no further than The Famous Grouse’s long association with the Scottish national team to know that whisky and rugby are a natural combination.

My early rugby watching was done in sunny south London rather than the frozen north, so rugby for me was always associated with beer.  Normally the warm flat stuff that men with beards drink – remember the Tetley’s Bitter Cup and Greene King as ‘official beer’ of the England rugby team?   Even when I moved north, much of my rugby watching was accompanied by a plastic pint cup of lager for the Heineken Cup and occasionally Magners for the Celtic League, at least in part for its prominance on the shirts of Edinburgh and London Wasps in the mid-2000s.

Since then however, I have wrapped up warm for enough afternoons and evenings at Murrayfield and one particularly chilly November day on the Aberdeenshire coast where even the players came out to warm up in tin foil coats under sleeping bags.  As a result I have developed an appreciative understanding of the use of the hip flask and the variety of concoctions it can contain.

The obvious choice for the hip flask is straight whisky, but with tastes differing so much from person to person as you pass it down a row of seats, it’s far safer to mellow the whisky with the addition of a drop of Drambuie, the ‘satisfying’ blend of malt whisky, honey, herbs and spices that was supposedly gifted to the Clan MacKinnon by Bonnie Prince Charlie after a hard day at Culloden in 1746.

Rusty Nail

The original version of the Nail actually dates from the golden sands of Hawaii in the 1940s and not the West Stand at Murrayfield on St Patrick’s Day 1990.  Much like the Dry Martini, purists can argue for days about the ratio of whisky to Drambuie, but 3:1 is just about standard for your hip flask.  It can also be served up, or over crushed ice as follows:

1. Fill an old fashioned glass with crushed ice.
2. Add a large measure of scotch whisky (traditionally a blend, but feel free to experiment) and a measure of Drambuie.
3. Stir gently until frost forms on the outside of the glass.
4. Garnish with a twist of lemon peel.

Royal Nail

The Royal Nail is a luxurious alternative to the Rusty Nail, described by its creator, Simon Difford, as ‘two British Royals bittered by a yank’.  It forgoes the Drambuie, uses Peychaud’s bitters for its mellowing, blending effect and was a staple of my hip flask during this summer’s wedding season.  The Royal Nail can also be found ‘straight up’, but is more commonly served over ice:

1. Add a large measure of premium blended whisky, a measure of Islay whisky and a single sploosh of Peychaud’s to a mixing glass.
2. Fill the mixing glass with ice and stir well.
3. Strain into an old fashioned glass over ice and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Galvanised Nail

The Galvanised Nail uses Drambuie, apple, lemon and elderflower to smooth the edges of the Scotch.  Another Simon Difford creation, dating from 2003, it is usually served up:

1. Add a large measure of blended whisky, half a measure of Drambuie, half a measure of apple juice, a quarter measure of elderflower liqueur and a quarter measure of lemon juice to a shaker.
2. Fill with ice and shake well.
3. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a twist of lemon.

Cajun Nail

The Cajun Nail is a mix between the Sazerac and the Rusty Nail, which uses whiskey instead of whisky, ramps up the Drambuie content and gives us another chance to practice our Absinthe Rinse.  The Cajun Nail is best served over ice:

1. Fill an old fashioned glass with ice, add half a measure of absinthe and top up with water.
2. Add a large measure of whiskey, a large measure of Drambuie and three splooshes each of Angostura and Peychaud’s to a mixing glass.
3. Fill with ice and stir well.
4. Discard the absinthe water and ice (offer them to your customer separately if you wish).
5. Strain into the absinthe rinsed glass over fresh ice and garnish with the oil from a twist of lemon, but discard the peel.