A few suggestions for seasonally spooky drinks for this weekend:
Pumpkin Spice Old Fashioned
A flexible syrup to be used in place of simple syrup in your Autumn drinks. Try it in drinks based on dark spirits such as the Old Fashioned, Sazerac or Sidecar:
Add 165g brown sugar and 200g granulated sugar to 350ml of water and stir over a medium heat to dissolve.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves and 85g pumpkin puree and whisk well.
Simmer for eight minutes, stirring occasionally.
Strain through a muslin cloth, add 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract once cool and keep refrigerated for up to three weeks.
Corpse Reviver #2
Appropriately named, but delicious all year round:
Shake 25ml gin, 25ml Lillet Blanc, 25ml Cointreau and 25ml fresh lemon juice with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
Strain into a chilled absinthe-rinsed coupe.
This time of year we like to top this with a thick green absinthe foam, whipped up strong enough to suspend a few spooky jelly sweets.
Nosferatini (Tony Conigliaro, Drink Factory)
Just the right side of disturbing, this is the drink Dracula would make himself after a long night out feeding:
Make a ‘blood solution’ by crushing an iron tablet and adding three teaspoons of red food colouring and one teaspoon of caster sugar. Stir well.
Add 50ml London dry gin and 15ml dry vermouth and stir with ice.
Strain into a chilled martini glass and add two drops of the blood solution.
This year’s Negroni Week recipe comes from Charlie Schott at Parson’s Chicken and Fish in Chicago. Why would anyone not want a boozy slushy with a hit of bitter fruit juice?
Serves two:
Blend 60ml gin, 60ml sweet vermouth, 60ml Campari, 75ml fresh orange juice and 75ml fresh grapefruit juice with ice.
Blend, stir and add more ice until you reach the desired slushiness.
Serve in a chilled highball and garnish with a frozen half orange wheel.
Next up, World Gin Day. Doesn’t it seem unfair that gin just gets a day while negronis get a whole week?
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.
Stir 50ml gin, 15ml creme de violette, 10ml kummel, 10ml Cocchi Americano and a dash of rose water with cubed ice for sixty seconds.
Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
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.
Shake 50ml vodka, 10ml Campari, 30ml fresh lemon juice and 15ml grenadine with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
Strain into a chilled highball glass and top with soda water.
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.
Shake 50ml tequila, 15ml elderflower, 10ml fino sherry, 30ml pineapple juice and 15ml (2:1) pineapple syrup with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
Strain into a cobbler glass with ice.
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.
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.
Strain into a chilled pint glass and top with pale ale.
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.
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.
Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
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.
Stir 50ml Mortlach 13yo whisky, 20ml Grand Marnier, 15ml creme de cacao and 10ml Cocchi Americano with cubed ice for sixty seconds.
Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
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.
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.
Strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with a dehydrated apple slice.
Now, for the enfranchisement – vote for your favourite below:
Whether you overdid it on roast lamb, red wine and Easter eggs yesterday, or whether you are just celebrating Fresh Tomato Day, today’s recipe is the restorative classic Bloody Mary.
Originally made with gin (The Red Snapper), the drink was developed as a hangover cure in Paris in the 1920s. It wasn’t until the 1940s that the spiced vodka version became the dominant hangover or brunch drink that it remains today.
When making a Bloody Mary it is important to resist the temptation to go big on spice and throw in a few pinches of everything hot you can find. That is not going to result in a balanced drink. Instead focus on a few complimentary flavours, add a little at a time and keep tasting until you reach the optimal level of piquancy. As a young barman I used to compete with my colleagues to create the best. (Read hottest) post-shift Bloody Mary. Usually by the time we’d added a dash of the third variety of hot sauce the resultant concoction was painful and I drinkable.
I would, however, recommend the use of a pepper vodka or a homemade horseradish infusion if you’re so inclined.
Shake 50ml vodka (Absolut Peppar or a horseradish infusion if you have one), 100ml tomato juice, 10ml fresh lemon juice, a teaspoon of horseradish, three splooshes of Worcestershire sauce and three splooshes of Tabasco with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
Strain into a chilled highball glass.
Garnish with pepper, a wedge of lime and a stalk of celery.
Fox & Beagle 