A Cocktail A Day: Week 1 in Round Up

Discalaimer: If you are under the legal drinking age in your country scroll past whilst contemplating your underage liver. If you're of legal drinking age remember to never drink on an empty stomach and always drink in moderation. Alcohol is not advised whilst pregnant or breastfeeding, no alcohol was consumed by this nursing mum during this project, and no babies or toddlers were sent down the slippery path to alcoholism. If you need further information or advice don't hesitate to check out https://www.drinkaware.co.uk

I don't get all that much spare time as a mum of a nursing infant and a boisterous toddler, so I have embarked on something that's quite close to my previously nicknamed 'Drunk Girl' roots, making a cocktail a day! Obviously as I'm still nursing it's a bad idea for me to pickle Bel's liver a cocktail at a time, (though I've seen research that indicates a single cocktail will have little effect on my breast milk, I feel this is a time for that 'better safe than sorry' adage) so I'm also trying to make a mocktail alternative each day. I've also been looking into molecular gastronomy, so I'm going to try and add a twist to some of the cocktails I make.

Monday: Sparkler

Today I shall be making a Sparkler. This isn't an official cocktail, but it's on the menu at one of the local University's Student Union owned venues, and I have a bit of a soft spot for it.

The Mocktail

I have to admit, having tasted it, I can't think of a better alternative than to simply pour out a bottle of J2O Glitterberry.

The Cocktail

This is a cocktail served in a martini glass which is an unusual blend of Cointreau and Smirnoff Gold with a little cranberry juice to keep your tonsils intact.

Ingredients

1 shot of Smirnoff Gold

1/2 shot of Cointreau

2 shots of Cranberry juice

juice of 1/2 a lime

Equipment

Boston shaker*

Jigger (or a mug, depends how many people you're serving, and how bad a day you've had)

Ice

Martini glass (or just a tumbler, sippy cup, bowl, some means of serving)

Strainer (not a tea strainer, you want the gold flecks to make it into the glass)

Method

Take the glass half of your tumbler and put all your ingredients apart from the tonic water in, fill the rest of the glass with ice cubes, secure the tin half of your shaker in place and give it a thorough shake (over the sink if you're worried about your carpet) glass side pointing away from you incase the whole thing explodes.

Strain into your glass, top up with tonic water and enjoy!

I forgot to take a picture, so I will come back and add one at some point!

*any shaker will do, including the slightly leaky three part cocktail shaker you haven't used since your student days, but there's something about a boston shaker that just feels that little bit more classy

Tuesday: Blue Lagoon

The Mocktail

Ingredients

Blue food dye (oh my god just a tiny bit!)

Juice of half an orange

Lemonade

Ice cubes

Tools

Mixing receptacle

tea strainer

Tall Glass

sundae spoon

Method

Pour a little Orange juice and a few drops of blue food dye into your mixing receptacle and give them a good stir, transfer to your glass through a sieve pop in your ice cubes, top up with lemonade.

The Cocktail

Ingredients

2 shots vodka

1 shot Blue Caracao (This is just a blue dyed orange liquor, so really any orange liquor and a bit of blue food dye will do)

6 shots Lemonade

Ice cubes

Tools

Highball Glass

Cocktail spoon

Method

First pop your ice into your glass, pour in your spirits and then give it a good stir, pour in your lemonade and give it a further gentle stir. Pass to someone who isn't nursing a baby.

Wednesday: Cosmopolitan

The Mocktail

Ingredients

1 shot of Orange Juice

3 shots of Cranberry Juice

Juice of half a lime

Orange peel twist

Tools

Boston Shaker

Ice

Method

Shake all but the orange peel in your shaker with the ice, double strain into a glass, twist the orange peel and run it round the glass, drop it into your glass and voila!

The Mocktail lacks the burn the vodka gives to the Cocktail, but it's otherwise very pleasant.

The Cocktail

Ingredients

1.5 shots of Vodka

0.5 shot of Cointreau

2 shots of Cranberry Juice

Juice of half a lime

Orange peel twist

Tools

Boston Shaker

Ice

Method

Shake all but the orange peel in your shaker with the ice, double strain into a glass, twist the orange peel and run it round the glass, drop it into your glass and voila!

Thursday: Woo Woo

The Cocktail

Ingredients

2 shots Vodka

1 shot Peach Schnappes

4 shots Cranberry juice

Tools

Shaker

Ice

Method

Shake everything with ice in the shaker, strain and serve.

Friday: Sex on The Beach

The Cocktail

Ingredients

1 shot vodka

1 shot peach schnapps

1 shot orange juice

2 shots cranberry juice

Tools

Shaker

Ice

Method

Shake everything with ice in the shaker, strain and serve.

Saturday: Bloody Mary

The Mocktail

It' pretty much goes without saying that the mocktail for this is the same as the cocktail but without the alcohol. A great plus is that this is a bit of an acquired taste (especially if you have a tendency to use as much tabasco as tomato juice!) so if you're trying to keep your alcohol free status on the down-low this is quite a good drink to go for, it was always one of my fall backs.

The Cocktail

Ingredients

1shot vodka

tomato juice

Worchester sauce

tabasco sauce

I'm a bit lacking in suplies for this rather shockingly, I'm all out of celery salt, but I've got some celery bitters coming next week that I'm dying to give a go, so I will come back and update this!

This is a drink that I tend to stir and I'm sticking with that today, the thing about tomato juice is it's a bit 'bitty' so if you're making several drinks you absolutely can't get away with not washing your shaker thoroughly between drinks (obviously in a bar you'd definitely be giving that bad boy a wash, but at home I could make say a woo woo and then a sex on the beach as they're the same ingredient wise but the sex on the beach has the added orange juice ingredient.

The Twist

My sister who is a bit of a whizz at cocktails (I hear she's referred to as the Cocktail Queen) says this is a cocktail that should be made with gin rather than vodka, thus I figured I needed to give it a go.

Ingredients

1 shot gin

150ml tomato juice

5 generous shakes worchester sauce

5 generous shakes tabasco sauce

Having given this a go I have to say I'm a convert. I find that vodka burns quite a bit, but the gin and the tomato spicy mix that makes your Bloody Mary mix sing in harmony. Those of you who know me will probably find that a bit of a shock, I can't walk within 100 meters of a bottle of gin without retching normally.

Sunday: Blood Clot Shooter

So I'm not really sure that shooters and cocktails mix all that well, so today I'm bringing you just the alcoholic drink I'm afraid.

The Shooter

Ingredients

White rum

Double cream

Grenadine

Tools

Shot glass

Spoon

Method

Pour about half of your glass full with the run, carefully layer the grenadine using the back of your spoon or the flat end if your bar spoon has one, then do the same with your cream. Shoot it back and enjoy!

#Cocktails #Drink #BlueLagoon #Cosmopolitan #WooWoo #SexontheBeach #BloodyMary #BrainHaemorrhage