The Great Moscow Mule Rant!!!

The Moscow Mule is a great drink. It pretty much single handedly made Smirnoff the global behemoth it is today as it was responsible for Smirnoff becoming a household name in the U.S. in the 1950’s. Before this drink came along no-one west of Berlin drank vodka, and gin was the white spirit of choice. A beautifully simple creation of Russian vodka, lime juice and ginger beer, the name comes from the kick from the ginger beer.

There is not a lot to say about how to make a good Moscow mule per se. The modern palette is a little sweeter, and so many recipes nowadays will call for a dash of sugar syrup or lime cordial. Also the use of Angostura bitters is very common, and it gives the drink tropical notes and added depth. Also some bars will use fresh pressed ginger with sugar and soda to make a mule with a very serious kick. This is what we do at the Loft. Good modern brands of ginger beer are D&G and Fentimans.

Now for the rant. John Martin owned the rights to Smirnoff, and having met Jack Morgan, the owner of the Cock’nBull Saloon in Hollywood, who was launching a ginger beer, they decided to come up with a drink to promote both their brands. In itself a bit annoying but in this case the ends justified the means.

However, in a case of history repeating itself, Smirnoff and now Schweppes are promoting Moscow Mules made with ginger ale. This is a bland insipid drink with no kick whatsoever. For anyone who does not know, ginger beer has a strong taste, hot and very gingery. Ginger ale on the other hand is very mild and needs accompanying by a strong flavour, Scotch or Pimms or whatever you want, but something with a little flavour and not vodka. Some arse in marketing has obviously persuaded the powers that be that if they try and sell us Moscow Mules with ginger ale, that they will sell more cocktails. So they are basicaly advocating desacrating a classic drink. One can understand it from Schweppes, as they have no connection to the drink, but someone at Smirnoff should have recognized their brand’s historic connection to the drink, a connection almost unique in the cocktail world (there are others such as the Bacardi Cocktail, but they are nowhere near the mule in terms of sales) and insisted on the use of ginger beer. It’s not even like Schweppes don’t have a ginger beer, they do. Also when Smirnoff launched a pre-mixed Moscow Mule a few years ago, it was made with ginger beer, so they know what to put in it. Probably these didn’t sell so well, and they thought the problem was the ginger beer, when it wasn’t, it was the lack of fresh lime. Anyway, there are now countless people who were introduced to the “Moscow buck” (the proper name for a tall drink with ginger ale)and I hope that enough of them with taste thought it was rubbish.

If Diageo and Schweppes want to push ginger ale, do it with Pimms.

Hosting A Christmas Cocktail Party!!

A little premature, but the press are always thinking ahead and Waitrose Magazine asked me to do a little piece on Christmas cocktail parties, so here it is.

The Christmas cocktail party brings to mind images of log fires, mistletoe, gently steaming drinks and fathers embarrassing their children with their “dancing”. It is a time of year for friends and family, and so if you are organising a cocktail party, you don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen slaving away trying to make the drinks. So here are some tips to get all the hard work out of the way in advance so you can still let your hair down.

The first thing you need to do is decide what drinks you are going to serve to your guests. I have included five recipes, four of which use the same homemade ingredient, spiced caramel syrup, details of which can be seen below.

Work out the number of people coming, and, and then work on 2 or 3 cocktails per person. Christmas cocktails are great to get the festive party started, but they are all a little sweet to drink all night, and your guests will probably want to move on to something else after a couple.
Write out a shopping list of all the ingredients you need. Consider buying some beers and wine as well, but not too much as your guests will certainly bring something.

Serving cocktails can be time-consuming, and assuming you want to talk to your guests, there are some little pointers to help you get those drinks served fast.

Serve everybody the same drink at the same time. If you are going to serve a few different cocktails, serving 10 of the same drink is much quicker than 3 each of 3 different drinks. No one is going to say anything, as you have gone to the effort of making cocktails, and it’s Christmas!
Make sure you have enough glasses or cups to serve everything in. You don’t want to have to start washing 10 glasses when people are waiting for their drinks.

Decide which drinks you are going to serve in which cups/glasses in advance. So maybe serve hot drinks in a mug or cup it has a handle so no-one burns their hand. Wine glasses are good for eggnog. It always looks nice to serve the same cocktail in the same glass. If you don’t have loads of glasses, you might want to consider hiring some. Majestic offer a free glass hire service.

For the eggnog recipe below. Make it up in advance and keep it in the fridge. Then all you need to do is ladle it out.

For the mulled wine and cider recipes, place all the ingredients in a saucepan and put the lid on, and then heat when your guests arrive.

Homemade Spiced Caramel Syrup

300g sugar
600ml water and
3 split vanilla pods
2 short cinnamon sticks
6 cloves

Place all the above in a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 25-30mins until golden brown. Strain and pour into a 700ml bottle and top up with water. This should be more than enough for any party you are doing

Mulled Wine (serves 5)

100ml Spiced Caramel Syrup
100g Blackcurrants, crushed
1/2 orange, sliced
1 bottle Shiraz/Syrah

Put all ingredients in a pan and place on a gentle heat until simmering. Strain into a jug, and serve immediately with fresh grated nutmeg over the top. Garnish with an orange wheel. If you can’t find fresh blackcurrants, frozen is fine, or use frozen mixed fruits of the forest.

Hot Berry Cider (serves 6)

1 litre Cider
50ml Spiced Caramel Syrup
3 tbs (Ocean Spray or Waitrose) Cranberry Sauce
2 handfuls fresh raspberries
150ml Calvados or Somerset Cider Brandy
1 Lemon, sliced

Put all ingredients in a pan and place on a gentle heat until simmering. Strain into a jug, and serve immediately. Garnish with a cranberry and a raspberry.

Hot Toddy (serves 6)

300ml Blended Scotch Whisky
60ml Honey
60ml Spiced Caramel Syrup
120ml Lemon Juice

Have this pre-mixed. Then pour into 6 rocks glasses and add hot water. Served with a lemon slice and some a dash of grated nutmeg

Place a sugar cube in a champagne flute, and add a couple of dashes of angostura bitters. Just cover the cube with cognac. Then fill the glass with Champagne.

Eggnog (serves 6)




















200ml Milk
100ml Double Cream
200ml Spirit
100ml Spiced Caramel Syrup
4 Eggs

Place all the ingredients in a pan and whisk. Turn on the heat to low, and continue whisking until the mixture starts to thicken slightly, and will cover the back of a spoon. Take off the heat, let cool, and then place in the fridge to chill.
The spirit choice is a personal one. Scotch, Bourbon, Rum or Cognac are all suitable, so maybe use what you already have. Serve with a dusting of cocoa powder or grated nutmeg or both.

Margarita 101

The Margarita is the best selling cocktail in the world today. This summery classic of Tequila, triple sec and lime juice made well is awesome. Unfortunately, the majority are terrible, made with pre-mixes that have probably never even seen a lime. These over-sweet-confected-rubbish drinks can be had wherever neon “cocktail” signs are seen. Hopefully by the end of this piece, we will have established a few ground rules to making a great Margarita.

There are loads of reasonably plausible stories as to who first invented the Margarita. The drink was probably a play on the Tequila Daisy which was popular in Mexico in the 1930’s (a daisy is made with a spirit, grenadine and lemon, although lime was probably used instead in Mexico, as they are far more abundant there). All the stories seem to be about someone making the drink for a girl called Margarita, or a lady called Margaret making it, but I’m sure that person who did invent it also realised the play on words involved, in that in Spanish, Margarita means daisy.

So a classic was born. The first verifiable mention in print is from the December 1953 Esquire Magazine (“She’s from Mexico, and her name is the Margarita cocktail”) In this article, the recipe quote is 1 ounce tequila with a dash of triple sec and the juice of a lime or lemon. From these proportions the original drink would have been quite tart. The modern palette is a little different, but a bigger difference is in the palettes of us Brits and are friends over the pond. I have always made my margaritas with an equal amount of triple sec and lime juice, and most British bartenders would do the same. Simon Difford says so in his Cocktail tome. In the States, Margaritas are served much sweeter, presumably because that is how customers want them. Both Dale “add a little gomme” Degroff and Gary Regan quote recipes with twice as much sweet ingredient to sour. (Just for the record, adding a little gomme to a balanced drink is hardly ever a bad thing, just be careful not to add too much).

As far as Tequila goes, it is a personal preference thing, but I personally would only use a Blanco or Reposado, and normally a Blanco. For me, the presence of wood flavours, although not intrinsically a bad thing flavour-wise, distracts from the character of the Margarita, and that is a light refreshing summery drink. In terms of brands, again it is a personal choice, but please steer clear of anything you can buy in a supermarket. At a push, my favourite blanco would be Arette, and Herradura my favourite Reposado, but there are plenty of others I would happily drink.
Having touched on the subject of wood flavours, let us move to the subject of triple sec or the orange flavour in general. I have seen Grand Marnier used in Margaritas quite often, and I have to say it has nearly always been in a bar where I think the reason they used it was because it costs more than Cointreau or a triple sec, and not because they think it makes a better drink.

Personally, I would never use it as not only does it introduce wood flavours but also cognac flavours and they have no place in a margarita. If you want to do a posh Margarita, use a posh tequila. The new Jose Cuervo Reserva Platino for example is great, or Don Julio if you are not feeling quite so flush. As for which triple sec to use, Cointreau is obviously good, and also easy to obtain. There are other good triple secs, but you would have to go out of your way to find them unless you are in the trade. Try Merlet or Briotet if you can find them.

Also while discussing the sweet ingredient, I feel I should touch on the now very common use of the Tommy’s Margarita, namely a Margarita with Agave syrup in place of Cointreau. This drink was invented by Julio Bermejo at the legendary Tommy’s in San Francisco. It is a great drink, particularly with premium tequilas as the agave does not hide any of the tequila notes, and if anything enhances them. I know from working my way through a sizeable part of the Tommy’s back bar one evening. It is a must try drink, and it is easy to find Agave syrup in most big supermarkets nowadays.

With lime juice as usual only consider freshly squeezed.

As for proportions, we touched on this earlier. For me 2:1:1 is right. The exception to this is for margaritas served on the rocks or frozen. The more ice in the drink the more sugar you need. Think 2.5ml sugar syrup for on the rocks, and 10ml sugar syrup for a frozen drink.
As for technique, some drinks need to be shaken harder than others. The Margarita, like the daiquiri, needs, in the words of Outcast, to be “shaken like a polaroid picture”. The colder the drink and the more air introduced into it the better. Also, never double strain as the small ice crystals suit the Margarita down to a tee, and double straining with remove half of the air shaking introduces in the first place.

The last topic to cover is the use of salt rims. The first thing to note is that the original Margarita did not have a salt rim. So it comes down the personal preference, and this polarises opinions big time. I used to have salt rims on my Margaritas, but not anymore. I don’t really think it adds anything to the drink. I read one person claim that it decreases the tartness of the lime and increases the sweetness of the sugar, as well as reducing underlying bitter flavours from the orange peel and the lime juice, but the Margarita is supposed to be a little tart, and whoever said a few bitter notes in a drink is a bad thing? As mixologists, we strive to create complexity in the flavour profiles of our creations.

Key things if you are going to use a salt rim are getting the rim only very lightly salted, not getting any salt on the inside of the glass, only salting half the glass, to give you or the customer the option of a salt-free sip, using a decent quality salt, and using a flaked sea salt as the salt hit is slower.

Lastly, for twist of Margaritas, as with all simple drinks, have a play around. Fresh fruit Margaritas taste great so try combinations of fruits, or diffent sweeteners, or adding a herb or spice or chilli. Have a bit of fun.

Classic Margarita

40ml Arette Blanco Tequila
20ml Cointreau
20ml Lime Juice

Shake over ice very hard, and strain into a chilled Margarita glass.

Little Miss Margarithai

2 parts Arette Blanco Tequila
¾ part watermelon sugar syrup*
¾ part lime juice
1 stick lemongrass.

Crush the lemongrass at the bottom of your shaker. Shake all the ingredients over ice, and double strain into a chilled martini glass.

*Watermelon sugar syrup. see my watermelon blog.

Elderflower Margarita

40ml Arette Blanco Tequila
20ml Elderflower Cordial
20ml Lime Juice

Shake over ice very hard, and strain into an ice filled rock glass.

Watermelon sugar syrup cocktails!

These drinks use a great homemade ingredient, watermelon sugar syrup. I came up with it as I found watermelon drinks to be, well, too watery. It is really easy to make, and is great for summer drinks parties, because it is incredibly versatile. It is lovely with vodka, gin, rum, tequila and cognac, and also with pineapple, orange, apple, cranberry and pomegranate juices. It even goes well in a white wine spritzer, or in a Pimms and lemonade. It doesn’t really matter what booze your friends bought on special offer at the off-license. So have some fun and just play around!

To make the syrup, cut up a watermelon into chunks, and push it by hand through a sieve to juice it. If you have a centrifugal juicer, you can use that. Half fill a bottle with sugar and then fill up with the juice. Shake it until it dissolves. Then it’s ready to use. It lasts for about 5 days in the fridge.

When using the syrup, you will need to balance out the sweetness with some fresh lemon or lime juice.

Melonius Funk

2 parts Vodka
1 part watermelon sugar syrup
1 part lemon juice
3 parts pineapple juice

Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker on ice. Strain into an ice filled tall glass.
Garnish with a piece of watermelon.

Little Miss Margarithai

2 parts Arette Blanco Tequila
¾ part watermelon sugar syrup
¾ part lime juice
1 stick lemongrass.

Crush the lemongrass at the bottom of your shaker. Shake all the ingredients over ice, and double strain into a chilled martini glass.

Nice Sidecar

2 parts Courvoisier Exclusif
¾ part watermelon sugar syrup
¾ part lemon juice

Shake all the ingredients over ice, and double strain into a chilled martini glass.
Watermelon Spritzer

To a large white wine and soda spritzer, add watermelon sugar syrup to taste. There is no need for any lemon or lime in this one.