barvirgin

Not sure what to do with this

2010-03-08T06:45:00.003-08:00

It never really built up a head of steam. Need to think about it

Strawberries - how right can you be!

2008-07-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Sold 1 kinoto-based drink all last week. Bought half a kilo of strawberries and sold the lot - 5 drinks - on a Monday night... they sell themselves!

Strawberries!

2008-07-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

So strawberries are in season here,now. I´ve been doing a search for interesting cocktails using them and not coming up with much. I guess they´re a bit girly or fruit cocktails a bit unsophisticated to feature in the cool cocktail blogs. They are also of course by far the easiest cocktails to sell! everyone loves strawberries... So I´ll be reviving 6 strawberry cocktails from last year - martini, daiquiri, martini with balsamic, caipiroska, margarita and electric pink lemonade. But I´d like to experiment and add some more...

Ingredients - top shelf

2008-07-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

I´ve just been enjoying Jay Hepburn´s The Great Oh Gosh! Orange Liqueur Showdown.

It´s a frustrating experience for me though as hardly any of the products talked about are available to me (five out of 23) and these five only at a prohibitive price. Imported alcohol seems to cost the same here as in the UK. For instance we use Bols triple sec -not the Dutch but argentinian produced - which costs AR$10 a bottle. I think it´s pretty decent - certainly the best of the local ones. We also have had Cointreau and Gran Marnier ($90 and $110 respectivly). So using a shot of gran marnier instead of triple sec (as we do for our gran cosmo and margarita) has a very big cost implication. And of course that means that buying the stuff in the first place has to be thought about carefully - I wonder how many bars in the UK would stock Cointreau if it cost 80 pounds a bottle?

I find this frustrating as, although I think I´ve learned and can continue to learn a great deal (see above) about balancing and combining flavours and different techniques for making different drinks, a large part of the barman´s art - that of having a wide range of each different spirit available for different tastes and drinks is closed to me...

Kinoto-politan

2008-07-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

Going a bit bonkers with the Kumquats so this is the last one for a while. No cranberry juice in Buenos Aires so need a cosmo substitute... Kumquats forthe orange liquer, a dash of cassis to make it oh sopretty in pink(y purple)... vodka and lime and voilá! It works really rather well!

Gancia kinoto

2008-06-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

Ran this up with out thinking too much aboutit. Gancia is usually shaken with lemon and has a lemony citrus flavour so i thought it would work well with the kumquat. Just used fruit a little sugar and lots of Gancia and it worked really well! Might try with with gin and gancia tonight.

Kinoto collins

2008-06-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Another one who´s idea came from the net though did the proportions myself of course.Not as interesting as I´d pe - fairly stright forward taste of citussey orange-lemon. Not much písco taste until the finish. Nice enough but nothing that special.

Kir-noto

2008-06-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Ilia has been experimenting with Kir orange basically wine with hesperidina. I thought I´d go one better and make one with Kumquats and hesperidina and it was truly delicious but far too painful to make!

limonada de kinoto

2008-06-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Monday is no-alcohol day for myself and Ilia so last night i made us some kumquat lemonaid. Just mashed up a few fruit and shook with lemon sugar and water. And very nice it was too - sorry no pics had my camera nicked on Sunday in San Telmo. Not sure what to do about that!

and the winner is...

2008-06-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

...no lime and ginger! Really nice clean sharp taste. With lime it tastes like a normal caipirinhia with a slight twist. With just a bit of ginger to give it a kick it tastes like a sharp English marmalade.

Will be making it the cóctel destacado tonight!

Tonight´s experiment - kinoto / kumquat

2008-06-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

Kinoto (or kumquat) has just come into season here so I´ve bought a few to mess around with today. The taste is a very sharp mandarin and you eat the peel. A quick net search suggest 2 routes - caipirinha or champagne cocktail. I´ll be trying the caipirinha route -there´s one with no lime -just kinoto and ginger and another which uses kinoto and lime juice. I think a caipirinha has to have lime in it. I had this debate with a client who had lived in brasil who expected his strawberry caipiroska to be without lime. I´ll probably try both ways!

Corporal Collins

2008-06-20T08:54:00.001-07:00

An original recipe and one that I´m very proud of. Not sure what to call it but it is basically a persimmon collins. Persimmons are called Kaki in Argentina, corporals wear Khaki so...

Anyway having enjoyed the margarita last night (which was basically the only recipe I´d found on the net) I wanted to try something else and making a collins just seemed right - and boy was it! I used Tanqueray and the three flavours combined brilliantly. Got the proportions - lots of lemon just a dash of sugar - right first time too. Shame that the Kaki season is over... Next year!

Persimmon Margarita

2008-06-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

I wrote about this on the Facebook page for Flux. Recently bought some more Persimmons and let them get really really ripe (and a little unpleasant looking). Tried the margarita again but this time using Hesperidina in place of Triple sec, no sugar at all and a salt and cinnamon rim and it worked a treat! (Sorry the pic on the right is the Daiquiri not the margarita but it´s pretty similar looking).

Sazerac!

2008-06-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

I was asked - and taught to make this the other day by Jake a visiting barman from New Orleans / San Francisco. Of course no Peychards bitters or absinthe but we improvised using Ricard pastis and orange bitters along with the angostura, and all JD. I have to say this is a cracking drink. I tried using half brandy, half JD but didn´t like it so much. Will offer it as a Coctél destacado at somepoint but will be very pricey ´cos of the JD.

Blog´s Law

2008-06-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

This is the law that as soon as you commit to updating something everyday you´ll immediately stop doing it. Sorry about the break, it´s not of course that I´ve not been making (or drinking) cocktails - just not writing about it or doing it in a systematic way. Above are a few recipes that have stuck out over the past week or so and I´ll try to do better from now on.

Cocktail of the day

2008-05-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

We´re choosing a different cocktail to feature every day as a way of involving our regular customers and encouraging people to publicise our bar with us (so far only on facebook) we doing a different cocktail every day and giving members/friends a discount... Started on Monday on so far had Rum punch (didn´t sell any on the night but I´ve been pushing it anyway) and yesterday Rude cosmopolitan which is a fabulous drink - better than a standard cosmo for me - and did sell. As I publicise the promotion more I´m sure it´ll sell better.

Brandy smash

2008-05-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Simple mint, brandy and sugar concoction served in a rocks glas. Nice enough but give me a brandy julep any day- the bitters and dilution give it a interest that this didn´t have for me.

Rosemary inspiration

2008-05-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

Herbs seems to be very in (I´m probably a couple of years behind) but mainly appearing in quite dry cocktails. We had lunch at Don bar on Sunday and my desert was a very complicated thing with pears and spices and coconut and lime ice cream and a creamy vanilla and ROSEMARY sauce. Sounded wierd but was wonderful! Not what sort of cocktail could I make with that as inspiration?

Kir

2008-05-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Kir Royal sells well and I don´t know why we´ve never put kir on the menu. Tried one last night with our standard Sauvignon blanc "wine by the glass". Pretty nice. Would love to try one with a nice torrontes

Basil and Honey daiquiri

2008-05-27T11:41:00.001-07:00

On Thursday came the highlight of the week (month?). Again from diffords guide Basil and honey daiquiri. I´ve become a huge rum and daiquiri fan and this really was special. I didn´t get an overwhelming taste of basil - honey and lime being the predominant flavours - but the basil adds a richness and depth of flavour which is truly delicious.

This will definitely be on the specials menu soon.

Flatliner

2008-05-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday tried I think the lowest starred drink I´ve found in our difford´s guide - the flatliner. Tequila layered over sambuca with Tabasco Sauce dripped into it. Very impresive looking and quite easy to do. Not as disgusting as it sounds at first as the taste is almost all sambuca. The tabasco takes a while to kick in, but when it does...

I was going to try a Basil and Honey Daiquiri next but would have been a little bit pointless. Beer! I guess it could be useful the next time there´s a football tournament in town...

Mint cocktail

2008-05-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

Didn´t make much time for trying out new things last week. We had some VERY minty mint so had a mint cocktail - fresh mint, creme de menthe, gin and a bit of white wine. Nice enough and you could taste the fresh mint as well as the liquer but not really my thing. The wine adds a nice texture - must try more cocktails that use wine.