Mojito

How to make a Mojito…StBs Way!

First off, lets clear a few things up.  It’s pronounced Mo-Hee-Toe…not Mo-Gee-Toe!!!  Now that we’ve got that out the way, lets crack on with the recipe and how you can make it for yourself.

A plethora of Mojito’s lined up ready to roll.

A Mojito is one of my favvy Summer drinks.  Its my go to instead of the Pimms and Lemonade for your summer BBQs.  It’s sooooooo simple to make and soooooo tasty, it makes me wonder why so much Pimms is actually sold during the Summer!

The key to any good Mojito…like any other Cocktail out there…is the ingredients. Get the best Rum you can afford without going over the top.  For example, Havana 3yo for £19 a bottle will make an infinitely better tasting drink than a £14 bottle of Bacardi. However, there is no need to invest £40 in a bottle of El Dorado 12yo…thats a sipper!!

Also, instead of nipping off to your local supermarket to get Turkish Mint and Limes from China, hunt out your local Fruit and Veg shop.  Not only is it cheaper, but the quality and freshness is amazing! Thirst First Mobile Cocktail Bars spends about £30 a week with our local Fruit and Veg Lady. Out of interest, I did the exact same shop online with my Supermarket, it came out at £79.  The mint alone which cost me £5 with my Greengrocer, cost me £23 online! The mint I know was cut fresh the day before, the mint online probably a week old at least and will have lost most of its aroma. #TrueStory What an advert to #ShopLocal!

Anyway’s, here’s what you’ll need;

50ml Light or Gold Rum
1 big fat vivid green, juicy Lime
15ml Sugar Syrup
12 fresh and aromatic Mint Leaves
75ml Sparkling Water
Cubed Ice

Yeah Cubed Ice!! I said it. Cue the wrath of Bartenders UK Wide. Well not all of them, but there is a massive movement towards Crushed Ice in the UK. Again, there is no right or wrong, just your own way! I like to be authentic (ish) so I use Cubed Ice. Simple as that really.

So how do you make it;

Roll the Lime to release the Juices, then cut into 6 wedges.
Squeeze 3/4 of them into a Glass. You need about 25ml of juice, which is about a little fingers worth.
Pour in 15ml of Sugar Syrup/Gomme which can be found in the booze aisle of most supermarkets for about £4. (15ml is about a Capful)
Pour in 50ml of your Rum. I use Brugal Anejo, but if Supermarket shopping…Havana 3yo all the way
Take 12 decent Mint leaves in the palm of your hand, then smack them once and drop them into the glass.
Pour in your Sparkling Water
Plonk some Ice in till the drink is 2/3 way up the glass
Stir the drink to bring the Limes to the top
Top up with more Ice
et Viola!!

Again another common myth from the younger generation of Bartenders. There is no need to bash the crap out of the Mint by Muddling it! A simple smack between the palm of the hands releases all the aroma’s and flavour you’ll need!

Pimping it up;

Now you can have some real fun with Mojito’s. Here’s how you get known as the Daddy by all your mates…

By adding 5 Raspberries at the same time as the Limes and gently muddling, you have an Amazing Raspberry Mojito.

How about the pulp of 1 fresh Passion Fruit for a Passion Fruit Mojito?

How about swapping the Sugar Syrup for Vanilla Syrup (found in the Coffee Aisle) and adding some Blueberry’s for a stonking Blueberry & Vanilla Mojito.

Blackberries, Strawberries, Kiwi Fruit, Lychee Juice, Apple Juice.  Swapping the Sparkling Water for Prosecco. Swapping the Light Rum for Coconut Rum. The list is literally endless and only hampered by your own imagination!

Competition;

Don’t forget about my Competition from last week. To win a Thirsty Cocktail Kit…
click Here and scroll to the bottom!!

 

Pizza Gate

How do you cook this Pizza?!

I spent a few years working in Student Bars in Cambridge Uni (the proper one!). They’re a clever old bunch. We’re talking A* at A-Levels, as opposed to Bs &Cs. As well as serving drinks, part of my job role was to also teach these kids important Life Skills. You know, Please and Thank you, Putting money in your hand as opposed to leaving it on the Bar. That kind of thing…

As well as being a pretty awesome Bartender, I’m also kinda useful in the Kitchen. My Cheesy Beans on Toast is a culinary masterpiece. So one day when a budding Junior Doctor…the ones who save lives…phoned the Bar asking for Cookery instructions, of course I was only too willing to help him out.

“StB, I got this fresh Pizza from Sainsburys, how do I cook it?”

A doctor remember…

“Well mate, just follow the instructions on the pack. Preheat the oven, then remove all the wrapping and pop it in the oven. About 180 degrees should be okay for 10-12 minutes.”

The lad couldn’t mess this up…

How wrong?! 15 mins later, the phone rings again. Fire Alarms going off in the background and a panicked doctor on the other end…

“what’s up mate?!”
“the Pizza caught fire, there’s smoke everywhere!!”
“What do you mean the Pizza caught fire?! You’ve only been at it for 10 mins or so!! Did you remove all the wrapping?”
“yeah, of course I did. I ain’t stupid”
“So what could catch fire then?!”
“It looks like the white plastic base has melted all over the oven!!”

Wow. That’s the future of the NHS folks. I won’t tell you which hospital he’s now at. I’m just thankful it isn’t Addenbrookes!

National Rum Day – 16th August

So there was an ulterior motive with my Rum Punch recipe I shared on Friday (admittedly with some tedious email issues…oooops).   Yes folks, today, Sunday 16th August is National Rum Day!!!  One of my favvy days of the year…after St Pirans Day obviously.

Today is all about celebrating the one drink that stands head and shoulders above all else in the party stakes.  Love it or hate it, its the only drink that is synonymous with fun!!  It is so diverse that for those that say “I don’t like Rum” simply means they haven’t found their way to enjoy it yet.

Go on…Celebrate National Rum Day

 

I love it all ways.  Neat, as a Mai Tai, as a Dark and Stormy, as a Mojito, as a Daiquiri…and as a Rum Punch!!

So make this afternoon a fun afternoon and crack on with your favourite recipe.

To help you on your way, here are a few simple ideas that you can quickly and easily knock up at home!

 

Rum Punch

See my recipe here

 

Mojito

• 50ml Rum of choice (Brugal or Havana 3yo for example)
• Half a fresh Lime cut into Wedges
• 15ml Sugar Syrup
• 12 Mint Leaves
• Sparkling Water

Watch my Mojito Video here

Dark and Stormy

• 50ml Rum (anything goes from Lambs to Kraken Spiced Rum!!)
• 2 Lime Wedges
• Old Jamaica Ginger Beer (its the Best for this by a mile!)
• Angostura Bitters

Use a tall glass, add the Ingredients over plenty of Ice

 

Daiquiri

• 50ml Light Rum (Brugal or Havana 3yo for example)
• 25ml fresh Lime Juice (juice of 1 lime)
• 15ml Sugar Syrup
• 15ml Chilled Water

Shake all the ingredients and double strain into a Martini Glass
You can even add fresh fruit like Strawberry to the mix

 

Cuba Libre

• 50ml Rum (The whole point is Cuban Rum like Bacardi…but don’t be shy to use Havana 3yo/Brugal
• 2 Lime Wedges
• Coke

Use a Tall glass, add the ingredients over plenty of Ice

 

Pina Colada

• 25ml Light Rum
• 25ml Malibu
• 2 Lime Wedges
• 50ml Pineapple juice
• 50ml Coconut Cream

Combine all of the ingredients into a shaker with Ice and shake the hell out of it for 12 seconds!

Dark and Stormy

 

There you go folks. There’s 6 very simple Rum Cocktails you can get your lips around today! There are plenty of others too. This list could be endless.

Have a great National Rum Day.  I’ll see you on the other side…

Rum Punch

So here it is, my first proper weekly Cocktail Recipe, direct to your inbox!!  I’m gonna start rolling these out Every Friday with the specific intention of making them easy enough for you to understand and make at home. And for you to be able to source all the ingredients at the same time as your weekly shop from your local Supermarket. No more need to default to the Pimms and Lemonade for your Saturday afternoon BBQs!

The Rum Punch is the ultimate Party Drink. And one of my favourites as I love all things Tiki. Kind of fits with my personality and shirt collection! Tropical, Sweet, Colourful and instantly puts a smile on your face.

At a young Bartending age, I was taught this very simple Formula that you can use to make any kind of Punch! Whether that’s Rum, Vodka, Brandy or Whiskey!

Its the 1, 2, 3, 4 Rule

If you break your Cocktail up into 10 parts, you can follow the simple formula and I guarantee you can make an amazing Punch every time…whether that’s individual punches, in a jug, or in a giant fish bowl to create that central masterpiece at your next party. But how does it work?

• 1, is 1 part Sour. So Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit etc
• 2, is 2 parts Sweet. Mainly your Sugar Syrups in the booze aisle (Grenadine, Sugar) or syrups like Vanilla, Almond/Orgeat, Caramel in the Coffee aisle. Or even posh cordials like Elderflower and Ginger in the drinks aisle.
• 3, is 3 parts Strong. Your Rums, Vodka’s etc
• 4. is 4 parts Weak. Juices, Lemonade, Ginger Beer etc

You also have what I call ‘Crossover’ Spirits…Liqueurs. Supermarkets now sell fruity liqueurs like Strawberry, Raspberry, Cassis…heck even Peach, Banana & Lychee these days! Plus there’s liqueurs Llike Passoa, Midori, Tia Maria, Archers etc. They’re not as strong (about 15-25% abv).  So you could in fact use 2 parts Rum and 1 part Banana!

Now you’ve got the inside track, here’s my tried and tested Rum Punch Recipe…

StBs Rum Punch!

Steve the Barman’s Rum Punch

 

3x nice and juicy Lime Wedges
15ml Grenadine
15ml Orgeat Syrup
50ml Kraken Black Spiced Rum
25ml Strawberry Liqueur
50ml Tropicana Orange Juice
50ml Tropicana Pineapple Juice

Just a side note to this, firstly on Thirsty’s Bars, I use Old J Spiced Rum. I love it.  It’s the old Sailor Jerry we all use to love back in 2009 before they changed the recipe. And as for the Juices, I use a Brand called Eager. The important thing to take away is, don’t compromise! I purposely listed Tropicana as they are the best 100% pressed and squeezed juices you can get from a supermarket. DON’T SKIMP. Don’t go down the Concentrate Juice route as most Bars would do, just to save a few pennies. You have to appreciate, if you want to drink something, you want it to taste as good as it can do. So spend that extra 50p/£1 on real juice. I promise you, you will taste the difference.

So there you have it.  Thats my own personal recipe. But the combinations are endless. Just follow that 1,2,3,4 formula and get cracking!

 

Tell you what I’ll also do.  There’s a FREE Cocktail Kit up for Grabs!

To win, upload a piccy of yourself enjoying your own Punch creation, to either Facebook or Twitter and use the Hashtag #StBRumPunch. You have until 8pm on August 31st, 2015.

Win our very own Cocktail Kit

 

 

 

 

 

Can a Cocktail Recipe be wrong?!

A few weeks ago, I published my recipe for MY version of the Porn Star Martini.  Its a tried and tested recipe that I’ve used for the last 3 years, simply because you guys love it.  As in Absolutely LOVE it.

Steve the Barman’s Porn Star Martini

However it drew some amusing comments from other bartenders and bars about how it wasn’t the proper recipe…

Now granted, its not exactly the same recipe that legend Douglas Ankrah created way back in 2002. However when you read his recipe, it is in essence just a Vanilla and Passion Fruit Martini served with a shot of Prosecco. When you look at my recipe, my take on the Porn Star Martini is again, a Vanilla and Passion Fruit Martini…and in actual fact, not wildly different at all.

So this begs the question;
Can a Cocktail Recipe be wrong?

As most of you reading this know, I’ve been behind the Bar for 20 years now.  I’d say that’s a shed load of experience.

But am I the best Bartender out there? Am I the Authority on Cocktails?
No.

I can’t claim to be, as I never really got involved in Cocktail Competitions during my youth. Nor do I wish to be. I never had the ego to want to be the best.  Instead, I chose a different route. I dedicated my career to making the tastiest drinks I could possibly make, that my type of customers would actually order and want to drink….not just once to try it, but over, and over….and over again!

You see in Bartending, there is no right or wrong recipe. There is no one individual or organisation who can say that’s right or wrong.  Take the humble Sex on the Beach for example. A quick Google search results in 3 equally as tasty recipes, all from 3 leading UK Bar Chains. Which one of them has the correct recipe?  And is the correct recipe tastier than the other 2?  Also the amazing Espresso Martini has a different recipe in every bar you walk in to. The ONLY people that can judge that, are the actual customers buying the drinks.

The same can be said the same about Cooking. When researching this Blog post, in 2 minutes I found 6 different Roast Chicken recipes and 3 different Lasagne recipes. Which one of those is correct?!

Over my 20 years or Bartending…16 of which have been out and out Cocktails…I’ve recreated a lot of popular Recipes and put my own twist on them, using the ingredients I could easily get from my Suppliers.

Over the last 2 years though, I’ve discovered a new passion, a new USP.  I love to share recipes that you guys can make at home, by using ingredients that are readily available from your local Supermarket.

And while Thirst First’s Cocktail menu for Events is a tad different…there’s lots of weird and wonderful using some really cool brands…Steve the Barman’s personal Menu is all about the Supermarkets, simply because you guys don’t have access to a hell of a lot of products that us pros do.  I want you guys to be able to go away and make tasty drinks for yourselves. I want you guys to have more imagination than just defaulting to Pimms and Lemonade at your Saturday Afternoon BBQs. By taking great Cocktails and flipping up the recipes to make them more accessible to you guys, well, there’s nothing wrong with that…is there?!

Starting this Friday (14th August), I will be sharing amazing recipes each week, that you guys can make for yourselves at home.  Everything from very simple serves, right through to the more in-depth Cocktails. However, they will always have the common theme and will use ingredients that you can purchase from the big 3… Tesco’s, Sainsburys and Waitrose.

 

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Thirsty Social Club; the Aftermath

Thirsty Social Club @ The Red Lion, Whittlesford – 6th August 2015

What a night! It had everything. Cocktails, gorgeous people, giggles, networking, drunkenness, wedding prep…and some crazy arse Killer Rum!

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the largest party I’d ever put on. But in 4N terms, it was a Flagship meeting…and the 50% Social bit! I was really happy, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and we even ended up planning a 4N Wedding!

It all kicked off with the Old J crew.  They were on duty early doors dishing out tasters of their superb Old J Spiced Rum, which was quickly followed up by their Tiki Fire, weighing in at 75%.  Yeah that got the party started.

Our playlist for the night included 2 brands.  Obviously the Old J Spiced Rum, a smooth Vanilla & Lime Rum, closely resembling the Sailor Jerry that everyone knew and loved before SJ changed the recipe back in 2009/10.  And the brand new Jim Beam Apple variant which now sits alongside their Maple, Honey and Red Stag range.

I won’t go in to too many details about the Cocktail List, but the big favvies of the night were a Rhubarb Spiced & Stormy which was delish!!  Our Rum Punch, which is the ultimate Party Drink. An Apple Mojito with the Jim Beam and then a surprise candidate…an Espresso Martini made with Old J and Hazelnut Liqueur, which will definitely make it on to Thirsty’s next Cocktail List!!

I also hired an AMAZING photographer to try an capture the night.  Jean-Luc Benazet (check his www out) did a brilliant job.  This is just one of my favvies, but if you click this link, or the photo, you can see the rest of the Album.  There’s about 150 in it!!

Thirsty Social Club @ The Red Lion, Whittlesford – 6th August 2015

 

Plans are already being hatched for the next Thirsty Social Club.  We’re looking at a Friday in October.  The location is open to debate too.  There’s been lots of interest in Essex, in Hertfordshire and in Birmingham.  For now, I’m going to keep the next one closer to my neck of the woods, but hey who knows in the future.  If you want a Pop-Up Cocktail Party in your area, give me a shout.  Alls I need is a Venue that will let me do my thing!!

If you’d like to hear about the next Thirsty Social Club, or you would like regular updates…including Cocktail Recipes, then fill in this form below!

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What is a Passion Fruit?!

Passion fruits are one of life’s mysteries. The simplest of fruit causes so much intrigue. Just recently, I’ve genuinely seen it referred to as a Baby Pomegranate!!

Those that know me…even only slightly, know that I’m a wicked wind up merchant. When my laugh doesn’t get the better of me, I’m the best of the best. I’ve perfected the skill over 20 odd years of working behind a Bar.

This story stems back from my Restaurant days…

One day, one of my ever so innocent, blonde (Stereotypical I know) waitresses came up to me behind the Bar and asked me the following question. I would like to point out that at the time, it wasn’t the quietest of shifts which makes this story even better.

“Stevie, what goes into an Orange and Passion Fruit J2O?”

My initial reaction was just going to be “Ice”, but my nose smelt out a deeper routed question. So instead I asked what she meant.

“Well you know, Apple and Mango J2O obviously has Apple and Mango in it. So what does Orange and Passion Fruit have in it?! What goes into to making Passion Fruit?”

So, in front of a Bar full of people and Staff, as cool as you like I replied with “it’s a mixture of Mango, Pineapple and Peach, but they can never fit that on the Labels, so it’s universally known as Passion Fruit”

How I kept a straight face, I will never know.  How the customers were instantly so in tune with the wind up, I will never know.  It was just one of those magical moments where everyone was on the same page.

Nearly 2 whole weeks I got away with that until one day Chef brought a dessert out for us to try…which had a Passion Fruit Wedge as a garnish. Well you can imagine the question that followed. Let’s just say my quick thinking and a 5ft Bar saved me that day!

Just to let you in to another quick story.  The same Waitress “lost” the Bottle Chiller doors one day.  The slidy ones come out with ease.  So after she cleaned them too well then set them aside, it took her 3 whole minutes to see that they were right beside her left leg, the exact same place she put them…

The Porn Star Martini

If there’s gonna be one Cocktail Steve the Barman is gonna be remembered for, guaranteed it’s gonna be his version of the Porn Star Martini!

It is one of the most simplest cocktails I make, but it gets the same reaction every time I make it.  It always follows the same form too.  I make one. Then I make another 2. Then before you know it, we’re a bottle of Vanilla Vodka down!

I personally never serve it with the shot of Prosecco, as I believe it adds nothing what so ever with the finished cocktail. The cocktail speaks for itself. But each to their own.

At first glance, you’d be excused if you thought that the orders of this were dominated by the female species, however I have to tell you, even the manliest of men order this in their droves!
Its easiest of Cocktails to make and all of the ingredients can be sourced from a local supermarket. Here’s the recipe;

25ml Stolichnaya Vanil Vodka*
25ml Galliano
15ml Monin Vanilla Syrup
1x Lime Wedge
75ml Rubicon Passion Fruit

Add all the ingredients to a Cocktail Shaker with plenty of Ice and shake for 10/15 seconds.
Double strain into a Martini Glass.
Garnish with a Passion Fruit Wedge.

 

So there you go, my secret is out! That’s how you make my amazing Porn Star Martini. My only hope is that I’m there to make it for you at your next event!

(*a good substitute would be Absolut Vanilia)