Pink Lady

Pink Lady (pic by June Carvalho)

A lovely, smooth cocktail for gin lovers with citrus flavours for the added pizzaz....grenadine for that hint of sweetness and the appetizing pink. Serve in stylish cocktail glasses and watch your friends go pink and cheerful with this one....cheers to the happy hours!

What you need:

40 ml Bombay Sapphire or any other gin 
20 ml Cointreau 
15 ml Lemon juice 
10 ml Grenadine
Ice cubes

Shake up all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Don't forget to wear a smile as you're doing it... strain into a chilled, sugar-frosted cocktail glass and serve.

• To chill a cocktail glass, fill it half way up with ice cubes and top with water. Discard water and ice before straining the drink into the glass.
• To frost the glass, rub the rim with a wedge of lemon dipped in grenadine and invert onto a plate of sugar to coat the rim.

Mangue Cocktail

THE other day, in the process of taking an inventory of my tidy stash of wines and spirits, I rediscovered some long-forgotten bottles, their seals intact, lying at the back of the shelf. One of those was Mangue, a mango liqueur by Marie Brizard. I tried to sip it by itself but didn't quite relish it. Maybe my relationship with sweet, ripe mangoes is better than with a liqueur from it.

The next obvious thing to do in order to put the clear, orange liquid to good use, was to browse the Net for cocktails using it.

This mango liqueur cocktail is what I stumbled upon...it resulted in a beautiful, golden, neat, nice, long drink which I found really refreshing. There was a delicate blend of a multitude of flavours ranging from mango, bitters and vodka to tonic water. Absolutely lovely!

Mangue Cocktail.  (Pic by June Carvalho)

What you need:
60 ml vodka
30 ml Marie Brizard Mangue
2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters
Schweppes tonic water (chilled)
Ice cubes
Lime wedge for garnish (optional)

I half-filled a Collins glass with ice cubes, poured the vodka, followed by the mango liqueur, followed by dashes of the bitters, eventually topping it with chilled tonic water. Stuck a swizzle stick in and savoured it sip by sip till the very last drop!

Quite a stiff one that was. Halve the ingredients for a smaller one.

Black Russian

Black Russian (Pic by June Carvalho)

RUSSIA meets Mexico like old buddies in this delightful, if potent cocktail comprising equal parts of vodka and Kahlua served on the rocks. Extremely simple to build and the perfect epilogue to an equally great dinner!

What you need:
45 ml vodka
45 ml Kahlua or any other coffee liqueur
Ice

All you need to do is fill an old-fashioned glass with ice (about 8-10 cubes) and pour the vodka over, followed by the Kahlua. Enjoy!

Clover Club Cocktail

Clover Club Cocktail (Pic by June Carvalho)

I came across this drink on a cocktails website and it sounded good and very doable, with an interesting history to boot. It seems to be a forgotten classic originating in Philadelphia way back in 1911, and now, nearly a century later, is experiencing a revival.

Needs gin, grenadine or raspberry syrup, lemon juice and also a raw egg white, which may sound queasy to some, but it acts as an emulsifier and gives the drink body and a foamy head. The grenadine and citrus strike a perfect balance between sweet and tart. Shake it up for a good 20 seconds in a cocktail shaker with ice to get a frothy finish and the head. Would have looked pretty in cocktail glasses, but I don't have 'em, so I served it up in wine glasses instead. My friend enjoyed every dainty sip of it. So did I. Who wouldn't? Truly a classic.

What you need for 1 serving:

60 ml gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
30 ml lemon juice
10 ml grenadine
1 egg white
Cracked ice

Shake up all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker for about 20 seconds and strain into a cocktail or wine glass. Garnish with a lemon  wedge. Cheers!

Caipirinha

MY No.1 favourite cocktail is the caipirinha (pronounced kai-pur-een-yah), made from cachaca (pronounced ka-sha-sa), Brazil's national drink. I simply love it. Understatement. How I discovered cachaca and the caipirinha and the lengths to which I went to procure my first bottle with the active involvement of the spouse, is the stuff of another tale. Suffice it to say that when I first read about it in a newspaper column, I was intrigued enough to find out more and instantly knew that I had to have it. 

Though cachaca is popularly referred to as Brazilian rum, there's a subtle difference between the two. At the most you can say they're cousins with a common source of origin - sugarcane. But while cachaca is distilled from fermented sugarcane juice, rum is derived from the molasses left over after the process of sugar production. 

I chilled out with this one after a really tiring day. A fabulous drink to unwind with. 

CAIPIRINHA (Pics by June Carvalho)

For a caipirinha, you need really simple ingredients: ice cubes, lime, sugar and of course, cachaca. Understandably, there are many brands of cachaca, but I use one called Cachaca 51 Pirassununga (because that's the only brand available at my source). Nothing like using Brazilian limes for the drink with their wonderful, refreshing citrus aroma, although some suggest using lemons. But since neither can be found so easily where we live, one can make do with the yellow limes commonly available in our Indian markets, although their skins are not as aromatic as their South American relatives. However, whenever I get a supply of Brazilian limes from an unnamed source, which is fairly often, they're reserved for exclusive use in this cocktail! Psst...there are still a few of them in my fridge... enough for a dozen cocktails...enough to keep me pleasantly drunk and happy until the next lot (of limes) arrives around end of July and to anyone else who'd care to drop in and have a drink with me, it's always happy hour!

What you need for 1 serving:

• 1/2 a Brazilian lime, cut in quarters
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• Ice cubes
• 60 ml cachaca

In an old-fashioned glass, muddle the lime with sugar to release the juice and essential oils from the skins of the lime. Fill glass with ice cubes. Pour cachaca over. Swirl. Now sip! 

If you don't have cachaca, use vodka to make a caipiroska. If you use a light rum, I'm told it's called a caipirissima!

Reduce sugar if you prefer it less sweet.