Travel with Glass: Summer Cocktails

A drink discovered and nursed during my stay at Paradise Road Tintagel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This is a frozen margarita but you could not blend it if you prefer.

Ingredients & tools:

• 50ml white tequila
• 12ml tamarind concentrate plus extra for garnish
• 25ml lime juice, freshly squeezed (see notes)
• 25ml simple syrup or agave syrup (see notes)
• 1 handful of ice
• Angostura bitters (optional)
• Ground cinnamon powder (optional)
• Blender (for frozen), shaker for straight-up (no ice) or over the rocks (over ice)
• Sea salt (optional)
• Small clean plate
• A jigger or measure
• Straw (optional)

Method:

Decant your ice into your blender if you want a frozen margarita or, pour ice into a cocktail shaker if you want a straight-up margarita or a margarita on the rocks.

Prepare your glasses. This is an optional step for people who like garnished rims. Grab your plate, put it on a surface and lightly drizzle about a tablespoon of tamarind syrup on the plate. Crumble your sea salt onto another side of the plate into a reasonably thick pile. Dip the rim of your preferred glass into the tamarind syrup and ever-so-slightly roll onto the side of the glass to get a good coating. You can coat the full circumference of the glass, just half, just a corner – you choose! Carefully dip and roll your tamarind-coated rim into the sea salt as you prefer. Set aside.

Add two-thirds of the ice, tequila, lime juice and sugar syrup into your blender/shaker. You can add a light shake of cinnamon powder and a sharp dash of Angostura bitters at this point. Then add your tamarind concentrate (see notes). Blend to your desired consistency or shake until the tinny rattle of the ice becomes more of a dull thud (probably 15-20 seconds).

Bar trick: Grab your straw, place in the blender/shaker of your drink, apply your thumb over the mouth side and then lift. Taste and start to adjust as needed. You should have a sharp, sour drink with a kick of tequila but not overwhelmingly sharp. The sugar or agave should mellow it out so you are not wincing.

Pour the cocktail mixture into the prepared glasses and enjoy.

The Background Story

So I love a sharp, sweet, strong drink like margaritas, sours or caipirinhas. This addition of tamarind boosts that sour element to compliment the lime juice. This is a good introduction to tequila-based drinks too as it goes some way to mask the tequila. The Red Bar in Paradise Road Tintagel, Colombo is a stunning bar serving a short, excellent cocktail menu. This drink reminds me of hours sat in the bar planning the next day’s journey to Galle, a southern coastal city known for its walled fort and colonial architecture. See my tips on travelling to Galle and Sri Lanka overall.

My Favourite Spanish Sangria

There is a difference between tinto de verano and Spanish sangria. Often I find the former is passed off as the latter for tourists who do not know the difference (I am looking at you tourist traps of Barcelona). Here’s the real thing and this one is better made up as a (LARGE) jug.

Ingredients & tools:

• 2 bottles of light red wine, chilled (Pinot noir, Beaujolais or Merlot will do)
• 100ml sweet/red vermouth (e.g. Martini Rosso)
• 50ml-100ml Cointreau or triple sec (I prefer Cointreau)
• 50ml gin
• Cinnamon stick (not ground, not powder)
• 150ml soda water or lemon soda (e.g. Sprite)
• A selection of fruit chopped into large dice (e.g. peel-on oranges, apple, peaches, nectarines, grapes but nothing sour)
• 2L jug
• A measuring jug (at least 500ml)
• Ice
• Wooden spoon or bar spoon

Method:

Start with your fruit. Place your cinnamon stick at the bottom of your measuring jug. Cube your preferred fruit into dice and place them into your measuring jug. Pour in the red vermouth, Cointreau and gin into the measuring jug. You can make a choice whether to use all or half of the Cointreau. It depends on how sweet or orange-scented you would like your sangria. Remember you can always add but you cannot take away! Leave your fruit to mingle and get to know each other for 30 minutes. This is now a fortified spice mixture.

Assemble the sangria. Decant your ice into the jug and pour in all the wine. Add as much fruit to the sangria as you wish (some people do not like to add all of it). You should get a straw or bar spoon at this point because it is taste-testing time. Add your fortified spice mix to the red wine about one third at a time. Taste along the way to adjust for sweetness. I usually use the whole thing. If you do not use all of it, make sure you removed all the fruit and you can place the remaining mix in a sealable bag in the freezer until next use. It may not freeze due to alcohol content.

Top up. You should use either the soda water or lemon soda at this stage to top up your sangria. You want it to be light. Soda will make your sangria slightly drier while lemon soda will make it sweeter. Add more ice if you can. Muddle the mixture together with your wooden or bar spoon. Serve chilled.

The Background Story

I was made redundant during the 2008 financial crisis. A young lawyer looking for jobs when there were none to be found. My dad and I set a course for Spain where we spent four days rambling around Madrid sampling their excellent tapas bars in the Plaza Mayor area. We drove to Logroño in the Rioja region of Spain driving through arid landscapes only stopping to eat manitas de cerdo a la rioja (pigs trotters rioja style) and carrilleras (slow-braised ox cheeks). Warm evenings were spent sitting in plazas chasing jug after jug of sangria. My dad and I spent another two trips in Spain navigating Barcelona and a third visit to Sevilla, Jerez de la Frontera and Cádiz. We still search ruthlessly for the best sangria Spain has to offer. The recipe above is based on a version I watched a bartender make in Madrid back in 2008. I still make this recipe today.

Limoncello and rosemary spritz

Limoncello is a digestif usually sipped on its own but this zesty, herbaceous cocktail makes it a tall summertime classic. You could also make a jug or sharing cocktail but you would need to make four times the volume.

Ingredients & tools:

• 50ml limoncello
• 25ml gin
• Fresh rosemary sprig or thyme sprig
• 100ml bitter lemon soda
• 100ml club soda or sparkling water
• Ice
• Bar spoon, muddling spoon or tablespoon

Method:

To build. This is a cocktail you build in the glass. This means there are no shakers or blenders. You just need your preferred glass. I recommend a Collins glass or tumbler for this one.

Awaken your herbs. Keep your rosemary or thyme on the sprig, do not pick the leaves. Take your whole sprig, place it into the palm of your hand and clap your hands together once or twice. This ‘awakens’ the herbs so the oils are stimulated. Rub the inside of your glass with the herbs and leave them in the glass.

Build your cocktail. Add your ice first. Pour the limoncello then the gin into the glass. Stir the ice, liquors and herbs with a spoon in the glass slowly. Add your bitter lemon leaving enough space to top up with soda water. Serve cold.

The background story

My dad and I travelled around the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy for a few days. We stayed in Ravello, a cliffside town overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and within a stone’s throw of Positano (beautiful), Salerno (disappointing) and Pompeii (a crashing disappointment). Limoncello is everywhere in this region due to the abundance of Amalfi lemons used to infuse the fiery grappa. This cocktail is inspired by those road trips in the Amalfi region and the liberal use of rosemary during our stay.

Harry’s Bar Bellini

Often imitated but rarely duplicated. The original Bellini from Harry’s Bar is usually reduced to puree and – worse – splashes of peach schnapps topped up with prosecco. Here the recipe I use based on sitting at the bar and watching the middle-aged bartenders make round after round of this well-travelled classic. This cocktail is best made in a batch due to how it is made.

Ingredients & tools:

• 2 white, sweet ripe peaches, peeled but save the skins
• 1 bottle prosecco brutally cold (not cava, sparkling wine and definitely not champagne)
• Grater (like a cheese grater)
• Peeler or small knife
• Boston shaker or a jug and a shaker
• Airtight plastic container
• Bar spoon or tablespoon

Method:

Prepare peach purée. Peel and stone your peaches. Discard the stones but keep a handful of peelings. Grab your grater and grate the peaches on the smallest grater option to yield a fine purée. Save the purée in your airtight container. Grate a small amount of your peach skin carefully and stir in enough peeling to stain the peach purée.

Pouring back and forth. I watched these bartenders tip peach purée into a cocktail shaker and then top with about one large glass of prosecco. They would then pour the contents from one cocktail shaker into another. It knocks some of the bubbles out of the prosecco and creates a smooth purée and prosecco mixture. You will continue to pour the mixture between two shakers or a shaker and a jug for around 5 minutes resulting with a near smoothie-like mixture.

Bellini time! Pour about one-third of your flute with the prosecco-peach purée mixture and slowly top up with prosecco and slowly stir with a bar spoon to ensure it is all incorporated. Serve.

The Background Story

Harry’s Bar is cripplingly expensive. I brought Mrs EatGoSee here on our first trip to Venice together after about four months of dating. She adores both bellinis and carpaccio so it was an irresistible opportunity to impress her as a new boyfriend. Harry’s Bar was the glamorous spot frequented by the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway. Our dinner was a crashing disappointment leaving us with a bill that was nothing short of a polite mugging. The staff even tried to put a second bottle of prosecco on the bill that we never ordered. My only pleasant memories of Harry’s Bar started with watching these impeccably-dressed bartenders mix a classic cocktail in the original style of Giuseppe Cipriani Senior since 1931. This all takes place inside of a bar where the decor remains unchanged from its origins; Harry’s Bar is a time capsule where looking around conjures images of Ernest Hemingway scribbling manuscripts.