Cocktails To Sip This Summer
We’ve put our best thinking-about-drinking hats on to share some crowd-pleasers with you this holiday season. We’ve put them in order of difficulty, but in reality even the Half Blood Spritz isn’t that hard. We believe in you!
Summer is for sipping. And you won’t do better than sipping on these.
Rye and Ginger
This is a pumped up version of the ubiquitous Rye & Dry. We’ve swapped out the dry ginger for Australian legacy brand, Bundaberg Ginger Beer, and we’ve spiked it with the juice of half a lime. It carries the spice through both the rye and the ginger beer, and the lime supplies the tang to cut the heat. It’s technically a mixed drink, but cut some super fine lime wheels to garnish and suddenly you’re drinking a five-star cocktail with one-star required skill.
45ml Archie Rose Rye Malt Whisky
Juice of half a lime
100ml Bundaberg Ginger Beer
Combine in a highball glass, add ice and top with ginger beer. Garnish with lime wheels. This drink is so easy you don’t need to do any prep if you want to prepare a few rounds ahead of time - if you wanted to you could pre juice the citrus, but it’s really pretty quick to do as you go.
Queen’s Park Swizzle
This drink is something of a fancy cousin to the Mojito. The bitters seeping down through the ice not only elevates the drink visually but also gives astringency and depth to the ultimate thirst-quencher.
The drink was created at the eponymous hotel around the turn of the 20th Century. The hotel was host to prototype American tourists relaxing on the beaches of Trinidad. Traditionally made with a blend of dark rums, our peppy White Cane can hold its own with the lime, mint and bitters.
It benefits from crushed ice, and we highly recommend using our bottle bags to crush the ice. Fill the bag with ice, use a mallet or rolling pin and give the ice a few good whacks. Hey presto, you have some fancy crushed ice.
The Swizzle was a type of cocktail that used a Swizzle Stick from an aromatic tree native to the Caribbean. Grip the stick between your flat palms and rub back and forth to rotate the stick in your hands. The bitter bark from the Swizzlestick tree would impart a bitter flavour while also stirring the ice and chilling the drink. If you don’t have a swizzle stick handy, use a bar spoon, It’s almost as fun.
Combine all the ingredients except the bitters with crushed ice, churn for 20 seconds, noticing the glass starts to frost as you do so. Add more ice and churn again. Add more ice. Top with five dashes of Angostura bitters and a mint sprig. For making a few you can very easily juice a dozen or so limes to pop in the fridge for when you’re ready.
Such A Vibe
This is an elevated take on a Lychee Martini, which shot to fame in the 90s - the era of calling everything a Martini, even when they were clearly not. We’re looking at you, Espresso Martini and Appletini.
This drink is refreshing and crisp, yet undeniably a crowd-pleaser.
30ml Archie Rose Signature Dry Gin
20ml Scylla Lychee Liqueur
20ml Sake Horiusan
10ml Pennyweight Fino Apera
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, stir down until diluted and chilled (around 20 seconds but taste as you go to make sure you’re happy).
Garnish with a lemon twist. If you want to make a few of these for guests you can pre batch it - multiply the number of all the ingredients by ten (so you can count on your fingers and toes if required) and mix into a jug. Then when you’re ready you can pour 80ml for each person into a mixing glass (or a jug if that’s what you have to hand - any large vessel will do) and stir down. You can pre prepare twists, but will need to make sure they don’t dry out. Put them in some damp kitchen towel in the fridge until you’re ready to serve them.
Passin’ Me By
This is another bright drink from the Archie Rose Bar team. The Triple Molasses Rum and berries are born to be buddies. They dispense a one-two punch that’s hard to beat.
40ml Archie Rose Triple Molasses Rum
20ml Lemon Juice 20ml Bizarro
20ml Blackberry & Strawberry syrup*
To make the syrup combine 70g of blackberries, 90g of strawberries and 800ml of sugar syrup. (Equal parts sugar and hot water combined and chilled).
Combine all ingredients in a shaker, shake hard and fast and fine strain into a coupette. Garnish with a berry or two on a skewer. Skewers can easily be pre-prepared, but you can also put a bowl on the table so people can graze on fresh berries while they imbibe.
Half Blood Spritz
This drink is from the Archie Rose Bar. It’s a super easy, bright yet complex spritz. The combination of coffee, Davidson plum and rhubarb feels strange at first. But if you think about the brighter fruit/cherry flavours fresh coffee can impart, it starts to make more sense. But the best thing to do is just not think about it and give it a whirl. It’ll surprise and delight your guests. You can also easily batch all the ingredients except the soda water, and have in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
30ml Archie Rose Native Botanical Vodka
60ml Rhubarb juice
30ml Davo Liqueur
15ml Coffee Liqueur
15ml Sugar Syrup
5ml White Wine Vinegar
Top with soda water (about 30ml). Garnish with a blood orange wheel.
To make the rhubarb juice: 1kg Rhubarb 1L Water.
Chop and rinse the rhubarb, place into a pot with 1L of water and simmer until the rhubarb is mushy. Fine strain into a container of your choice.
