Stirring, Shaking and Muddling my way through Cocktail Making

With a recently found interest in mixology I've decided to start my 2017 with some rum cocktail making.

To help in this endeavour I've been introduced to a website called thebar.com that provides an impressive list of cocktail recipes. For each recipe the quantities automatically alter once you select the number of people the cocktail is for. You can favourite recipes for future use and there's a nice little bit of info about each cocktail to accompany the recipes.

In the past, I've been put off cocktail making by the fact that I don't own a cocktail shaker, this, impediment I found out however, is very easy to overcome. With a little rummaging in the kitchen I discovered I had the perfect substitute in the form of a water bottle. Turns out it's really quite satisfying to give a cocktail a vigorous shake.

Stirring, Shaking and Muddling my way through Cocktail Making, photo by modern bric a brac

For the moment back to the beginning. My Rum cocktail making was about to commence and my plan was to try three different methods - stirring, muddling and shaking.

Hot Buttered Rum

This winter warmer is perfect for people who love cinnamon and nutmeg. On my debut cocktail making night, my friends said it reminded them of butterscotch. The drink really appealed to me the most and I think this was because I'm such a fan of warmed spirits. I find them quite soothing. Add some runny honey, butter, hot water and give it a stir. The website suggested it was a great way to finish a winter wedding or after returning from a walk on a dark and rainy day. I thought yes, I'll have this again.

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Old Fashioned Spice

This, was not so successful, I must share. A muddler, I found out is the name for an implement with a mortar for crushing ingredients at the bottom of a glass. To muddle is to crush ingredients, such as a sugar cube and Angostura Bitters before pouring in the remaining ingredients and stirring to combine. To make an Old Fashioned Spice cocktail you take a sugar cube, dash it with Angostura Bitters, crush and add ice and rum. So far so good, but the finished drink turned out to be too sharp for our taste. It made my friends and Welsh One wince and then make some unexpected noises. Maybe I didn't get the measurements quite right. How much is a dash of Angostura Bitters anyway? The colour was warm and inviting but I think in the main this was just a bit of a muddle.

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Hurricane

I really enjoyed making this one and it went down very well. Better suited to sunny days, I can imagine drinking this in the summer. A longer drink than the others, this one contained pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, rum and in my recipe a raspberry syrup. It was a jolly looking raspberry pink colour with a bright orange slice and ice. In the recipe it instructs you to vigorously shake the ingredients with ice until the outside of the shaker feels cold. Top marks for this one, five cocktail glasses out of five.

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With these three skills I feel emboldened to take further steps into the world of mixing. I've favourited a few to try for later. Next time I'm planning to make Eggnog and a rum punch for a house warming.

This post has been sponsored by thebar.com, click here to check out some cocktail recipes.