A drink as ridiculous as Death in the Afternoon deserves a ridiculous garnish
Quick: you’re working in a bar, and a customer asks you for a magic trick. What do you do? If you’re like me, with sausage fingers, zero dexterity, and terrible presentation skills, most sleight-of-hand techniques will normally be outside of your repertoire. Instead, reach for your bottle of absinthe (pastis will do in a pinch) Continue Reading
45ml Bacardi Superior Rum
15ml Lime Juice
5ml Grapefruit Juice
5ml Maraschino Liqueur
The Hemingway Daiquiri, also known as the Papa Doble, is one of those cocktails that are easy to get wrong. Fresh grapefruit juice can vary wildly in terms of acidity and sweetness, and with the small amounts under consideration, you can lose the flavour of grapefruit. In my personal opinion, I like to use more grapefruit juice than lime juice, and use the lime juice and additional sugar syrup to compensate for the variation in sweet/sour balance.
In terms of it’s history, the Hemingway was reportedly invented in Cuba, for Ernest Hemingway, who’s favourite cocktail, the Daiquiri, was slowly becoming poison for a man with diabetes. The sugar that is normally used in a Daiquiri is replaced with maraschino liqueur, which is as sweet with less glucose. Grapefruit juice is widely recognized for reducing the blood sugar level due to its low glycemic index.
Last week, I made a post mentioning the Diageo World Class Cocktail Competition. Well, another of the big competitions (in which I’m also competing in) is the Bacardi Legacy, a cocktail competition hosted by the venerable Bacardi family. Beginning in 2007, 2014 is the first year the competition will include contenders from the Hong Kong bar scene. 64 applicants sent in their recipes in the Fall of last year, and they were whittled down to 20, and then 10 regional finalists. I’m very happy and proud to say that among the top 10 finalists are many of my friends (and me).
This was my very first competition, and I wanted to get things off to a good start. I wanted to think about every single aspect of my drink, and put meaning behind each individual ingredient. What follows is a look into my thought process in creating my Bacardi Legacy drink, The Lost Generation. Continue Reading
