Hattie’s Crazy Bar

Inventing a new cocktail- a great stress buster

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:03:25 +0000

It is natural to feel stressed out after a tough day’s work where you spent hours working on technical and complicated stuff like core techincal solutions and other such products and services. You may feel the need of a strong and hard drink after you come back home. However, the problem with having a drink to relax is that things quickly become very monotonous. The drink may feel very soothing at first. However, having the same drink after work for a week at stretch can leave you feeling bored. Your body and mind will crave for something new, unique and innovative.

This is where cocktails can make a huge difference. Many persons make the mistake of thinking that cocktails involve nothing more than mixing different alcoholic drinks together and consuming the same. What they fail to understand is that the cocktail is a treat for not just the taste but also for the eyes. If you prepare a good cocktail, chances are high that you will feel refreshed by simply looking at it. The sight of tomato juice mixed with vodka and a tangy pineapple floating on top can help you forget all your office related worries without any difficulty.

Some persons start experimenting with cocktails only to give it up after a few botched affairs. Well, there is no guarantee that the new cocktail you invent should taste well at all times. I once had a friend who mixed blackberry juice and cranberry juice with vodka. It just was not edible. Well, you can avoid this problem by going in for really small quantities of cocktails. Stick to a single one that will help you feel refreshed and then proceed further to experiment a bit. Whether the finished product is edible or not is irrelevant. The whole process of playing around with drinks will help you feel relaxed and light.

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Mad Hatter’s Cocktail Party

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:35:52 +0000

Halloween may be my favourite holiday, I absolutely love the surreal sense of fun that it engenders. My friend asked me to help organize a Halloween party for his work. This is the fun bit, he works for a graphic design team and they have their very own machine that does large format printing. I was completely inspired to play with scale and size to create optical illusions for a Mad Hatter’s Cocktail Party. I chose drinks that involved optical illusions and then did massive posters to hang on the walls and tiny menus to put in people’s pockets.

You can embrace the idea of crazy colours and optical illusions. You can pre freeze cocktail glasses in the freezer with a layer of either a coloured mixer like a dark red cherry juice or a white cream. You can empty a gallon jug, put inside a bottle of your favourite hard core tipple, then add a layer of water and flowers at the bottom, allow it to freeze, add a layer of coloured juice, allow it to freeze and then finally another layer of coloured juice. You will end up with these perfectly chilled drinks covered in completely crazy coloured ice sculpture

One option is to go for cocktails that look like tea, such as the Madhatter in the video above. You could also do a long island ice tea which has:

1 part vodka
1 part rum
1 part gin
1 part tequila
1 part triple sec
top up with sweet and sour mix and coco cola

Then serve your cocktails up in the craziest tea pots and tea cups that you can possibly find. If you want to be a bit more traditional you can actually make real tea and serve it with some of these lovely boozy suggestions:

Vodka and orange slices in black tea
Baileys Irish Cream in English or Irish Breakfast Tea

Cutting Costs Not Fun

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:03:40 +0000

I know, it is simply too much the middle of the summer to start thinking about winter and the onset of fuel poverty. The thing is, I have an oil furnace, so I need to top it up long before the cold sets in. I am actually cash poor at the moment, so I decided to have a Red Diesel Essex party, invite all of my friends and raise money to pay for running my oil furnace all winter.

I decided to serve the most fabulous selection of red cocktails that I could some up with, all of the party guests were asked to wear red clothing and I played some fabulous house music. I am a bit of a glutton for punishment, so I decided to make it a whole day and into the night event. This was simply because one of my favourite all time drinks is the bloody mary, and this doesn’t work half as well after dark. It really is a breakfast drink, the measures below are per drink, but you really do need to make a pitcher. The best way to do this is measure home many glasses your pitcher will hold and then multiply out the recipe:

1 shot of lemon or pepper flavoured vodka
4 oz of spicy V-8 or other multi vegetable juice
splash of Tabasco sauce
sprinkle of celery salt
1 long celery stick with the green bit left on top for stirring the drink

Red Diesel Warmer is a special cocktail that I invented just for the party. It is based on a kir or a kir royal which uses white wine or champagne mixed with creme de cassis which is a black current liqueur. For my drink I used:

1 measure of cherry brandy
1 measure of red grape juice
top up with white wine

The colour was absolutely brilliant, I also made cards that I handed out to people with other drinks that I had available. I did a house cosmopolitan:

1 measure of fruity vodka
1 measure of cranberry juice, I actually used a summer fruit juice blend which was delicious
1 measure cointreau or triple sec
a splash of lime juice

If you fancy breaking out the blender, it is always for to do strawberry daiquiris. I was a bit worried that all of the drinks were a bit girly.

I had a complete brain wave and decided to do shots of red bull and jagermeister, also known as jager bombs, they were stunningly beautiful and a lot of fun.

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Singapore Sling Recipe

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:35:01 +0000

Slings were used to be generic drinks speared with an alcoholic spirit and moderated by sweeteners and other ingredients and become beverages with water, lime juice and alcohol. Somewhere between 1910 and 1915, Ngiam Tong Boon, a barman at Raffles Hotel, discovered a type of sling for the colonial ladies, the Singaporean Sling. His recipe book was kept safe and was locked in the hotel’s museum.

In spite of all that this lovely drink is a favourite all over the world and many people seem to enjoy having it no matter where they are.

Anyone who attempts to collect Singaporean spirits and has to make an authentic Singaporean Sling must go a step ahead and do the honor of drinking this classic cocktail in a cool garden setting while dreaming of the summery Singapore. It is just not the same any other way and the feeling will sure be different also. So here is one Singapore Sling recipe to satisfy your taste buds and you won’t need any unusual additive such as whey protein or a banana.

Singaporean Sling Recipe

It is the authenticity of this cocktail drink that makes it popular across the globe. Here’s a recipe that has been the source of the glory of the Singaporean Sling.

Ingredients:

· 1 oz gin

· 7/2 grenadine syrup

· Sour and sweet mix

· ½ oz cherry brandy

· Club soda

Directions:

Pour grenadine into a Collin glass bottom and fill with ice. Add sweet and sour mix, gin and chilled soda. Top this mixture with cherry brandy. Do not stir. Garnish with a cherry and serve.

Margaritas

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:16:57 +0000

If one is on the lookout or trying to work out the best lay out for the tummy then one must try out the Mexican Fiesta spread which includes both the Mexican dishes to be washed down with a margarita. Cocktails of this range are bound to get the guest in a playful mood and if one leaves some sombreros lying around it would soon be picked up and the music would be danced to.

Making a margarita is as simple and easy as applying coconut oil to the hair! It requires one to one and a half ounce of tequila. The name of this wine itself gets many a heads lolling in dance and rhythm. One also needs an ounce of Grand Mariner Orange Liqueur. A quart of fresh lime juice is to be kept ready also.

The tequila is best if it is 100 percent blue agave. The tequila is to be shaken well with the other three ingredients that is the Marnier and lime juice. This mix is to be strained into a chilled salt-rimmed cocktail glass. This makes for one drink.

There is also the tequila sunrise which needs two ounces of tequila and four ounces of orange juice along with half an ounce of grenadine. The tequila and the orange juice is to be poured into a highball glass which contains ice. Stir it well and trickle some grenadine on top. This also makes one drink that would make the people feel quite Mexican in mood if not in dress after consumption of it.

The music and the rest of the ambience that makes up the party would make up the rest of the fervour that is essential to make such a party a grand success. Tequila has its own inherent properties to add that zing to a party and with the other ingredients any margarita adds the correct amount of fun to a party.

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Blender Drinks

Sat, 14 May 2011 09:34:09 +0000

I know, its screams eighties like self storage and mullets, but blender drinks are more than a nostalgic trip to a misspent youth. The one thing that is infinitely more difficult these days is that people don’t have blenders like they used to. A household is more likely to have a hand blender and a food processor, both of which will not do for a proper pina colada or strawberry daiquiri. The classic daiquiri combines rum, triple sec, and lime juice. Delve into the history of the daiquiri and you will find its roots in Cuba and then a trip across the Caribbean to the United States, a rise is popularity due to rationing during World War two and then a complete change of fate when it became a frozen slushy night club treat. It is a great choice as a welcome cocktail for a summer cook out, and it can be a useful choice, because you can have two blenders going at the same time to provide a non alcoholic version that looks just as good. If you are reluctant to go retro you can update the daiquiri by modifying the fruit. The strawberry is the most traditional, but you can go for an exotic fruit like lychee, kumquat. rambutan. or blood orange. The other option is to use something entirely local like rhubarb, blueberry, or gooseberry. If you want to completely blow away your guest, think of the below recipe for the elderflower daiquiri.

2 oz white rum
1 oz elderflower cordial
1/2 oz of triple sec
1 cup ice

Blitz in a blender and enjoy.

Winter delight

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:03:42 +0000

Warm cozy nights by a roaring fire, sweaters, turtleneck shirts and scarves bring to mind the long and at times, dreary months of winter. Now, with the warm weather approaching it is difficult to think about cold weather cocktails. Most of us have endured a long harsh winter and are looking forward to the summer, grilling on the deck and cool refreshing drinks. However, I was introduced to this recipe from some friends and it was so good that I felt it was worth sharing. This drink is perfect as a substitute to after dinner coffee and goes well with many desserts. Because of the seasonal ingredients required for this cocktail it may be difficult (if not impossible) to make during the spring and summer, but come fall and winter it’s sure to be a hit.

For this simple recipe you will need:

1 – ½ pint of butterscotch schnapps

1 – Quart of apple cider

4 – Cinnamon sticks

4 – 8 oz. coffee mugs

Pour into a large pot entire quart of apple cider

Slowly heat the cider on a medium – low to low setting until the cider begins to steam but NOT BOIL

While the cider is heating – put one measured shot of butterscotch schnapps into each of the coffee mugs

When cider is warmed, pour 8 oz of cider into each mug

Use fresh cinnamon stick to stir and leave in the cup as a garnish

Serve immediately with cinnamon sticky buns or a fresh baked loaf of cinnamon bread.

Review: Jackson’s Way

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:03:31 +0000

After winning the Perrier award in 2004, Jackson’s Way didn’t get much chance to air in the capital. Now, to cover the lack of shows, this show has played at 26 London venues in 26 days.

Whenever audiences go to enjoy this half theater, half cinematic performance, they will certainly find it different. Will Adamsdale comes on stage with different presentations every time. All his performances are very refreshing much like the artwork of Debra Stroud. He played the receipt, the human computer or the boat that rocked on stage. Though his performance is very fresh and different, sometimes, many people do not understand the main point of the show. And for this very reason, the show remains pointless to those people.

And the show gets more pointless when Will Adamsdale try to rhyme “leg” with “orange” and performs some weird actions. But, these pointless actions are the main ingredients of his successful show. People gets confused and don’t understand what these actions are trying to mean. These actions sometimes successfully tickle the audience but people who are hungry for comedy don’t think it’s funny. But the most impressive thing of this show is Jackson do weird things by using force of will only. Jackson is a motivational speaker who tries to deliver inspirational speeches. It seems like miracle when he tries to rhyme two words which don’t even rhyme with his confidence.

But, this five star show is underrated because of its environment. Over-lighting makes the stage look weird and problems in the microphone makes it hard for the audience to understand the gigs. He is playing his show on different venue each night so it’s very easy to enjoy his show if you are interested to watch it.

The 3 Best Tasting Vodka

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:58:58 +0000

So I love me a good screwdriver drink every weekend when I I escape those School Management Jobs. But even though some people believe that it’s the orange juice that makes a good screwdriver, I think it has to do with the brand of vodka used. To this end no two screwdriver drink will taste the same.

Now Vodka is a renowned alcoholic drink famously associated with Russia, although, its origin is Polish. Vodka may seem quite tasteless to an average person, but its tasteful vigor is strongly felt by all the ardent vodka lovers. The best vodka’s have a very strong taste which goes down smoothly with minimal burn. So here is my take on the best Vodkas around fitting for a great screwdriver drink.

Three of the best tasting vodka’s are:

1. Grey-Goose: From France, this brand of vodka has long stood for its superior quality and supreme taste. It has a relatively salty and peppery taste with a zing of citrus in it. These bottles come with a price tag of $30.

2. Absolut: This is a well-known Swedish premium vodka brand. It is wheat based vodka with sweet and smooth tones giving the taster a pleasant feel. It is also available in different flavored varieties. This vodka comes in bottles worth of $22.

3. Russian Standard: Undoubtedly, this is one of the most loved vodka brands and is of top premium quality. It is mainly grain based and is combined with glacier water before being distilled repeatedly for eight times. There are different variations; such as, original, platinum, gold and a luxury version called “Imperia” to choose from. There prices start from $25.

Cocktail Crazy

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:47:55 +0000

I threw a fabulous dinner party at the weekend – just me and a few friends, nothing too crazy or hectic, just lots of delicious food (if I do say so myself!) and of course, the best cocktails in the whole universe! Okay, so maybe I am a little bit biased, but my cocktails are without a doubt the best I’ve ever tasted! I bet you’re wishing that you’d been invited to my dinner party now, don’t you! well just to whet your appetite a little further, I’ll tell you exactly what I served. First was canapÃ©s and obligatory champagne – a great start to the evening! The canapÃ©s included mozzarella truffles, foie gras crackers and miniature steak kebabs. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It was nothing short of divine! To start, I provided home-made butternut squash ravioli – I even made the pasta myself! A beautiful bottle of Chenin Blanc complimented the food perfectly and led the way nicely to the main course, chicken and bacon casserole with a choice of French side orders! A gorgeous fresh green salad drizzled with Apple Cider Vinegar and sprinkled with Himalayan Crystal Salt (only the finest ingredients for me!) freshened the palate and got us ready for dessert – a creamy lemon tart with extra cream! Just when we all felt fit to burst, out came my trusty cocktail shaker for round after round of highly indulgent yet ludicrously moreish Pina Coladas, Mojitos and Cosmopolitans. Needless to say, my guests were feeling slightly heady when they left and by all accounts they were extremely worse for wear the following morning! Personally, I felt absolutely fine – if a little on the podgy side! But after all, one night of pure indulgence is very good for the soul and is a requisite for enduring friendships!