MUDDLER DRINK RECIPES

Steps:

• Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. 3 TWISTS Strawberry daiquiri This cocktail should only be attempted with fruit that’s really ripe and sweet – if the berries are the big, bland variety from the chiller cabinet, the end result will just taste of mush. Allow one large handful of hulled strawberries for each cocktail. Place them in the empty shaker and give them a gentle crush with a muddler or pestle, then add the other ingredients and shake as normal and strain into your cocktail glass. Out of season, you could also make a version of this drink using Funkin strawberry purée which will be almost as good. Hemingway’s ‘Papa Doble’ daiquiri The writer Ernest Hemingway drank at El Floridita in Havana so often they ended up creating a daiquiri recipe especially for him called the Papa Doble, made with a quadruple measure of white rum, lime, grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur. I don’t think many of us could handle a drink this size – as delicious as it is – so I’ve scaled it back a bit: 50ml white rum, 15ml pink grapefruit juice, 15ml lime juice, 15ml Luxardo maraschino liqueur, 5ml sugar syrup, shaken and strained into a cocktail glass or blended with ice, depending on what you prefer. La Terraza’s blue daiquiri Another place Hemingway liked to drink when he went fishing was a little waterside bar about 10 miles outside Havana called La Terraza. La Terraza’s signature daiquiri is made with blue curaçao, so it’s the colour of a lagoon. You can make one too, simply by substituting 15ml Bols Blue curaçao in a normal daiquiri in place of the sugar syrup. A delicious guilty pleasure on a summer’s day, especially with a cocktail umbrella.

Steps:

• 1. Put the four lime wedges into a glass, then add the sugar and muddle (squish everything together) to release the lime juice 2. Put the mint leaves on one hand and clap. This bruises the leaves and releases the aroma. Rub the mint leaves around the rim of the glass and drop them in. Use a muddler, bar spoon (or even a rolling pin) to gently push the mint down into the lime juice 3. Half fill the glass with crushed ice and pour in the Bacardi Carta Blanco. Stir the mix together until the sugar dissolves 4. Top up with crushed ice, a splash of the soda water and garnish it with a sprig of mint