50shadesofbrave

It’s Christmas Eve eve now… 00:40 to be precise… and you’ll have to forgive me if my typing goes awry at times… because I’m sitting in bed after a fabulous evening with fabulous friends who came round to help with my challenge of learning to make cocktails 🙂

This challenge came to be because frankly, I think it’s a pretty poor show getting to the age of 50 and not having a repertoire of at least a few cocktails. The only ‘cocktails’ I think I have regularly made to date are Bucks Fizz on Christmas morning and Black Russian on Christmas Night… But not any more!!

I had initially planned to gather a group of friends to attend a class led by a professional mixologist. However, time and finances got the better of that plan, and so I had a slight rethink and decided in favour of a cocktail ‘show and tell’ at home…

(Can I just tell yu that already I am thankful fro autocorrrecy…)

Four lovely friends took part in this challenge with me. And so it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to work out that we have downed five different cocktails this evening. Hic…! (I have chosen to write this at gone midnight order to stave off the horror of having to try to go to sleep with that spinny-head feeling that was familiar in our youth… )

The aim of the evening was that each participant demonstrated a cocktail, and I then had a go… After all, the challenge was not just to *drink* cocktails, but to learn how to make them!!

The menu went as follows:

First up was a Bloody Mary, by Melissa. Shame on you if you thought it was a simple as vodka and tomato juice, as the proportions of Worcestershire Sauce and Tabasco are what make the difference in this cocktail. Mel’s preference seemed to be for a rather ‘spicy’ Bloody Mary… just enough Tabasco to take the roof off your mouth… 😉

Next up, Cath taught us a Prosecco French 77. Into the shaker went equal measures of gin, lemon juice and elderflower cordial, ideally poured into champagne coupes / saucers (we used wine goblets), and topped up with prosecco. Very refreshing… and rather too easy to drink!

Then it was my turn, and I had chosen to teach my favourite cocktail… the Pornstar Martini. Vanilla vodka, passionfruit liqueur, passionfruit puree, orange juice and ice, into the shaker… Served in martini glasses with an upturned halved passionfruit floating in the cocktail and a shot glass of prosecco on the side. Pure bliss.

By this point, the crisps and dips were going down a storm… a few sausage rolls and some nuts to soak up the alcohol, and we were good to go…

Number four was the Dark and Stormy, taught by Jo. 40% alcohol (80% proof) authentic Jamaican dark rum, mixed with ginger beer and served with fresh lime. I have to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to like this one… but it was absolutely gorgeous! Definitely a keeper 🙂

The final cocktail of the evening, and easily the most lethal was the B52, taught by Karen. No shaker required for this one, just a very steady hand… as the aim was to ‘layer’ Tia Maria, Baileys and Cointreau in a shot glass. Slowly slowly… layered… and necked!!!!! O.M.G….. A taste not dissimilar to an alcoholic Terry’s Chocolate Orange. De-licious. So delicious in fact that seconds were required.

All in all a fabulous evening, with lots of laughs and learning. There wasn’t a single drink that I didn’t enjoy, and I definitely plan to make some of these again. A coffee to ease the after-effects, a zillion glasses loaded into the dishwasher, and here I am in my bed.

It has taken me almist an hour to wrote this blog, because fi I hadn’t corrected all the speelling errors, you;d never have been able to understind the go=ibberish!!!! Thank you Mel, Cath, Jo and Karen for joining me in this challenge and teaching me some fabulous new cocktails in my 50th year. Mixologists R Us 😉

I wuv ooh all … Night night….

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