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Alizé Rose and Krupnik Honey Liqueur

At work we have two things sat on our shelf that I didn’t really know much about, so I decided to do a bit of research!!

Alizé Rose

Alizé was first created when one prized exotic jams and juices family joined forces with a prized cognac family to create a new spirits category called, Exotic Cordials. The brand became very successful when the internationally-famous rapper Tupac Shakur, came out with his video hit called "Thug Passion", and rapped about Alizé and Cristal. Four weeks after this hit came out, Shakur was assassinated, and the two brands just took off. Alizé is still a favourite among the stars.
There are many different flavours, one of them being Alizé Rose.
As described on the Alizé website..."Alizé Rose features an authentic blend of the finest French cognac and vodka combined with luscious passion fruit, strawberry juice, lychee juice and rose essence." It was designed to heighten the cocktail experience, and has a sweet yet tart flavour with an ABV of 20%.

So how does work in a cocktail...

The Ginger Rose

Alizé Rose served over ice with a splash of ginger ale, garnished with a fresh raspberry.
1 ½ oz. Alizé Rose
Ginger Ale

Fill a rocks glass with ice. Add Alizé. Top with ginger ale and garnish with a long lime twist or a strawberry.

Krupnik honey liqueur

Krupnik (pronounced kroop-NEEK), is an ancient Polish liqueur, which traces its roots back to the 1300's. As such, it has been a traditional drink in Poland for centuries. Krupnik is made of natural wild bee's honey gathered in forests, and exotic spices (40%-50% (80-100 proof) alcohol, honey and up to 50 different herbs). It has an outstanding honey-sweet taste and spicy bouquet. It has a strong, warming effect. It’s Best drunk warm in the winter or on the rocks during the summer

As for in a cocktail here is a great example:

The Good Old Days

4 oz Champagne
1/2 oz Old Krupnik Honey Liqueur

Pour into a champagne flute, add a cherry, and serve.

Frangelico

This Northern Italian, hazelnut liqueur, is a huge favourite of us Fizz, Flip and Fancy girls!

It was created by the Christian monks living in the hills of the Piedmont region, over 300 years ago. The bottle design is even a tribute to its origins – styled to look like a monk’s habit, with a rope belt.

This liqueur is created from a complex recipe of wild hazelnuts, cocoa, vanilla berries and other natural ingredients. The versatility of its taste makes it a perfect addition to any drink, suitable for all seasons. It also works well as an after-dinner drink in coffee.

Our favourite way to drink Frangelico is over ice, fresh lime juice and Belvedere vodka. An interesting discovery I made was to add milk to 30ml of Frangelico in an old fashioned glass, and Emma and I were extremely jealous when Alex was given a solid chocolate shot glass from which to have her Frangelico!

If you want to incorporate Frangelico into a cocktail, you could try a Spring Tonic:
- muddle 4-6 lime wedges and a sprig of mint in the glass half of a Boston shaker.
- Add 15ml Frangelio, 15ml Vanilla Liqueur, 30ml Apple Liqueur and ice.
- Shake and strain into a large Martini glass and top with soda.

Or, try muddling 4 physalis berries in the bottom of a low-ball glass, filling with crushed ice and then adding 50ml Frangelico. Divine.

The Science Behind Egg Whites in Cocktails

Egg whites in cocktails act as an emulsifier, forging the independent ingredients together. They also change the texture of the cocktail as, when shaken, they produce a foam.

But first, here are the science basics you need to know:
- Egg white is largely protein.
- Proteins are made up of long chains of amino acids, which are similar to beads on a string.

Physically shaking the drink will break these bonds between the amino acids (and the different parts of them), denaturing the protein, and new bonds will be formed. Some amino acids are ‘water loving’ (hydrophilic) and attracted to water, and some are ‘water fearing’ (hydrophobic) and repelled by it. When the bonds are broken, the protein will uncurl, so the ‘water loving’ amino acids are near the water, and the ‘fearing’ are away from it, then new bonds are formed and the egg white has a different texture to the one it had before. Shaking will mix air into the egg whites and the new bonds hold will the air in place, creating a foam.

Without the addition of citrus, this foam would cave quickly. Adding citrus will change the pH of the egg whites. The pH is a measure of hydrogen ion concentration, the lower the pH, the more hydrogen ions. Lemon juice typically has a pH of around about 2.4, and egg whites, 7.7. Lowering the pH (by adding citrus, therefore increasing the hydrogen ion concentration) lowers the reactivity of the protein molecules, preventing a collapse of the foam.

Some time should be put into shaking cocktails containing egg whites, so expect to be shaking it for longer than you would a Cosmo. The longer you shake it for, the more of the structure of the egg whites you break up, and the more air you put into it, therefore the lighter the drink will become.

- Alex

Speed Training

In a night club, its important to know the drinks off the top of our heads, and get them made quickly. As part of our cocktail training, we created a friendly competition – to make a cocktail, to perfection, in the least possible time.
The basic idea of speed training:
- one of us would select the cocktail to be made
- we each get a time period in which to learn (from memory!) how to make the cocktail
- start the timer!

For our first round of speed training we made Mojitos as they were rapidly gaining popularity in the club.
To make a Mojito you…
- muddle 3 lime wedges and 12.5ml sugar syrup in a high ball
- add the leaves from 3 sprigs of fresh mint and muddle with the back a bar spoon
- fill glass with crushed ice and 50ml Havana Club Especial
- ‘violate’ with the bar spoon
- top up with crushed ice and a dash of soda water
- garnish with a sprig of mint.
Our time scores were all less than 1min 40secs, a time that I am sure has now been improved upon with all our practice!


- Parysa
(Pic: Parysa and Alex making Mai Tais)

The Flip

The defining feature of the flip is that is contains egg and since it's nearly Christmas (and being inspired by my favourite Starbucks coffee - the eggnog latte!) I decided to make the most popular of all.... An Eggnog!

My Dad and I were feeling in the Christmas spirit and decided to test out a few recommended recipes. Our favourite by far was the Waldorf-Astoria Eggnog... truly scrumptious it was creamy, smooth and like Christmas in a highball glass!!

So to make an Eggnog:

2 Egg yolk
1/2 oz Sugar syrup
3/4 oz Port (Tawny)
1 1/2 oz Bourbon
3 1/2 oz Milk
1/4 oz Cream
Nutmeg

Add all the ingredients (except the nutmeg) to a Boston shaker and shake well over ice cubes. Strain into a large highball glass over ice, and finally sprinkle with a little nutmeg. Yum!

Merry Christmas!! (be it a little early but oh well!)
Emma

P.S Unfortunately I managed to drink all the eggnog before I remembered to take a picture! I found that one!

Home-Made Liqueurs

At the club, we found that we weren't able to extend our product range, but with a demand for 'trendy' ingredients (lychee, passionfruit, etc.) we decided to create our own.

Into an empty 275ml bottle went…

- The flesh of 4 passion fruits / flesh of one grapefruit / whole lemon (chopped up) / whole pear.
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar (more in some cases – adapted to taste)
The contents were steeped in vodka, leaving enough spaces so the bottles could be shaken every couple of days.

The bottles were left in the fridge for 3 weeks with the fruit inside, and then were strained out and aged for a further 2 weeks.

The liqueurs generally worked well – all that is except the pear – which just went brown and rather rank. So if anyone knows how I can get around this, please post in the comments!?!! Also, if you were going to try it out, I'd use 2:1 sugar syrup, rather than granulated sugar, which took forever to dissolve.


While we have yet to make anything with the lemon liqueur, we have played around with the passion fruit. The Passionstone cocktail was created in response to a number of young (and generally female) customers who don’t like to taste the alcohol, but want to drink something slightly more sophisticated than Malibu and coke or Sex on the Beach.

Passionstone

15ml Hendricks Gin
35ml Passion Fruit Liqueur
20ml Pure Cloudy Apple Juice
3-4 Lime Wedges
3 Sprigs of Mint
10ml Sugar Syrup

In a highball glass, muddle the 3 lime wedges with the sugar syrup. Remove the leaves from one sprig of mint and gently muddle in the glass using the back of a bar spoon, so as not to bruise.

In a shaker, put the gin, passion fruit liqueur, apple juice, and the leaves from the remaining two sprigs if mint. Add ice, and shake.

Fill the highball glass with crushed ice, fine strain into the glass. Stir with a bar spoon and garnish with a mint sprig.


The cocktail should be on the sweet side, but not fall into the category of sickly sweet, due to the lime juice, and freshness from the mint. We are due to make another batch of the passion fruit liqueur this week, and I think that we'll add more passion fruit to begin with to give it a stronger flavour. It's had a great response so far, especially from Ema, one of our amazing bar staff, who in the past has turned her nose up at even the smell of gin.

Next, I hope to try a lychee liqueur, and begin to start combining flavours, rather than just the one (maybe lychee and ginger), and steeping in spirits other than vodka. I've recently had a bit of a pineapple margarita addiction, so perhaps I'll try making a tequila based pineapple liqueur.

- Alex


When we decided to start making our own liqueurs with different ingredients, so that we could have a larger repertoire of flavours to experiment with, I jumped at the chance of making one with pink grapefruit because it is a fruit that I am particularly fond of due to its fresh, sharp, yet sweet citrus taste and it has a smell that is so distinct and delicious. Once the liqueur was ready to use, I experimented making a cocktail with it that was gin based, which I found suited the flavour extremely well. I kept it simple, just literally using the pink grapefruit and gin, a dash of sugar syrup and shaken with ice. It also went well with a dash of lemonade/soda water (whichever takes your fancy) if you want to make it a long drink. However, I much preferred the simple version, in a small martini glass. I am yet to experiment with other spirits but that is something I intend to do next time I get behind the bar!

- Parysa

The Fancy

To make a fancy cocktail, you will need:

50ml of your selected liquor
2 dashes of bitters
1/3 teaspoon of sugar syrup
1/2 teaspoon of Cointreau/triple sec
Lemon twist.

Add the liquor, bitters, sugar syrup and triple sec to the glass half of a Boston shaker. Add some cubed ice and shake. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with the lemon twist.

For my Fancy, I chose to use Campari for my liquor because of its affinity to orange flavours. The bitters that I used were Angostura Bitters and in this instance I used triple sec. The outcome was a delicious (but very strong!) cocktail, where the bitters played a large influencing factor on the taste and the colour obtained from the Campari was pleasantly complemented by the lemon garnish. As personal preference however, I would be inclined to add more sugar syrup – perhaps 12.5ml. I also think I may have been over-zealous with the bitters however this can only be improved upon next time!

- Parysa

The Fizz, the Flip and the Fancy

Inspired by last months Mixology Monday on Prohibition and in opposition to the oodles of sickly sweet cocktails sold in the bars around town, we have decided to pay homage to the cocktails of days past – and in keeping with the name of our blog, this month we’ll be visiting the Fizz (already posted), the Flip and the Fancy.

Mixology Monday - Prohibition/Repeal Day

This is our first attempt at writing for Mixology Monday, so please bear with us. This month it is hosted by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, who set us off reading and writing about a pre prohibition cocktail, a repeal day story, and then challenged us to create our own Prohibition inspired cocktail. So here's what we came up with..........