By Sacha Delfosse – manager, Luxe Bar, Perth
While most pubs and hotels in Australia are not places one would expect to be able to order a Prohibition-era cocktail, or a molecular concoction ‘constructed’ rather than poured, using home-made ingredients, there is still the chance to provide guests with some easy-to-make and easy-to-consume mixed drinks.
Mixers and spirits are a common offer in most licensed venues across the land, and one such mixer that deserves to be used more often is ginger beer. Here I will share with you a handful of delicious ginger beer-based drinks that are refreshing and tasty – and potentially adding a point of difference (and some good margins) to your bar.
Vodka still reigns supreme as the spirit of choice for drinkers, especially females. So it shouldn’t be too hard to encourage the next guest that orders a ‘vodka-lime-soda’ to try a ‘Moscow Mule’. Dating back to the 1950s, the Moscow Mule was created (or so the legend goes) to help a vodka salesman move more product, and a Hollywood pub manager get rid of excess ginger beer he had on hand.
Simply add 60ml of vodka into a highball or tall glass, add two to three lime wedges (with the juice squeezed into the glass), fill with ice, top with ginger beer and give it a bit of stir.
Another great way to use ginger beer is in the rum-based Dark & Stormy. Although it’s technically supposed to be made with Gosling’s Black Seal rum, it works with pretty much any dark rum and is a great, sessionable drink that even non-rum drinkers will like.
Simple add 60ml of dark rum into a highball or tall glass, a couple of lime wedges, with the juices squeezed into the glass, several dashes of Angostura Bitters, fill the glass with ice and top with ginger beer and stir. If you wish to give it a bit more of an aromatic kick, add a dash of bitters on top.
Another spirit that matches up surprisingly well with ginger beer is tequila. Although most people still see tequila as shot of choice for a wild night out that will induce a bad hangover the next morning, trying good quality 100 per cent agave tequila quickly dispels this bad image. And rather than serving it as a shot, try and convince your patrons to try this in an El Diablo cocktail (which dates back to the mid 40s).
Like the two previous drinks, add 60ml of tequila into a highball or tall glass along with a few squeezed lime wedges, but this time also add 15ml of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur), add the ice, top with ginger beer and stir.
