Tick of the Clock

I have a confession to make.  Just recently, I found myself getting a bit frustrated in my search for a new cocktail to make.  And then I realised that it wasn’t the first time I’ve felt like that.  Over recent weeks I have found myself reaching for an old favourite.  A comfort food in a glass kind of cocktail.  I’ve had a great excuse because I’ve been cocktailing for our Ukrainian guests who were complete cocktail virgins until they came to me.  We’ve welcomed our guests.  We’ve moved house.  We’ve spent time getting to know each other and we’ve been working out ways to live together and/or co-exist in our space.  And our Friday bar (and of course our Saturday and our Sunday bar too) still needs to start with a cocktail.  Obvs.  

But just because I’ve been leaning on my old favourites, it doesn’t mean that I’m still not going to be excited by a new cocktail every now and again.  

And when I saw this Tick of the Clock there were several reasons it caught my eye.  

The colour in the original photo was a beautifully zingy orange, topped with a lovely sprig of mint.  It is tequila based, which of course is never a bad thing.  It includes ginger syrup which I love.  But it also includes Angostura Bitters as a significant ingredient rather than just a dash, which is always a bit of a curve ball.  And then that name: the Tick of the Clock totally reflected how things are just flying by right now.  I can’t believe how much we’ve achieved already (since our Ukrainian guests arrived in the UK, never mind how much since we ‘met’ way back in April), but every now and again, when I’m beating myself up on how much there is still to do, I just need to mentally tick off just what we HAVE achieved, and how much progress we have made together.  

So the ticking of the clock is a totally pertinent reason for celebration and of course, what better reason to do that than with a cocktail!

So why don’t you get your own clock a ticking? 

Get yourself a shaker full of ice and add:

1.5oz blanco tequila

1oz lime juice

1oz ginger syrup

0.25oz Angostura Bitters

The instructions say to shake over ice, and then strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass, but I think you know how I feel about serving drinks over ice?  It always irritates me for one of two reasons, and if I’m honest, both of them are as annoying.  The first is that unless you drink it super-fast, it’s likely to water down your lovely cocktail which you absolutely don’t want to do unless you’re on a sun-drenched beach somewhere.  And then the second reason, which is *even* more annoying if you are on a sun-drenched beach, is the annoying drip of the condensation onto the table, your clothes or worse, your skin!  So you can do what you need to do there and go full on rocks glass, or join me in straining into a lovely cocktail glass.  

And it tastes delicious.  

But can you tell there’s a ‘but’ coming?  I can’t for a second imagine that this ingredients list can produce such a pop of orange in the glass that I saw in the photograph.  My own, for once with no substitutions, is a much darker colour: more a burnt orange, wintery glassful.  But don’t get me wrong, it is quite lovely.  And I can recommend it to you.  

Stone Wheel

Patron, those purveyors of tequila that should be everybody’s first choice, have an annual competition for bartenders extraordinaire to be recognised as Patron Perfectionists.  This year I managed to catch it in time to actually participate in the judging.  But as usual, given that mine is not a professional bar set up, I’ve had to substitute the occasional ingredient or two.  So although I will definitely be submitting a vote, it will only be relative to how ‘home bar friendly’ their entry is.  

The first to be put to the test is a Stone Wheel, from Yoann Tarditi of The Lobby Bar.  

Apart from actually having all of the ingredients (or as near as damn it), I particularly liked the use of cider as a mixer.  If you have all of these ingredients you might be in time to submit your own vote here.  

Half fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add everything except the cider:

40ml Patron Reposado 

5ml Green Chartreuse

7.5ml vanilla syrup

7.5ml ginger syrup

20ml lime juice

60ml cider

Shake it all hard, strain into a Collins glass full of ice, and top with the cider.  

As an amateur cocktailer, I can honestly never be bothered with ingredients in such small volumes like a bit more than a medicine spoon, usually, but I made myself stick to it on this occasion, and actually, I can kind of see that it worked.  But in all honesty, this wasn’t a cocktail that knocked my socks off.  It was refreshing.  And it did have a fair bit of alcohol in it, but it didn’t taste like it.  

I’m not sure it will get my vote, but would it get yours?  

Silk Road v2.0

Every now and again I come across (or remember) something new, that just demands making into a cocktail, and recently I treated myself to a bottle of pink grapefruit liqueur.  Well goodness, on its own it is blinking heavenly, and if I’m honest, it would be really easy just to drink it neat, sneaking a little tot before bedtime or when I’m in from a cold walk.  But one of the deals we made with ourselves at the very beginning of this lockdown was that under normal/lockdown circumstances, we’d still only open the bar at the weekends, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we fancied the odd drink in the week: but these would be the exception rather than the rule.  Well, little did we know back then that a year later we’d still be wrestling with both working from home and having to stay in… But thank goodness otherwise I think I for one would be the size of a large house, and not just a semi. 

So this weekend, I am looking forward to opening my cocktail bar with a pimped up version of one of my favourites: a Silk Road.  

A Silk Road is a rather grown-up cocktail, that feels decadent with its champagne, but unlike darling Monica, I find that one is plenty.  Well, plenty before I move on to something else, but you know what I mean.

So, I think this time, our Silk Road might see the introduction of the pink grapefruit liqueur rather than the Tanqueray that I usually select.  I’m hoping it will add a little depth, perhaps round off the flavour of the anise, and perhaps elevate it to a ‘more than one is required’ cocktail. 

Let’s start with a cocktail shaker half full of ice and then (bearing in mind that this will make you TWO cocktails) add:

2oz pink grapefruit liqueur (you could use gin as the original recipe calls for)

2oz grapefruit juice (the original calls for 4oz but let’s see where this gets me)

1tsp ginger syrup (and here I’m using our Ginger & honey syrup)

1oz lime juice

1 star anise

About 1cm fresh grated ginger

A couple of drops of rhubarb bitters (these are only optional but definitely worth it)

Champagne or fizz of your choice to top

Shake everything except your fizz really hard, until your shaker is too cold to hold and you can hear the ice cubes breaking down as you shake.  

Strain into TWO champagne flutes before topping with your fizz.

So, what did I think? 

Well, I have to say I was slightly disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong, it was actually still lovely, but I *so* wanted the grapefruit liqueur to sing, and I’m not sure it did.  I was right to cut down on the grapefruit juice, but next time, I might skip the grapefruit juice altogether, and add another ounce or two of the liqueur.  

Silk Road

It’s Christmas Eve!  The prezzies are all under the tree.  The veg is prepped and despite the oven breaking down the turkey is cooked.  Just the two of us this year, not even our special old girl Bessie dog who we lost in the summer at the grand old age of 18.  But this is a year like no other and we will enjoy our health and each other’s company because we can.  

I’m a scouser so as the law requires, we have our Christmas PJs/Jammy’s/Jaamies/Pyjama’s/Pajama’s (whatever you call them where you are) on, and we’re ready to switch off and throw ourselves into Christmas proper.  

It feels right to start with something lovely, something grown up and something fizzy and a Silk Road just fits the bill.  It takes a little prep but trust me, it’s worthwhile.

Half fill a cocktail shaker with ice.  Add to it :

2oz gin

4oz grapefruit juice

1tsp ginger syrup

1oz lime juice

1 star anise 

A couple of drops of rhubarb bitters

Over the top, grate about a cm of fresh ginger.  

Shake everything really hard and double strain into TWO coupe glasses before topping with champagne or the fizz of your choice.  

#SilkRoad #fizz #gin #GrapefruitJuice #syrup #GingerSyrup #LimeJuice #StarAnise #RhubarbBitters #Ginger

December 24th, 2020