what happens when world duty free and london's leading mixologist charlie mccarthy get together and talk cocktails and the summer drinks festival? well apparently, it leads to me having to then try and recreate one of them; this one in particular though, sounded so very me that i was pretty keen to get my hands on the box of ingredients, and getting started!
so, after work on friday, i gathered three of my favourites and headed to rebekah's in dalston; we planned to get our summer drinks vibes started on a balcony overlooking east london with some scrummy snacks for lining the bellies, and with some summer jams playing in the background, holding it all together.
adorably named the pink76, this sophisticated french cocktail's leading ingredient is the new belvedere intense vodka - the intensity (thanks for asking) comes from how bloody strong this new and exclusive drink (available only at world duty free so i will be remembering to stock up when i travel later in the year! ) is; with less water than the original belvedere vodkas, the alcohol content in this bad boy is a whopping 50% which means that no matter how much pomegranate juice this cocktail called for, the first sip was always going to be like taking a punch in the face.
the pink 76
20mL belvedere intense vodka
20mL Cointreau
10mL pomegranate juice
25mL champagne
how to
1. combine all ingredients (exc. champers) in cocktail shaker and shake well.
2. fine strain into flute glasses up to halfway.
3. top with champers.
4. garnish and slurp!
the recipe that was included in the pack called for redcurrants and champagne flutes (which... obvious, really, it's a champagne cocktail after all), but sadly it turned out that we had neither of those to hand. instead we opted for the old fancy wine glasses and strawberries to finish the look off. i had a quick peep of the world duty free youtube channel for last minute tips on how to best shake this thing up, but alas, no pink76 vid!
as it happens though, i did ok! i did a mixology course when i was about eighteen and had big dreams of a being a fancy bartender in the big city, but not since then have i dared to try and use a proper shaker to mix up something as serious as the pink76. i was a bit nervous about pulling the glass and the shaker apart (because i'm a bit precious) and so needed a little bit of help from the girls in that department, but once the lid was off, the pouring and champagne topping commenced!
and, erm... in lieu of an actual measuring thingy that we also didn't have to hand, i used measuring cups (hahahaha) that are meant for baking and not drinks mixing, and they weren't exactly exact measurements (ahahhahahahahaaaa); they smelled (and tasted!) mighty potent... but i reckon they looked ok!
so the next few hours were spent storm watching from the roof of the 7-floor building, drinking summer cocktails and dancing about in glee when the rain finally came and we (finally) got some respite from all the heeaty heat. it was wonderful. this is what summer is all about.
which is your favourite of all the world duty free #summerdrinksfest cocktails?
check out all the recreations on twitter now!
