With the cold creeping in mulled wine and cider are making a re-appearance so I thought why not introduce you to the mulled cocktail.  It’s not a new concept, but for some (bizarre) reason it isn’t as popular as it’s other mulled colleagues.

I find mulled wine can get a bit sickly after a glass or two, and if you spill it, it’ll ruin your night/shirt/carpet.  Mulled ciders also seem to lack that ‘edge’ so here is a simple recipe to make at home.  We made this at our last two events and it is one of our showstoppers, very popular with all that tried it.  Here is what you’ll need to make it at home

Minus 33

Cloudy Apple Juice

1 Lemon

Orange Peel

Cinnamon Sticks

(feel free to sprinkles of cloves, cardamom, star anise too!)

Calories: 134

Pour a litre of apple juice into a pan with the juice of a lemon, throw in one-quarter of an orange peel (squeeze in some juice please) and add the cinnamon stick.  Simmer on a low-medium heat and bring to boil.

Once piping hot, remove the pan and pour a measure or two of Minus 33 into a mug.  (Do not boil the spirit with the other ingredients, the alcohol will evaporate and where is the fun in that!?).  Pour 25ml Minus 33 into a mug and then add 200ml of hot concoction, throw in a thin slice of lemon as a garnish and enjoy with friends.

Trust us, you and all your guests will love it!

Crouch. Bind. Set. The Six Nations are back! To celebrate we are uncovering our nation specific themed cocktails.

What better way to show your national pride than shaking up some national pride in a cocktail shaker!?

Keep your eyes peeled as we uncover the full range over the coming weeks.

We have done our usual experimenting and been working hard (cocktail tasting is an exhausting task that requires dedication, and expert hand–eye co-ordination in order not to spill a drop).  Our aim; to create six fantastic Minus 33 based cocktails that represent the respective countries either visually or culturally and the best bit is that they are all incredibly easy to make. So easy, you could probably make all six during the half-time of a rugby match.  

The Ginness

St Patrick's Day Cocktail

For St Patrick's Day, we wanted to make something that was truly mind-blowing.

The cocktail we present today is truly unique. In our experiments, we tinkered with the idea of creating something green, but we didn't want our cocktail to fall into the background. We needed something that stood out in both profile and taste yet also screamed Ireland.

We left this job to Matthew, our half Irish geek - St Patrick's day for him is important for a lot of reasons, but the key one being bringing his family all together and celebrating their heritage and faith.  What he concocted was the Ginness!

Yes, you read that right; essentially Gin (not just any gin mind, Minus 33 of course) and Guinness. Now, I know what you're thinking some things should never be mixed, and we'll admit, we were sceptical on this one however, this cocktail blew our minds - it is DELICIOUS.

As we did with the Minus 33 recipe, we even ran it by countless people, to make sure we weren't alone - and people loved it.  If you like Gin and you like Guinness, heck, even if you don't, you HAVE to try this one (disclaimer* it does look a bit like a vodka coke though). 

After tasting it and realising that it actually tastes pretty good, your next question may be, but why?

Our answer to that is simple - for the craic, why else?! We both like gin and we both like Guinness, so we thought, why not? It also gave us an excuse to drink Minus 33 and Guinness in the office while we were 'working'.  The end result was even better than we could have imagined!

If you feel like kicking back and starting your St Paddy's Day off right this Friday, have a taste of our Ginness cocktail below:

Ginness

What you will need:

50ml of Minus 33

100ml tonic water

200ml Guinness

Ice cubes

Lime wedge for garnish

Method

1. In a tall hi-ball glass, place the ice cubes in.
2. Pour Minus 33 and tonic over the ice.
3. Stir for a few seconds with a long spoon
4. Slowly pour the Guinness over the Minus 33 mixture.
5. Add the 'green' lime wedge as garnish.

The Mexican-Inspired Minus 33 Margarita

Aim: 
Recent events, Brexit, Trump, Dry January, has left some people feeling pretty blue so let’s cheer them up by making an awesome cocktail that is bling and brings a bit of Mexico to our Isles.

Hypothesis: 
By working with lime juice and agave syrup we believe we can use tequila based cocktails to inspire a gin twist on a Mexican classic.

What We Will Need:

25ml Minus 33

25ml Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice

12.5ml Orange Liqueur (we used Suze, but Cointreau works just as well)

12.5ml Curaçao Blue/Blue Bols (If you want to avoid the blue look, add another shot of the Orange Liqueur above)

12.5ml Agave Syrup (Sugar syrup will do)

Sugar or Salt

Lime

Method:

Cut a wedge of lime and run it around the rim of a martini glass or coupette wetting it slightly.

Pour the sugar/ or salt out into a bowl and dip the glass in downwards to create the frosted look.

Pour all the other ingredients into a cocktail shaker full of ice and shake.

Double strain the cocktail into the glass and garnish with a slice of lime.

Viva la Minus 33 Margarita!

Results:

Mexico can keep their tequila, (but pass us the agave syrup please) we’ve found something that is truly exquisite.  Delicious, citrusy and a guaranteed way to get any party started.

We test ran this cocktail late last year with our friends at Macintyres, an Edinburgh-based jeweller, where we cleverly named it the Mac-arita. “And you know, it was very popular, it was great, the greatest cocktail ever. Period. Huge.”  (His words, not ours.)

If you are looking to pull this top trump out at a party we recommend opting for the sugar rim.  It’s a tough trade-off between calories or sodium and all comes down to your own personal taste but people tend to favour sweet over sour.

Conclusion:

We achieved our aim.

At 150 calories (more, if you work your way around the sugar rim), it’s not quite a gin and tonic but if any walls go up and tequila becomes scarce you can’t go too wrong with this tasty number. If it doesn’t put a smile on your face, we’re not quite sure what will.

If you are looking to get the party started, we suggest pairing this cocktail with Gostan - Klanga, a dance anthem that pairs Reagan’s famous Berlin Wall ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech with a catchy saxophone riff.  Alternatively ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ by Pink Floyd won’t hurt either.

Enjoy and let us know what you think.