Let’s Talk about Mixology, Part 43

by Amer A. Vargas

THE Red Snapper

On this occasion, we introduce you to a refreshing cocktail in celebration of the better weather that May often brings – this one will bring Spring to your palate, too.

You are probably familiar with the classic Bloody Mary? Well in this case, we are swapping the vodka for gin, but keeping the rest of the ingredients and leaving the presentation untouched, to help us create the Red Snapper.

In case you don’t know how to make it, these are the ingredients you’ll need: a little flake salt or celery salt, a little freshly ground black pepper, a lime wedge, a celery stalk, 60 ml/2 oz of Premium Gin, 120 ml/4 oz of tomato juice, 15 ml/ half an oz of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 3-8 dashes of Tabasco sauce (depending on how spicy the drinker likes their drink) and 4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce.

And this is how you prepare the Red Snapper: first, mix the salt and ground pepper into a small plate, rub the juicy side of the lime along the brim of the glass and finally rim it with the salt and pepper. Then add the rest of the ingredients, except the celery stalk, into a cocktail shaker together with 4-5 ice cubes, and shake until chilled. Put another 3-4 ice cubes in the prepared glass and strain the mix into it. Finish by garnishing with the lime wedge and the celery stalk.

Enjoy with care…cheers!

Mr. Vargas is the Institute’s President—feel free to contact him via email, AmerVargas @ modernbutlers.com

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

Let’s Talk about Mixology, Part 42

 

by Amer A. Vargas

 

Calafate Sour

Having recently traveled around both the Argentinian and the Chilean Patagonias whilst delivering service, this fortunate butler had the opportunity to taste a very interesting local cocktail at The Singular Hotel in Puerto Natales.

It’s called the Calafate Sour, and it’s a variation of the Pisco Sour that includes juice of the calafate, a fruit endemic to the southern parts of South America, particularly Ushuaia in Argentina and Punta Arenas in Chile. The calafate fruit is a berry of a dark blue colour, with a very strong and tangy-sweet taste. And for those who aren’t familiar with Pisco, this is a high-proof spirit produced by distilling fermented wine or grape juice, originally from Peru, but also widely produced in Chile.

This is what you need to prepare the Calafate Sour: 30 ml / 1 oz of lemon juice, 75 ml / 2½ oz of Pisco, 15 ml / ½ oz of (concentrated) Calafate juice, a teaspoon of sugar and ice.

And this is how you prepare it: put the lemon juice and the sugar in a blender and mix for a minute. Add some ice and mix for about 10 seconds and finish by adding the pisco and the calafate juice and mixing it for another 20 seconds. Serve in a lowball or a flute decorated with a lemon slice or wedge.

Legend has it that whoever consumes calafate berries, falls under their spell and will return to the place where they were first consumed. This butler is counting the seconds to go back to Patagonia!

Cheers!

Mr. Vargas is the Institute’s President—feel free to contact him via email, AmerVargas @ modernbutlers.com

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

 

Let’s Talk about Mixology, Part 41

 

by Amer A. Vargas

 

Red Carpets

Since the Oscar Awards are still fresh on our minds, this month’s cocktail is my personal choice of a cocktail that I first tried quite a long time ago. This particular recipe is provided by our friends from TheSpruceEats.com, and as they say, this drink is worthy of an Oscar itself!

As I mentioned above, the Red Carpet is a personal choice of mine and those who like bitter-sweet flavors are in luck, as it makes good use of the following ingredients:

1.5 oz/4.5 cl vodka

1 oz/3 cl Campari

1 oz/3 cl pomegranate schnapps

1 oz/3 cl pomegranate juice

0.5 oz/1.5 cl of simple (sugar) syrup

Preparation is really simple: Pour all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker over 4-5 ice cubes and shake vigorously. Strain the mix into a chilled classic cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon slice or a lemon twist.

Enjoy your Red Carpet, even if you missed the Oscars, and we wish you a happy Spring!

 

 

Mr. Vargas is the Institute’s President—feel free to contact him via email, AmerVargas @ modernbutlers.com

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

 

Let’s Talk about Mixology, Part 41

by Amer A. Vargas

Low-calorific Cocktails

After a long Christmas and Holiday season filled with several family meals (normally quite heavy ones!), it is time for the New Year Resolutions! And one of the most common ones is losing those extra pounds or kilograms one has acquired during the festivities.

Can we enjoy a nice cocktail and not break our weight-loss resolution? Yes! Some cocktails have even less calories than a glass of wine.

Of course, to accomplish our objective, we must avoid adding sugar, cordials, or even fruit to cocktails, and switch to soda water, which is non-calorific.

Then, choose your favorite base spirit but normally, whisky and vodka are the distilled alcohols with lower calorie counts.

There you go! Fill a lowball glass with rocks (ice), add a shot of either whisky or vodka, and add soda water to taste. And in the case of vodka, you can decorate the drink with a lemon slice.

Cheers!

Mr. Vargas is the Institute’s President—feel free to contact him via email, AmerVargas @ modernbutlers.com

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.

 

Let’s Talk about Mixology, Part 40

by Amer A. Vargas

The Bob Marley

We start the new year paying homage to another country that I visited recently for the first-time—Jamaica, home to many, including the fastest athlete in the world, Usain Bolt, and to another individual, who popularized Jamaica’s modern music, reggae, across the rest of the world.

An important milestone was achieved for this music and Jamaica when “Reggae music from Jamaica” was been included in the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2018.

So, plenty of reasons for this homage: for Jamaica, for reggae and for Bob Marley. And this is the Bob Marley cocktail, that we could broadly describe as a triple daiquiri composed of the colors of the Rastafarian flag: red, yellow and green (from bottom to top).

This is a frozen cocktail (meaning, each layer is blended in the mixer with ice), then poured in the glass, in this case, a Collins or highball.

Let’s go layer by layer. The first one would be a strawberry (Jamaican) daiquiri: 5 mid-size strawberries, a bit of lime juice, 1 oz/2.5 cl Jamaican rum. Pour into 1/3rd of the glass.

The second layer, the mango daiquiri, is the same except it uses a medium-sized mango instead of strawberries for the middle 1/3rd of the glass. Some daiquiri will remain in the blender, so add a dash or two of blue Curacao, blend again and top up the glass foe the green 1/3rd

Serve with a straw and any additional colorful decoration to enhance the presentation.

Thanks to bar supervisor, Tina Watson, from Azul Sensatori Negril in Jamaica for the recommendation and the recipe. Cheers and Happy New Year!

Mr. Vargas is the Institute’s President—feel free to contact him via email, AmerVargas @ modernbutlers.com

 

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.