Cocktail Hour - The White Mexican

Cocktail Hour is back! And we've found something a little special to alleviate those autumn blues.

The White Mexican is essentially a latin riff on the classic White Russian - substitute the Kaluha for Patron Coffee Tequilla and you have it.

However, a vodka shortage at New Utility HQ meant that we had to get a little creative and use dark rum rather than usual Russian staple.

This occasioned heated, and slightly drunken, debate with my housemate as to whether this forced substitution warranted a complete name change.

Technically a White Mexican should constitute Coffee Tequilla, Vodka and Cream, after a few tastings we agreed that the detour via Havana gave the finished article a more rounded sweeter flavour, with just enough bite coming through the tequila.

After much back-and-forth, and some quite terrible potential monikers being bandied about, the worst of which were Fidel's White Mexican and, my favourite, The Geographically Challenged Russian, we reached rather an impasse..

So if anyone has any ideas do let me know!

Anyway, should you feel the urge to mix one proceed as follows:

• 60ml of Patron (coffee tequila), 
• 30ml of Havana Club dark rum
• 60ml cream, 
• top up with milk
• chocolate sprinkles to garnish

In a rocks glass filled with ice add the Patron, rum and cream over ice. Top up with milk if desired.

If there are ladies to impress push the boat out be adding a few chocolate sprinkles.

Be warned however, these things slip down very quickly and do rather sneak up on the unsuspecting drinker. Enjoy!

Cocktail Hour - Dark Rum Sour

To Cuba via South America this week, all in the name of booze.

Those of you who've read the previous cocktail columns will know that I have something of an obsession with sours. I've tried various ones over the years, but never with rum.

Purely to help the digestion you understand...

To that end I spent a while researching recipes and came up with a rum based take on a Pisco Sour. (Pisco is a South American grape brandy produced in Peru and Chile - something to add to the tasting list if I can find it.)

I used a 7 year old Havana Club, simply because that's what I currently have in the drinks cabinet, but I suspect this cocktail would work really well with a darker navy rum or Goslings just to really give the sweet and sour contrast a kick.

Egg white, deliberately missed by some bartenders in sours, adds a smoother texture to the finished cocktail so I urge you not to skip it.

The Angostura Bitters gives things a nice lift, its medicinal botanicals technically making this sour an aperitif - a perfect pre dinner snifter.

It's just a pity we don't get to enjoy any of that Cuban sunshine in Denmark...

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 60ml dark rum
• 30ml lime juice
• 20ml simple syrup
• 1 egg white
• 2 dashes, Angostura Bitters
• Ice
• Cocktail shaker
• Rocks glass, cooled (or old fashioned glass, if you have one)

Procedure

• Dry shake the egg white with the rum, lime juice and simple syrup (shaking egg white without ice properly emulsifies the ingredients before adding ice and re-shaking). 
• Shake vigorously. Add ice and re-shake
• Shake a couple of dashes of bitters in to the cooled rocks glass, over ice if you like
• Pour contents of shaker in to the glass
• Garnish with a little mint

Bottoms up! (This cocktail is quite bracing, so I suggest sitting before consuming. Definitely don't attempt to fashion a coherent blog post.)