Cool cocktails for the summer holidays
To celebrate the season, we asked five popular Adelaide bars to share a favourite summer cocktail recipe. Warning: contains images that may make you salivate.
Riesling Cooler – Pink Moon Saloon
Marshall King, co-owner of Leigh Street’s Pink Moon Saloon, describes its Riesling cooler as “a lovely little mid-strength summer sipper”.
“Nothing in this drink is going to get you too drunk when you’re lying around out in the sun with your friends on a scorching Australian summer afternoon.
“It is a wonderfully refreshing marriage of acid from tangy Riesling and dry Fino sherry, rounded out with a little pineapple syrup (pineapples are still good, price rising soon!).”
Refreshing summer sipper: Pink Moon Saloon’s Riesling Cooler. Photo: Tony Lewis
Ingredients
60ml Riesling (they use KT 5452)
22.5ml Fino sherry
15ml pineapple syrup*
Dash of soda
Method
Combine ingredients in a tall glass with crushed ice.
Garnish with a dash of orange bitters and a slice of pineapple.
*To make the pineapple syrup, cook down the flesh of a fresh pineapple with equal quantities of water and sugar.
Montenegro Sour – 2KW
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2KW Bar and Restaurant manager Simon Adami says this cocktail reminds him of a memorable spring drinking experience: “Sitting in a piazza in Florence sipping a Montenegro enjoying the sun whilst eating chocolate. One of the most relaxing moments in my life.”
The cocktail was designed by Jake Williams, the cocktail expert at 2KW, which is eight floors above the corner of King William Street and North Terrace.
Cocktail with a view: 2KW’s Montenegro Sour. Photo: Tony Lewis
Ingredients
45ml Amaro Montenegro
15ml dark crème de cacao
15ml lemon juice
15ml lime juice
3 dashes chocolate bitters
egg white
Method
Place ice in a shaker. Pour in all ingredients and shake.
Strain and pour over ice in a tumbler glass.
Garnish with shaved Haigh’s chocolate and dehydrated Orange.
My Precious – The Bibliotheca Bar and Book Exchange
“Being a library-themed bar, we always try to liquefy our favourite books,” says Roman Tazhdynov, owner-operator of small bar The Bibliotheca on Gresham Street.
The bar likes to take drinkers on a journey – and this one is all about The Lord of the Rings.
“Just imagine… the Shire, the most peaceful of all the regions, is the home of the Hobbits. Famous for its rolling hills, quaint streams and green fields, it is one of the most beautiful lands in all of Middle Earth for its simplicity. Hobbit homes are nested against the countryside, flower beds and vegetable gardens as much a part of the land as several rivers that flow through it.”
Take a trip to the Shire with My Precious. Photo: Maria Savelieva Photography
Ingredients
50ml feijoa vodka
1/2 fresh kiwifruit, muddled
15ml fresh lime juice
15ml sugar syrup
25ml Prancing Pony Sunshine Ale
Method
Shake all the ingredients together.
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Double strain into a silver goblet.
Garnish with mint leaves – “like an elf’s pointy ears”.
Absinthe Frappe – Collins Bar
This summer thirst quencher from cocktail specialist The Collins Bar, overlooking Victoria Square, combines absinthe and Luxardo liqueur.
The Collins Bar’s Absinthe Frappe. Photo: Tony Lewis
Ingredients
30ml absinthe
20ml sugar syrup
100ml lemonade
10ml Luxardo
20ml lemon juice
Star anise and cherry to garnish.
Method
Pour the absinth, sugar syrup, Luxardo and lemon juice into an absinthe glass (pictured) and stir.
Top up with crushed ice and 100ml of lemonade.
Garnish with star anise and a cherry.
If you’re looking for a cocktail that doubles as dessert, the Collins cocktail list also includes a Citric Liquid Pie which features lemon curd, lemon sorbet and egg whites (pictured below).
Photo: Tony Lewis
Gin Sour – Hains & Co
Tucked away in Gilbert Place, the “nautically inspired” Hains & Co is passionate about gin and rum, so it’s little surprise that “The Admiral” (or owner) Marcus Motteram has nominated a gin-based cocktail.
“This is a beautiful rounded gin sour, bringing the flavours of vanilla and grapefruit to what is a timeless classic,” he says.
Hains & Co’s zesty Gin Sour. Photo: supplied
Ingredients
50ml Ounce Gin
30ml lemon juice
10ml each of vanilla, agave and pamplemousse syrup, mixed together
15ml egg white
Dehydrated grapefruit wheel to garnish
Method
Reverse dry shake ingredients (put all ingredients in a shaker, shake with ice, then strain out the drink, discard the ice, and shake it again; shaking with no ice is called a dry shake). The dry-shake process helps emulsify the egg.
Double strain into a coupette glass (pictured).
