Dalgona Coffee Cocktail

Yes, the name of my cocktail is pure click bait - no I am not ashamed. Any other name I could come up with involved 💩 and that would be worse.

Let it be known that I do not like instant coffee in any way, shape or form. It taste like a mix of burned car tires, soy and cigarette ash. I would rather never drink coffee again than drink a cup of instant coffee.

Still those dalgona coffee pictures I kept seeing on Instagram and articles about the abomination from reputable sources intrigued me.  How could I not stick a dollop of the 💩 on top of a cocktail?

So I spend some time trying to figure out what cocktail to mix - perhaps a martini to tie it into the quarantini trend? No, too obvious - then I came across a bunch of gorgeous pink, freshly picked rhubarb on a table in front of a garden near by. At a very reasonable price so I decided to mess with a Kiliki Cooler.

So after cooking the rhubarb with sugar, a little lime - mostly to keep the color - and a bit of star anise I strained of the cordial and turned the mushy solids into a bit of cake for my afternoon coffee.

Then I was ready to mix:

• 6 cl golden rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca
• 4,5 cl rhubarb cordial
• 1,5 cl grapefruit juice
• 1,5 cl coffee syrup

I shook everything with ice and strained the drink into a glass filled with crushed ice.

Well, actually just before I shook the cocktail I mixed two tablespoons of instant coffee with two tablespoons of sugar end two tablespoons of hot water and using a handmikser whisked it to a consistency of meringue about to be piped.

It did collapse quite quickly after being piped on the cocktail. And how did it taste? Like a pretty mix of burned car tires, soy and cigarette ash - with sugar.

The cocktail however was good and I made another without the coffee  - lovely!

 

Don's Beach Planter

The last few days I have missed several important days in the booze universe: Bartender’s Day, Margarita Day and Don the Beachcomber’s birthday.

So for Mardi Gras I mixed them all up.

I mixed Don’s Beach Planter - the recipe rescued by that amazing author and bartender Beachbum Berry - and since it took me more than two days to make the sugar for my King Cake (just a Danish smørkage) I decided I could use it for a sugar rim in honor of Margarita Day and because there is a hint of a Sidecar deeply hidden in Don’s drink.

I mixed:

• 3 cl aged rhum agricole - I used Savanna 
• 1,5 cl Jamaican rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca 
• 0,75 cl Cognac - I used Pierre Ferrand 1840 
• 3 cl pineapple juice 
• 1,5 cl lime juice 
• 1,5 cl passion fruit syrup - I used homemade 
• Dash Angostura 
• Big dash absinthe - I used La Clandestine 

I shook everything with ice and poured it unstrained into a glass with a half rim of sugar - garnished with lime and cherry on cocktail pick.

Vicious Virgin Number 2

One of the many things I love about tiki is the names af all the cool cocktails.
This one tells a heck of a story on more than one level.

I found it in the brillant Total Tiki app when looking for something new to use a tired grapefruit for. A 1960’s recipe with a surprising mix of tequila and rum and a lovely hue.

• 2,25 cl Tequila - I used Ocho 
• 2,25 cl Light Rum - I used Plantation 3 Stars 
• 1,5 cl Orgeat - I used homemade
• 0,75 cl Blue Curacao - I used homemade 
• 2,25 cl Lime juice 
• 4,5 cl Grapefruit juice 

Shake with ice and strain into cold cocktail glass of a tiki persuasion.

Not quite Bananas Foster

While listening to the wind and rain outside I realized it’s Tiki Month!

As luck would have it I had just started my first batch of banana oleum yesterday. It was meant for a bourbon cocktail tasting like Bananas Foster (originally created by @the_cocktailguy I think. )

But I figured that is not nearly tiki enough. Yes there are a few bourbon tikidrinks - but I was hankering for something else.

The recipe was a good starting point. So I mixed:

• 6 cl golden rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca 1,5 cl Fernet - I used Stork 
• 3 cl banana oleum - 3 peels with a tenth of their weight worth of sugar left for 24 hours in bag and agitated once in awhile then strained 
• 1,5 cl lime juice 
• 1,5 cl cream 

Shake everything with ice and pour unstrained into tiki mug and add pineapple soda.

Garnish with a dolphin and a silver flamingo cocktail pick.

Banana Passion Grove Swizzle

Swizzles are fun to both make and drink so my third cocktail to try from Matt Pietrek's book Minimalist Tiki was his own creation Passion Grove Swizzle. Only - I don't really like Falernum so I changed that out for banana liqueur instead.

That however was not the only change I made I noticed after mixing the drink and taking the first satisfying sip - I had also misread the recipe. CocktailWonks original recipe calls for a lightly aged/filtered rum like Plantation 3 Star - but I had grabbed Plantation Xaymaca when gathering the ingredients for the drink.

It did however turn out great so I this is going to be my future recipe:

• 2 cl white over proof rum - I used Wray and Nephew
• 4 cl aged/golden rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca
• 2 cl lemon juice
• 3 cl pinapple juice
• 1,5 cl creme de banana - I used Giffard Banane du Bresil
• 1,5 cl passion fruit syrup - I used homemade

Build the drink in a tall glass add crushed ice and swizzle with a swizzle stick or a long bar spoon - I cut my own swizzle stick from local pine back when I made my first swizzle - they are fun to work with. Top the glass with more crushed ice once the drink is mixed and very cold. Garnish with a fun piece of banana candy - mine was banana and liquorice.

Mai Tai Digestif

I am not a Mai Tai puritan even though Trader Vic's 1944 Mai Tai just happens to be my favorite cocktail. And yes, yes I know the original rum used has been lost but the gist of his creation stands.

I'm always up for a clever twist or riff on the drink - one that respects the original but dares to play with the ingredients or the measurements.

I have made a few twist myself over time and think I have gotten away with it.

So when I saw a recipe for a Mai Tai with Jägermeister I was intrigued. It was posted in a Tiki recipe group on Facebook and all the poster wrote of the origins was "at a new Cuban place in Atlanta".

I can google the information that a place called 1 Kept  in Atlanta once served a Mai Tai with Jägermeister but that's all I know.

I wanted to try out a recent birthday gift of a Hario Filter-in Coffee Bottle so I put a handful of fresh lavender and some espresso roast coffee beans in the filter and poured in a mix of Jägermeister, Fernet Branca and Branca Menta - just basically emptying some bottles.

After 24 hours I mixed the drink:

• 3 cl light rum - I used Havana Club 3 yo
• 3 cl Jägermeister - I used my infused mix
• 2 cl lime juice
• 1,5 cl orgeat - I used home made
• 1,5 cl curacao - I used Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao

Shake everything with ice and pour unstrained into double old fashioned glass or Mai Tai glass. Garnish with a lime wheel and a sprig of lavender.

I have to admit that the lavender and coffee was hard to find in the mix - so I will let it infuse for another week and try the drink again then.

Angostura Colada

Upon my first quick browse through Cocktailwonk's - or Matt Pietrek’s - amazing book Minimalist Tiki I noticed three cocktails straight away to try out first. On closer inspection it turned out I could only make one of them as the cocktail hour came around in my household: The Angostura Colada.

The cocktail is developed by Zac Overman in New York who now co-owns a restaurant/bar in Seattle. 

As anyone who has tasted a Trinidad Sour knows a cocktail with Angostura Bitter as it’s base can work. So I was not apprehensive about the 4,5 cl the recipe called for. I was however a little concerned about the marriage of coconut and Angostura.

I really don’t much like traditional Christmas spices in sweet things and I feared it might be too much. It wasn’t - the lime and pineapple works it’s magic and the drink has a solid medicinal tast that I really like. I will definitely mix it again:

• 4,5 cl Angostura Bitter
• 1,5 cl Aged over proof Jamaican rum - I used Plantation OFTD
• 3 cl Lime juice
• 6 cl Pineapple juice
• 4,5 cl creme of Coconut - I used  Coco Real Creme of Coconut

Shake everything with crushed ice and serve in a big glass topping the drink of with fresh ice. Garnish with an orange slice and the prickly bits from a pineapple if you have them. You can grate som nutmeg on top - I did not, so as to not over Christmas spice the drink.

Enjoy - oh, and if your new to Tiki or an expert, get the book - It’s solid. And no this is not an ad - I bought my own copy. It you are in Europe and the price of shipping on Matt’s homepage scares you - you might use the same solution I did and buy it from the Netherlands https://www.zeewijck.nl/en/search/Minimalist+Tiki

Raspberry Lava Flow

After my first ever dolphin banana garnish I was not about to let the banana go to waste once the cocktail was gone. So I looked for a drink with banana and came across the tropical Hawaiian drink called Lava Flow.

I liked the look of it and figured raspberry would both taste great and look equally as cool as the strawberries it is traditionally made with.

Easy peasy to make in a blender:

• 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Star
• 12 cl pineapple juice
• 2 cl coconut cream
• a small ripe banana

Put everything in a blender with ice and blend until it's smooth as a milk shake. Pour into tall glass and rinse out blender:

• Handful of frozen raspberries 
• juice of 1/2 lime

Blend and pour on top of drink - use a wooden skewer to force the flow of raspberries down the inside of the glass.

Serve with a straw.

Wandering Dolphin

Good friends brought me back a souvenir from their trek along the Portuguese coast to Santiago de Compostella in Spain: Shell shaped ice coolers. The shell is traditionally the sign of the pilgrim.

I wanted to show them off in a cocktail, and have had an eye on Cocktailwonk's twist on The Banana Life for a while. Not least because I am the last cocktail blogger to try my hand at a banana dolphin. I don't know it the actually invented it at Three Dots and a Dash but they certainly made it popular.

I ended up tweeking the twist, so I gave it a new name:

• 6 cl light golden rum - I used Damoiseau Gold from Guadeloupe
• 1,5 cl banana liqueur - I used Tempus Fugit Creme de Banane
• 1,5 cl blue curacao - I used a homemade
• 3 cl ruby grapefruit juice
• 3 cl pineapple juice
• 1,5 cl passion fruit syrup - I used a homemade
• 1,5 cl lime juice

Add all ingredients to a shaker and shake with ice, pour unstrained into nice tiki glass and garnish with a banana dolphin. Use blue sugar pearls for eyes and a good cocktail cherry in the mouth.

I added my cocktail coolers on top og the drink mainly to show them off, but they actually kept the ice in the drink from melting and diluting the drink, so they ended up serving a purpose.

Spumoni

I have never given much thought to the alcohol content in the cocktails I mix at home. Never divided them into any kinds of weak/strong light/heavy categories. But recently I've spotted and mixed a couple of light aperitivos and been really delighted with them.

I'm sure much of their allure has been amazing photos from Punch Drink's photographer Lizzie Munro but then when I tasted them it was clear that they taste as good, as they look.

A few weeks ago I mixed a Garibaldi - they way it's mixed at Dante in New York.  So simple and so tasty. And it came in handy the other day when a visitor asked for something light.

And then the Spumoni - the way it's mixed at Bar Pisellino in New York caught my eye. I just had to try that one too.

I did not alter the recipe - just follow the link - my only personal stamp was the use of the Spiced Negroni Gin from Three Pillars - that played really well with the rose peppercorn syrup.

And so now I have a really light drink and a quite light drink in my repertorie.

Kiliki Cooler

I was recently reminded how easy it is to make your own fruit syrups. So when I spotted passion fruit at a supermarket I bought four to give it a try,

Before I got started I had decided to give it a try in a Kiliki Cooler - a Beachbum Berry creation made for the host of the Hukilau.

That recipe calls for coffee syrup - so I made that too.

I started by gently heating 350 g sugar and 3 dl water to the boiling point in a pan.

While that was happening I split the passion fruits and scraped the contents into a bowl - and since I was making both the syrups at the same time I pulled a shot of espresso on my espresso machine.

I added 6 cl of the simple syrup to the espresso - equal amount actually.

And then I added the passion fruit to the rest of the syrup in the pan and let it bubble away for a minute or too.

I let the passion fruit syrup steep for a couple of hours before I strained it - don't throw away the stuff you strain out it's excellent on a cheese sandwich or on ice cream.

When both syrups were completely cooled and bottled I mixed the cocktail:

• 6 cl rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca
• 1,5 cl lime juice
• 1,5 cl orange juice
• 1,5 cl pineapple juice
• 1,5 cl passion fruit syrup - see above or use a ready made syrup like Giffard's
• 1,5 cl coffee syrup - see above or buy some.

Shake everything and pour unstrained into a low wide glass. Garnish with fresh fruit.

Cherry Tai - my way

Messing with the mighty Mai Tai is always fun - I know some people think it is sacrilege, but I think it is such an amazing recipe, that riffing on it is bound to deliver a great tasting drink. I still drink my previous rhubarb driven attempt - Tøppe - so I knew it could work.

While shopping for Libbey's latest tiki glasses at Barkonsult, I was gifted samples of Three Cents Soda.

I was particularly interested in the Cherry Soda and I spotted a recipe for a Cherry Tai on their website.

But I decided to make my own interpretation:

• 6 cl rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca
• 3 cl lime juice
• 1 cl orgeat- I used Giffard
• 1,5 cl curacao - I used Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
• 1 cl cherry liqueur - I used Frederiksdal

Shake and pour into glass ice included. Add a bottle - or 2 dl - of cherry soda, garnish with maraschino cherries, a mint sprig and a pretty flower.

Trader Vic Grog - with a twist

Yesterday was Black Tot Day - they day in 1970 when the British Navy for the last time handed out rum rations to the sailors.

In honor of the day I decided to mix a Trader Vic Grog - Grog was the name sailors gave the mix of rum and water they were given from 1740 after Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon began diluting their rum rations to cut down on drunkenness. His nickname was Old Grogram because of an old overcoat made from grois-grain fabric he always wore.

Trader Vic Grog lends itself well to a slight twist:

• 3 cl lemon juice
• 3 cl pineapple juice
• 3 cl passion fruit syrup
• 6 cl Jamaican rum - I used Appleton Estate Blend
• 1,5 cl Green Chartreuse

Measure the first four ingredients into a shake, fill it with ice and shake. Strain over crushed ice and then add the Green Chartreuse ad a float/overlay. Garnish with a mint sprig, lightly awoken with a gentle slap.

If you want to try the original recipe - as written from Beachbum Berry first - don't use the green Chartreuse but add a dash of Angostura Bitters to the shaker before shaking.

The Pink Hare

For the third year running I was not in New Orleans at Tales of The Cocktail but that does not mean that I don't follow the event on SoMe.

I came across a picture of a delicious looking drink called The Pink Rabbit that Charlotte Voisey recommended. She is one of my cocktail heroes so I wanted to know more and try the cocktail.

Luckily Charlotte showcased the cocktail on her Proper Pour show on Small Screen Network back in 2016, so the recipe was easy to find.

Turns out it is developed by owner Craig Nelson from Proof in Charleston.

In my neck of the woods - remote part of Denmark - strawberry season is mostly over. I can get very expensive and not very tasty berries. I was contemplating that as I sat gazing on my very generous raspberries 20 feet away and decided to make a raspberry based cocktail. I have always liked raspberry and chili together.

Since the change of an ingredient calls for a new name, The Pink Hare seemed an obvious choice.

10 minutes later a homemade raspberry cordial was cooling in my fridge. Just the berries cooked with sugar - and since I had half a red grapefruit wasting away on my kitchen counter, I used a little juice but lemon juice or just water is fine. Sometimes I use a little star anise or indeed chili too, but this was without spice.

15 minutes before I was ready to shake my cocktail I mixed the milk and the cordial to let it infuse a bit. I just guessed at the amount of cordial needed.

• 3 cl gin - I used Botanisk Gin - a local gin with a hint of raspberry actually
• 3 cl Ancho Reyes chili liqueur
• 9 cl raspberry milk - I used organic whole milk
• 3 drops of mole bitters - I used Bitter end.

Shake everything with ice, strain into wine glass over fresh ice and garnish with a raspberry on a cocktail pick.

Buttermilk Collaboration

I was fortunate enough to get an invitation from Juuls Vinhandel to a tasting at the launch of a small batch collaboration between Teeling Whiskey and Plantation Rum.

Basically the two producers exchange casks and experiment with finishing rum with whiskey notes ande whiskey with rum influences.

Alex Chasko of Teeling and Alexander Gabriel of Plantation took us through the process from idea to finished products. And we got to taste them two - as well as other spirits from the two companies.

Afterwards a friend and I stopped by one of Copenhagens best bars Duck and Cover for a cocktail. As always one is not enough and at the end of the evening we were both treated to a mystery cocktail on the house. Both made with buttermilk whey.

Mine had a base of Germana Caetano's Cachaca and cherry wine and my friend got a aquavit, gooseberry and Jerusalem artichoke cocktail. They were pretty amazing and I wanted to know all about the buttermilk whey.

In both drinks the whey had the effect of reminding your taste buds of something without your brain being able to pick out precisely what it was. I like that.

And it was a great experience right after listening to Alexander Gabriel reminding us that our noses and palates are more precise than any instrument in any laboratory and can pick up more smells and tastes.

He also let us in on the secret that distillers work mostly with the 1-2 procent of a bottle that is not alcohol or water. Then for a cocktail bartender that work only multiply on an exponential scale with 7-8 ingredients added.

So for full disclosure - I didn't not pay for the tasting - I took away a lot of interesting information, 2 cl of the Teeling Whiskey having spend 12 month in Plantation casks and a cute key chain hip flask.

And from Duck and Cover I payed for every drink I ordered and got one free that set my brain wizzing with ideas for buttermilk whey drinks.

One of which is Buttermilk Collaboration:

• 2 cl Teeling Whiskey finished in Plantation casks
• 2,5 cl Plantation Stiggins fancy Pineapple Rum  
• 1 cl orgeat
• 3 cl pineapple juice
• 3 cl buttermilk whey (I brought 500 ml of organic buttermilk with a bit of lime zest, limejuice and pineapplejuice add up to about 50 C in a saucepan at which point it split and then strained it through a fine sieve through cheese cloth)
• 2 cl aquafaba - from chickpeas

I added everthing to a shaker and gave it a quick dry shake before adding ice cubes and shaking it fiercely. Strain into low glass and garnish with pineapple or a good cocktail cherry.

 
  

Banana Daiquiri

It is actually quite winterly here in Denmark these days - frost day and night which isn't all that common.

But just because snow and ice is part of the landscape at the moment that doesn't mean I can't dream of icy cold drinks under a tropical sun - I just have to drink them in front of my wood burner.

After a nightly online conversation with some colleagues about the drinking habits - and preferences - of Hemingway I've been wanting a Daiquiri badly

Particularly one I have tinkered with a few times from a bar in Texas - a golden, sweet Banana Daiquiri. Here is the recipe I have been tinkering with.

My version looks like this:

• 3 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Stars
• 1,5 cl over proof white rum - I used Clairin Casimir
• 2 cl fresh lime juice
• 0.75 cl simple syrup
• 1,5 cl banana liqueur - I used Tempus Fugit Creme de Banane
• 0,75 cl chili liqueur - I used Ancho Reyes

Blend everything with crushed ice

Garnish with a coin of banana - if you have a dehydrator springle with banana and chili dust on top. 

 

Marlin

Picasso had a blue period and apparently so do I. Finding a very low prices ice crusher has also awakened a desire for cocktails with crushed ice.

Looking at the suggested cocktails in the brilliant app Total Tiki containing blue curacao, I decided to try a Marlin. An original drink by Clancy Carroll, 2000 it all it says.

I will say, that should I ever make it again, and why not it is a perfectly fine blue cocktail, I will dial the Maraschino down a bit:

3 cl light rum - I used Plantation 3 Stars
3 cl amber rum - I used Plantation Stiggins' Fancy Spiced Rum
1,5 cl fresh lime juice
1,5 cl fresh lemon juice
1.5 cl Maraschino - I used Luxardo
1,5 cl orgeat - I used Giffard
1,5 cl blue curacao - I used homemade

I shook everything with ice and strained it into a glass of crushed ice. Garnished with a homemade cocktail cherry.

Swimming Pool

A few days ago I found myself in an indoor public swimming pool. I don't think I have visited one for close to 13 years. It was quite a good experience.

Very different from how it was in my childhood, where every winter the communal outdoor pool was covered with an inflated dome. It was bitterly cold inside and the stench of chlorine was over powering. 

Not so today and I was reminded how much I just to like swimming - I rediscovered the way my sense change tenor under water and how my body seems to embrace the very fist element it ever knew.

Once you have found your rhythm and just swim lane after lane the mind can wander freely - mine back to the days under the done, when - thankfully - the public school system in Denmark taught me to swim.

Yes it was a time of being almost blue with cold, of the chlorine stench and stinging eyes owing to the fact that swim google were unheard of for school children.  But it was also a time of being immensely proud when I earned a silver badge for being an excellent swimmer and going to swim meets - thankfully in real indoor swimming pools. Good times.

And what do you know? There is a cocktail encapsulating all of those feelings: The Swimming Pool.

It's blue, it's German and it contains vodka but it is so tasty:

• 2 cl rum - I used Appleton Reserve Blend
• 2 cl vodka - I used Ketel One
• 1 cl Blue Curacao - I used my own
• 6 cl fresh pineapple juice
• 2 cl coconut cream - I used Coco Lopez but will make my own next time
• 2 cl whipping cream

Add all ingredients to shaker (or keep the Blue Curacao back) shake hard and strain over crushed ice in a tall glass - could be a hurricane or a pineapple glass.

If you held the Blue Curacao back pour it over the back of a spoon. I personally think a Swimming Pool should be a solid blue but the floated variety looks cool too.

Painkiller

After a long hard week at work I needed something soothing and gentle in my glass. The Painkiller is all of that.

According to Beachbum Berry this cocktail was created in 1971 at the Soggy Dollar Bar on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Clearly a riff on a Pina Colada.

The bar is still there - and reopened after hurricane devastation earlier in 2018.

It's not a cocktail that blows your mind but a nice soothing mix even thousand of miles from the Caribbean.

• 3.5 cl overproof dark rum - I used Plantation O.F.T.D
• 3.5 cl golden rum - I used Appleton Estate Signature Blend
• 3 cl fresh orange juice
• 3 cl Coco Lopez coconut cream
• 12 cl fresh pineapple juice

Measure everything into a shaker, fill the shaker with ice, shake well and pour unstrained into a large glass or a favorite tiki mug. Grate nutmeg over the top, garnish with orange slice, cinnamon stick and perhaps a homemade cocktail cherry.

Negroni Gummy Bears

Like all cocktail enthusiasts I often get asked: What is your favorite cocktail.

I used to answer along the lines of: I like many different styles of cocktails, and it depends on many things which I will prefer in a given situation.

And that was perfectly true, all though for a while - if pushed, I would answer: A Mai Tai.

Which is a little bit ironic, when you call yourself a Ginhound.

Fortunately my taste changes and evolves constantly - so at the moment, I have a more gin-correct answer: The Negroni.

A couple of years ago when I was in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail I met the Italian author and bartender Luca Picchi who gave me his book: Negroni cocktail - an Italian Legend. I have been fascinated with the cocktail - that I always liked - ever since.

Over the summer I have conducted experiments with different styles of vermouth - the single ingredient in the three equal part cocktail that makes the biggest difference in my opinion.

Especially as I have yet to find a real alternative to Campari - not that I have been searching hard - I love the carmoisine red stuff to bits.

Some of the more interesting vermouths are only sold in 1 liter bottles in Denmark - a bit of a challenge, that.

But there is great comfort in knowing 3 liters of ready mixed Negroni rests securely in bottles and a small glass barrel in my fridge, ready for consumption.

My latest mix i 1 l Tanqueray, 1 l Campari and 1 l Berto Vermouth.

A very fresh and singing Negroni - that slightly edges a mix with La Quintinye Vermouth Royal vermouth as a go to everyday summer edition of the Italian classic. Royal makes a dark, intens almost brody Negroni - sure to become a winter favorite.

My 3 liter Negroni stash may have made me reckless or I just love a good challenge: I, like everybody at the moment, wanted to make my ovn home made boozy gummy bears. I sent off for the molds and started planning.

Not enough it turned out - first two batches were slimy disasters - meaning 250 ml of perfectly good Negroni went down the drain.

I finally did some proper research and on the third attempt - they where good.

So here is what I did:

• 125 ml Negroni - mix equal parts of your favorite gin, vermouth and Campari.
• 2 teaspoons powdered gelatine*
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice 
• 4 dashes Orange Angostura Bitter

Bloom the gelatine in 2 tablespoons cold water while you add the rest to a bowl that will fit snugly over a pan of gently boiling water.

Then add the gelatine and stir only it is completely dissolved don't let your Negroni mix come to a boil keep it at a point where whiffs of steam comes of the surface but no more.

Add to gummy bear moulds - I bought these - put in the fridge for a couple of hours and then store in an airtight container until needed. Store them away from kids and do not let them have any - remember it's 125 ml of a really strong cocktail made up to look like candy - bad combination for kids.

* A word about gelatine - don't take my measurements as gospel - you have to read up on the specific product you are using. Powdered gelatine is a relativ new ingredient in Denmark - we used to only have clear sheets of gelatine available that needed to be soaked in cold water before use. The brand available to me specifies that one teaspoon equals two sheets of the old stuff - I was taught by my mother that for a stiff gel - I should use 8 sheets for 500 ml of liquid. I figured i wanted stiff bears and that the alcohol content - which is just below 30 procent in my Negroni-mix - would counteract some of the firming action. I was right (or lucky as I have only made them once.)