Now that I've given you the full rundown on the hows and whats of sherry,
and if you haven't seen it yet then please check out that video here,
I'm going to show you some of my favorite ways of using it.
It's so versatile and adds so much complexity it can easily be the star of the show
or a sublime supporting act.
Whether you like boozy and bitter, light and refreshing, or somewhere in between
I'll show you there's a sherry drink for everyone.
You'll even find out which sherry cocktail was known as the ink of inspiration
for bohemian Parisian artists in the swinging 1920s.
Now I can't promise you any artistic inspiration but I can promise you
some dang tasty drinks, so let's get mixing.
We're going to get our garnish ready first you want to get a couple of actual
big wedges out of your orange here. These ones are just going straight in
your drink so they don't have to be particularly pretty
but i just like to take a bit of the white off anyway because it is quite bitter.
Same with your lemon and with the lemon
you just want to make sure there's not any pips because
obviously we're not going to strain this drink and you don't want them getting
stuck in your straw. Now we're going to pop our sherries into
the shaker tins so we'll start with the amontillado
45 mils of that. Since we're having a sherry extravaganza
I'm gonna go with some Pedro Ximenez sherry, 15 ml of that.
Then we're going to squeeze your fruit into the tin.
Now that is all you need to make a sherry cobbler but I've just decided to
take it up a little notch and add another
extra layer of flavor by adding some bitters. The one that I'm going with
is the local Mr Bitters honeyed apricot and smoked hickory,
just one dash of that. Now fill up your tin with some ice.
Pop your tins together and shake.
Once your tin's all nice and frosty that's ready.
So summery. That one can actually do with a little bit more PX.
I'm just going to add a little dash more.
That's good. Now grab your glass out of the fridge or freezer.
This is called a shake and dump you don't have to strain at all and that gives
sort of the effect of the crushed
cobbles of ice.
And then I like to keep the fruit in there,
just give it a little mix in.
Now as we said it's very important to serve this cocktail with the straw
so pop that in. Grab a nice pretty mint sprig
and give it a little smack to release the aromatics.
And make sure that's in right beside the straw so that every time you take a sip
you're going to get all of that up your nose as well.
And then garnish with whatever berries you have
so little strawberry and a little cherry. Sherry Cobbler.
Now once you've had a couple of cobblers
and the sun starts to set
it might be time to move on to something a little more full-on.
So next up is an incredible bittersweet digestif,
but stay tuned for my favorite of the three after that
and yes it does contain Scotch.
This modern classic the East India Negroni is a rich and sophisticated
Christmas pudding of a cocktail. Cream sherry is a blend of drier and
sweeter wines so works really well to support the rum without being drowned
out by that heavy spirit but it's also less intense than PX.
To make it we're gonna get our garnish ready first.
When I'm serving things on the rocks I quite often just like to leave
my garnish pretty kind of big and rustic since everything's nice and
chunky anyway. So we're gonna start with 45 mils of
your dark rum. I kind of see this drink as a pretty good
after dinner digestif.
20 mils of your East India cream sherry
20 mls of Campari.
Just fill your mixing glass with as much
ice as you can fit in there and then use your bar spoon
to stir it round, the easiest way is just to put the back of your spoon against
the inside of the mixing glass
and sort of push the ice around.
You don't want to be churning the ice through.
When you start to feel your mixing glass get nice and cold give it a little taste.
Good. Obviously this one's going to be served on the rocks so if you want to
have it maybe a little bit stronger than you would like so that it kind of
dilutes on the ice you can do that as well.
Grab your rocks glass out of the fridge or freezer and pop the biggest ice you
can find in there. Now just use the julep strainer to hold
the ice back in your glass.
Squeeze your orange twist over the drink to expel the oils which provides a
lovely aromatic lift to this quite heavy drink.
garnish and enjoy. The East India Negroni.
Finally, if you've ever thought that you would fit in well with the jazz
musicians and poets of 1920s Paris then this next cocktail is the drink for you
A favorite of the bohemian artist set in 1920s Paris
transport yourself to the Moulin Rouge with this refreshing yet complex tipple.
First you want to prep yourself a lemon twist you can also do this with a
vegetable peeler if you find that easier just hold it and pull it down,
and then trim down if you like to make it a little bit prettier.
We are trying to impress artists here after all,
although I kind of think most artists are happy to drink whatever you give them!
Next we're going to pop 30 mls of Johnnie Walker Black Label into our shaking tin
and then 30 ml of your Oloroso sherry.
15 ml of your red currant syrup
or whatever berry syrup that you're choosing to replace it with
15 ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice then we're just going to fill our shaker tin
full with ice. Pop your tins together.
And you should get a nice long straight line here and then just shake as hard as you can.
Mmmm.
Grab your nice frosty coupe out of the fridge or freezer
and just use your hawthorne strainer to hold the ice back in the tin
and strain through the fine strainer.
So you're just going to grab your twist and give it a sharp fold over the top of
the drink.
You can just give it a little rub around the rim of the glass as well
attach it nicely to the side of the glass so it doesn't bob about in your face
The Artist's Special,
a drink to make Picasso proud!
So there you have it
three very different drinks using three very different sherries,
showing just how much fun you can have once you start exploring this incredible
category of wines. If you have any questions at all please
let me know as you can probably tell I'm always happy to talk sherry
and drop me a comment if you have any favorite sherry drinks of your own.
Three great cocktails made with sherry,
so now you know.