Our top tips for making great cocktails.

Sometimes the thought of having to make a cocktail at home, like you get in a bar, can be daunting or at the very least, tedious. And though it does take a little time, and effort, the reward can be well worth it!

Our advice is pretty simple…actually very simple. No need to make it more difficult than it needs to be.

1. Have fun with it. Seems obvious, right? Well, if you look at making a cocktail as ‘work’, it’s never going to taste as good once you’re finished.

2. Use Shinju whenever possible. Yeah, we had to throw that in. We are a bit biased, but… Shinju was created specifically to mix well in cocktails. Try it. You won’t be disappointed!

3. Make it easy. There’s so many amazing cocktails that don’t require a thousand different ingredients, or a ‘half pour here’, or ‘1/1000 of a tsp there’… a lot of cocktails are more simple than you might think. Here are some simple, great cocktail ideas:

Shinju Old Fashioned (a Japanese remake on a classic)

• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar

• 3 dashes of bitters

• 1 teaspoon of water

• 2 oz of Shinju

• Orange peel to garnish (if you want to pretty it up…not fully necessary)

1. Add the sugar and bitters to a rocks glass, then add the water, and stir until the sugar is nearly dissolved.

2. Fill the glass with large ice cubes, add the Shinju, and gently stir to combine.

3. Express the orange peel over the glass, then drop in.

Moscow Mule (did you know despite its name, the Moscow Mule cocktail hails from the USA, not Russia.)

• 50ml vodka

• Ginger Beer

• 25ml lime juice

• 2 x small pieces of ginger (optional)

• lime to garnish

1. Muddle ginger and combine remaining ingredients into shaker (excluding Ginger Beer)

2. Shake, then strain into a copper mug and top with Ginger Beer

3. Add ice and garnish with a lime wedge

Sex on the Beach (a simple, sweet cocktail)

• Ice

• 50ml vodka

• 25ml peach schnapps

• 2 oranges, juiced, plus 2 slices to garnish

• 50ml cranberry juice

1. Fill two tall glasses with ice cubes. Pour the vodka, peach schnapps and fruit juices into a large jug and stir.

2. Divide the mixture between the two glasses and stir gently to combine. Garnish with the cocktail cherries and orange slices.

Martini (simple, for the sophisticated side in all of us)

• 60ml vodka or gin

• 1 tbsp dry vermouth

• olive or lemon peel, to garnish

1. Stir the gin or vodka, dry vermouth and a little ice together or put them in a cocktail shaker to combine.

2. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Serve with an olive on a cocktail stick or a twist of lemon peel.

Margarita (a simple classic that always gets the party started)

• Ice

• 50ml tequila

• 25ml lime juice

• 20ml triple sec (if you don’t like as ‘sweet’, go less on the triple sec)

1. Sprinkle a few teaspoons of salt over the surface of a small plate or saucer. Rub one wedge of lime along the rim of a tumbler and then dip it into the salt so that the entire rim is covered.

2. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, then add the tequila, lime juice and triple sec. Shake until the outside of the shaker feels cold.

3. Strain the mix into the prepared glass over fresh ice. Serve with a wedge of lime.

These are just a few simple cocktail ideas. There are hundreds of others. Sometimes the thought of having to make a cocktail can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Start out with some easy ones. Before you know it you’ll be making cocktails that light on fire, impressing all of our friends.

Enjoy!