Cocktail Master Class at Varnish on King

This weekend Andrew and I went to Varnish on King's Cocktail Master Class. We had such a great time, I can't wait to go back and do this again! I honestly can't recommend it enough, it was such a great event.

The knowledgeable Tris gave us a great introduction to the various Wild Turkey and Russels bourbons we would use, which meant tasting 6 shots of bourbon. I don't have much of a pallet for bourbon or whiskey yet but really enjoyed comparing the different styles side by side, and even managed to get a unique smell of chamomile tea from the 101.



Then, together with Varnish's bar tenders, Tris lead us through the techniques to make stirred, shaken, and churned cocktails. We learned to make the classic Old Fashioned, the sweet Gold Rush with a fig twist, and the pretty Mint Tulip, taking turns in groups of 6 to have a go behind the bar.







We learned a lot of things we'll definitely use, but also some things that we probably won't (for example, we're probably not going to make the raspberry syrup). The main point I took away was that having a lot of ice is important. When you shake a cocktail you want to use better quality ice than you even use in the drink itself to make sure that any dilution is minimal.











To balance out the drinks there were awesome snacks throughout the class too, the whole event was very generous for the price. This was really fun to do with just a couple, but the entire class was only 12 people so it would be really fun to book it out with a group.

Then for a complete change of pace we went and saw Paddington Bear 2 at Moonlight Cinemas with Simona, Antonio and the kids. I hope we managed to hide the effects of our previous date well enough!