Cocktail doubles up as delicious dessert
A COCKTAIL, like life, is how you make it, and naturally lends itself to as many possibilities as your adventurous spirit will allow.
Typical of a versatile drink, a cocktail will inspire a creative spirit.
Be wary of a heavy hand though, lest you unsuspectingly render yourself motherless! If fun is what you make it, surely the guidance of a cocktail mixologist should be something of heavenly bliss.
My curiosity was stirred the other day when an invitation came to join a small group of people with a bibulous bend for a cocktail-making afternoon – just to celebrate the International Alexander Brandy Day (January 31).
Oddly enough, I had never heard of a commemorative day dedicated to a cocktail, apparently the only one to be honoured this way.
The Alexander Brandy cocktail turned out to be a delicious, chummy number with murky origins.
Believed to have evolved from an earlier cocktail simply called the Alexander, it was originally laced with gin as its base instead of brandy, as happens today.
The latter brandy version is lightly smoother and sweeter than the original, but apparently still popular in some of the world’s glitziest bars across the world, having become a cultural icon in England and the US since the 1920s.
At a glance, the concoction may seem rather uncomplicated to make … until cocktail mixologist George Hunter of Landmark Bar in Bryanston, Johannesburg, offers you the opportunity to create your own and drink it.
Luckily, I survived my own poison, and so did other guests, both in Johannesburg and at Shaker Bar School in Cape Town.
Enjoyed as a dessert cocktail, the blend consists of one part brandy, one part chocolate liqueur and one part cream, garnished with a dusting of nutmeg.
It can also be savoured as a chunky dessert, by adding a scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream and transfer to a bowl.
In this case, the base for the cocktail was the Van Ryn’s 10-year-old brandy, a fine spirit characterised by youthful exuberance which gave it a bit of a punch.
Hunter said he prefers to use South African fine brandy for his cocktails, because it is just as good as Cognac and much better than some labels of the French brandy. Two helpings of the cocktail are just enough as it is rich, but not heavier or richer than SA’s most popular and unique dessert cocktail – Dom Pedro.
Actually, there are not many dessert cocktails of note around.