On Wednesday I went to a Cocktail Masterclass at the stunning Kensington Hotel, and as with all straight-after-work events, I dashed over from East to West, and finally arrived far too sweaty from the tube and looking as though I’d just run a marathon complete with attractive frizzy/fly-away hair. After a drinks reception that calmed me down and put me into a more relaxed state (hello, it included Gin Sorbet and Margarita jellies!), the Kensington Hotel’s mixologist Alessandro Pizzoli showed us how to make three different cocktails, before informing us that we were now going to recreate one!
I am a huuuuge cocktail lover, I’m not a huge fan of the taste of alcohol after a bad experience when I was a silly 17-year-old, so for me cocktails are perfect, especially very sweet ones. I also love how with cocktails you can control the amount of alcohol that goes in – I always ask the barman to only put half a shot of each alcohol part rather than the usual 1 or 2 shots.
So when we were asked to recreate one of the cocktails we had just seen being made, I naturally made it to my taste, which meant very little alcohol being involved. When the judges (aka, the barmen) tasted it…I saw their faces squirm…however I found it delicious, and as I was the one drinking it, that’s the main thing! Right?
The next task was to create our very own cocktail. We had a few minutes to go into a room, take a look at the ingredients, collect what we wanted, and then make something! I panicked, grabbed a bottle of gin, a bottle of a dark purple liqueur, tonic water, lemon juice, pineapple juice, apple juice, cranberry juice, and a shaker. I then put random amounts of each ingredient into the glass (including the tonic water)…and shook it…oops. It went a bit fizzy. In my panic I totally forgot about the tonic water being in there. After pouring the strange concoction into a very pretty glass, I tasted it. The lady from next to me saw my reaction and naively said ‘Oh it’s can’t be that bad, it looks lovely! Let’s try!’, after tasting it she instantly exclaimed ‘What on earth did you put in that?!’
Judging time. Once again the squirms were there when they tasted my creation…although this time even more so. I think we firmly established that I will never be a mixologist, and maybe I should just stick to letting others do it for me. I like that idea much better, all that shaking is hard work!
A huge thank you to The Kensington Hotel for having me, it was a truly lovely evening and I also loved meeting fellow blogger Pink Julep, who’s cocktail was far more successful than mine! It was a really fun but relaxing event after a very busy day at work.
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
So lovely to meet you too darling! xx