In partnership with
Overview
Why make one drink when you can make ten? Batched cocktails have grown significantly in popularity across the cocktail world. They're a great, easy option for the amateur bartender — particularly useful when you're hosting a party, because you're not going to be stuck behind the bar all night mixing drinks if you plan ahead.
You'd expect that bartenders would turn up their nose at a pre-mixed cocktail, but the trend has caught on in multiple Australasian venues — it turns out they love pre-mixing too. One of the main reasons why is that it's much more practical for bartender and consumer. They don't have to spend 15 minutes mixing and muddling up a complex cocktail, and you don't have to wait.
Cocktail ingredients are pre-prepared (bars usually pre-mix cocktails two to three hours before opening), and the ingredients in the drink are left to infuse. When you're using gin, this means there's enough time for botanicals to infuse with the other ingredients, and richer, bolder flavours appear. In partnership with Bombay Sapphire, we asked Sean Forsyth (the Bombay Sapphire Australian ambassador) to show us how to mix up a big batch of Coffee Negronis — literally just the Negroni cocktail you know and love with cold-drip coffee added. Like a Negroni, coffee is sweet, bitter and complex — so it's the perfect ingredient to complement and spice up this famous gin cocktail. Get your hands on some cold-drip and you've got yourself a breakfast-appropriate cocktail.
"If you walk into a bar and they don't know how to make a Negroni, leave," Forsyth says. He's right. To make a Negroni you just need to know how to mix gin, vermouth and Campari — it's easy. To make a batch of Coffee Negronis, you need water, a one-litre measuring jug, a funnel and a one-litre glass bottle instead of a shaker. It's getting much, much easier to make good cocktails.
THE COFFEE NEGRONI
(Serves 10)
Ingredients:
250ml Bombay Sapphire
200ml Martini Rosso
200ml Campari
100ml cold drip espresso
250ml water
1 litre sealable glass bottle
Method:
- Using a funnel and a one-litre measuring jug, build ingredients into a clean one-litre glass bottle
- Shake and add into the freezer one hour before service
- Pour into rocks glass filled with cubed ice
- Garnish with an orange slice
Images: Kimberley Low.