Your guide to Australian craft spirits & Melbourne's cocktail culture
Struck down with Covid (again) recently, the kind folks at Garden Street Gin Club sent me their April 2024 box filled with goodies including a gin by North Queensland distillery Tans Lines and some tasty dried mango. Inspired to make a curative style of cocktail, I settled on that modern […]
Opening doors in early 2019, Bar Clara is now blowing out the candles in celebration of its fifth birthday. Or rather, the bar team is firing up their blowtorches to caramelise the meringue clouds that perch atop the popular Banoffee-pie-inspired cocktail that has been the only drink to remain on […]
Actually, it’s Patient Wolf Distilling Co.’s new Agave Gin! Dubbed Blanco Wolf this drop is essentially gin botanicals on an organic blue weber agave syrup spirit base which gives herbaceousness sans Tequila and mezcal’s typical earthy smokiness. Why agave gin? “Why not,” says Patient Wolf co-founder and distiller Dave Irwin. […]
Even though we’re dodging rain showers in Melbourne, I predict it will be a picnic season like no other! I celebrated my first group outing since the before-times this past weekend with a pink gin spritz designed for picnicking. It’s as easy as pie to make with crowd-pleasing flavours of […]
Celebrate World Chartreuse Day today with this seductive cocktail recipe by Melbourne’s Chef David. This drink is named after one of China’s best cocktail and jazz bars – the Hope & Sesame speakeasy in Guangzhou. It’s a stripped-back adaption of their Spicy Not Spicy rum sour cocktail. The chilli and […]
Happy World Whisky Day (or World Whiskey Day if you prefer Irish and American styles)! Here’s a simple-yet-delicious original cocktail recipe from The Everleigh to toast to the occasion. It’s basically a honeyed twist on a classic Sazerac cocktail. Be sure to use 100% honey, and don’t be afraid to […]
This Mother’s Day-inspired cocktail tastes like a bouquet of flowers in liquid form! Treat your mum or your nanna with this pretty, pastel-pink drink sometime soon. This recipe makes a hero of Little Lon Distilling Co’s limited edition Maud’s gin liqueur. Though their mauve concoction is a liqueur, it’s balanced […]
This cocktail recipe is a little bit Paloma, a little bit Salty Dog and a little bit none of the above. It’s also a little bit of sorcery that manages to be warming and sweet yet somehow refreshing! A locally-made raspberry version of an amaro by 7K Distillery plays a […]
It’s National Margarita Day. So it’s pretty much the law that you have to make up a batch of these easy Tropical Kombucha Margaritas today. Don’t blame me, I don’t make the rules! (Pssst…feeling lazy? I’m giving away free margaritas here.) The tang of kombucha adds another layer to the […]
This cocktail started out with the idea of a lengthened martini – with classic orange and almond syrup cake flavours added! It’s something to sip over melting ice instead of vermouth on the rocks; preferably at sunset while picking at a plate of warmed olives. Try to find a gin […]