HELLO and welcome to the first ever issue of Go Local Sandbach. Some of you may know me from The Beer Emporium on Welles Street, in which case, yeah, you can’t escape sorry… For those of you who’ve yet to have the pleasure, you’ll grow to tolerate me! I’ll be regularly putting some words down here about most things drinkable, which hopefully some of you may find interesting... Somehow gang, we seem to have reached Christmas again. By hook or by crook, 2022 is approaching its conclusion and so it is time for me to come up with a festive treat for you, my dear readers.
This year, in the spirit of value for money, I’m going to offer up not just 1 holiday cocktail for you, but give you your very own BOGOF superduper deal! Both of which can, with a little bit of time, be made with store-cupboard ingredients if you want to save a bit of cash.
The first is a rather rich, decadent Gingerbread Martini, with a homemade spiced caramel sauce, this Christmas treat is sure to warm your cockles. The second is a White Christmas martini, a fizzy coconut-based drink that you could quite easily see being drunk in front of a roaring fire, a paper crown on your head and any feel-good Christmas movie on in the background! So, grab a pan, fling open those cupboard doors and let’s get making some fun Christmas cocktails.
For the gingerbread martini you’ll need some vodka, Baileys, double cream, gingerbread men, caramel sauce (either shop bought or home made with a bit of butter, sugar, cream and vanilla extract), 1/2 tsp of both mixed spice and ground ginger. For the kit, a 30ml shot glass/measure, ice and a cocktail shaker or jamjar. Put your ice in the shaker or jamjar, add 4 shots of cream, 2 shots of vodka and caramel sauce, 1 shot of Bailey’s and the mixed spice and ground ginger. Shake well until everything’s well mixed and properly incorporated. Strain into a Martini glass, whip some of the cream up and put a dollop on the top of the liquid, and decorate it by crumbling some gingerbread men onto it. For extra style, dip the rim of the glass into some sugar syrup and then some more crumbled gingerbread men to give a fancy look to the glass.
For the White Christmas martini, you’ll need some white rum (Malibu’ll do!), coconut syrup (homemade’s so simple: 1 mug water, 3 mugs sugar, 1 tin coconut milk all heated in a pan until everything’s dissolved. That’s it!), soda water, lime wedge, white and pink marshmallow’s, cocktail cherries, and some cocktail sticks and ground coconut for decoration. Take 4 martini glasses, rub the rims with the lime wedge and dip them in the coconut. Take 4 cocktail sticks, and put a pink marshmallow, a cherry and a white marshmallow on each. Chop up a load of glacé cherries, and in the bottom of each glass put a generous amount. In a jug, add 6 shots of rum and 2 shots of the coconut syrup, stir well. Pour equally into the martini glasses and top with soda. Add your marshmallow sticks and serve.
There you go, 2 festive cocktails made with store-cupboard ingredients. All that remains for me now is to thank you all for keeping me company again here in the mag, and for your smiles and laughter in The Beer Emporium.
Until next year, from Liam and the team, have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
Rich, The Beer Emporium, Holmes Chapel