5 cocktail recipes from the best to enjoy your summer
Five serious bartending experts advise the best cocktails you should try this summer. They will help you make them at home, but let them serve you at their bar even better.
So let's see what the "experts" say is worth trying, and we are sure it will excite us!
Alex Kyriakopoulos
Owner, White Monkey Bar
6, Gyftopoulou street, Chalandri
Since I love the Tiki culture, I will, of course, recommend a Tiki cocktail. My favourites are the Mai Tai and the White Monkey, but apart from these, I would also suggest a Cox Daiquiri, a Pina Colada or a Zombie, depending on everyone's tastes.
Tiki cocktails are fun to look at and very tasty.
I recommend they have a good time on a date or on a night out with a large group.
The magic of Tiki cocktails is that they take you to exotic places; they are happy and playful in appearance and taste and will always lift your spirits.
Although my first preference is the White Monkey cocktail, it contains several secret ingredients & blends, and I believe you should try it at the White Monkey bar.
So, I will give you the recipe for an equally favourite cocktail, the Cox Daiquiri
20ml fresh lime juice
25ml Madagascar vanilla syrup
25ml pineapple puree
50ml Angostura rum 5 years
Fondas Tazes
Bartender, Kokkinos Lotos Bar
5, Zoodochou street, Exarchia
If I had to choose or recommend a cocktail, it would be a Paloma.
The beauty of this particular drink lies in its simplicity, as all you need to make it right is the information on the suitable raw materials and no preparation or technical training.
So for a well-made Paloma, you will need a large glass with salt on the rim, good ice, good tequila, 100% agave and strictly white (indicative suggestions: Olmeca altos, Ocho, Cimarron, Tapatio, Arette) and a good grapefruit soda, so 3cents grapefruit soda is a one-way street.
Ice in the glass, measure tequila (50 or 60ml) and fill with grapefruit soda until the glass is full.
If you ask me why I recommend a drink that you can make yourself, at home, just as well as I do at the bar, I will answer that my job is the times you choose to come and drink it at the bar, and we take care, like the set of people, enjoy it more.
Konstantinos Theodorakopoulos
Co-owner, The Rumble in the Jungle Bar
1, Petraki street, Athens
The cocktail I will choose is the Rope a Dope. The name comes from a boxing technique first used in the Rumble in the Jungle match by Mohamed Ali (from which the shop takes its name).
He was essentially sitting on the ropes absorbing the force of George Foreman's blows. Also, this gave him the strength to make his counterattacks.
So in this drink, we use spices, coffee and peels that have already been used, and instead of throwing them away, we get one last attack from their taste.
It is a drink made with the Old fashioned method. Spirit is Matuzalem, ten years old, and our syrup is produced from coffee, squeezed mandarin peels, spices and carob honey. The bitter element comes from Averna.
Spyros Anagnostou
Owner, The 7 Jokers Bar
7, Voulis street, Syntagma
I recommend Girls Under The Sun
Why;
Because tequila and mezcal are prefered in summer.
Why tequila likes tangerine and ginger.
Because we love summer!
Vassilis Mitrakos
F&B, Perianth Hotel
2 Limpona street, Athens
In a large balloon glass with whole and crushed ice on top.
You are beautified with basil, cinnamon wood that you burn to bring out aromas and a sprig of rosemary in the drink.
And the name of it
ZEN.
My collaboration inspired the drink with the owner of the hotel where I am. He is genuinely ZEN in every sense of the word. All the flavours will bring you peace.
50ml Diplomatico
55ml fresh lime
15ml cane sugar syrup
15ml cinnamon syrup
15ml ginger
15ml sage syrup
60ml tangerine puree
Two dashes of plum bitters