Cocktail Shaker Boys

Summer cocktail parties. They are certainly popular at the moment. And we must admit the weather has helped out with long warm balmy evenings. Cocktails out on the decking last night for a client’s 40th birthday. We also did a corporate summer quiz and cocktails night in Great Bowden on Friday night. Yes, you’re right – we weren’t the quiz bit!

Many Grasshopper cocktails were served in Harborough at 40th party

And that’s in addition to the joint 40th party we ran with a full team of 4 at Kibworth Rugby Club, serving cocktails to 140 guests. It seems the fantastically minty chocolatey Grasshopper is a firm favourite : liquid Aero is how most people describe it. However the Nigella Lawson Green apple Martini which we make with Gin also has many converts.

However with last night’s party we also served up lots of our classic 2 mocktails – alcohol free cocktails : the Merry Berry Cherry and the China Blue.

Party host with a cocktail shaker boy - summer cocktails at your home

So what’s next in the experimental world of the Cocktail Shaker Boys? Well, we’re interested in developing an idea to provide cold shots to guests on arrival. However we need some portable way of transporting glasses in something freezing. Anyone got any ideas? info@cocktailshakerboys.co.uk if you have.

For cocktail glass hire in South Leicestershire – contact the Cocktail Shaker Boys. We are now able to offer a great range of cocktail glasses to help you with your special party or event.

We have access to an elegant range of Martini glasses, champagne flutes, superb Sling glasses and plain old Highballs. You’re welcome to hire our glassware even if you’re not commissioning us to make cocktails for you.

Market Harborough cocktail glasses for hire

We can support large parties and you can even rent some cocktail glasses for say a dinner party for 12. We’ll deliver them for you too (there may be an additional charge – depending where you are.)

For more details about cocktail glass hire in South Leicestershire, contact us fun@cocktailshakerboys.co.uk . We’ll help if we can!

And we know you want to know what the drinks are featured in the picture on the left. We are a cocktail making tips site after all, so here goes. From left ;

- Jacaranda afternoon (in the Martini glass)

- Merry Berry Cherry (in the Highball) our top mocktail at the moment

- Blue Lagoon but again a non-alcoholic version of this popular classic

- The Ottoman – a great alternative to the Kir Royale.

So get yourself some glasses, remember to book the sunshine, mix yourself some stunning drinks and be happy.

Special cocktail party at home – Birmingham. A client commissioned us to provide a range of cocktails for them at their home between Coventry and Birmingham, as they celebrated a significant birthday.

Cocktail party at home - happiness in a glass

She’d hired in 2 games tables too : black jack and a roulette wheel, and we supplied the drinks. We offered a range of 6 cocktails and 2 mocktails ;

• Green Apple Martini – Gin, apple sourz and apple syrup
• Margarita – Tequila, Cointreau, lime juice
• Rusty Nail – Whisky, Drambuie
• Sex on the Beach – Vodka, Archers, cranberry, orange juice
• Sandbar – Malibu, golden rum, pineapple juice
• Kir Royale – Creme de Cassis, champagne

Plus mocktails

• Blue Lagoon – non-alcoholic blue curacao, lemonade
• Merry Berry Cherry – orange juice, cranberry juice, cherry syrup

Seems the Sandbar and the Merry Berry Cherry were the ones in each category which proved most popular, though many party guests determindly worked their way through the menu.

Next event is a surprise 80th in Leicestershire - ooh, there’s never a dull moment !

There’s nothing the cocktail shaker boys like more than to develop new cocktails. Well in truth we also like to drink them and share them with our friends and clients. It’s often said that “2 cocktails is too many but 3 isn’t enough !”We understand this. We are looking to produce a steady stream of new cocktail ideas that you can try at home or out, and we like to share these with you.

Woo Woo cocktail in the foreground and our own developed cocktail the Sandbar

We have found that we can add these to Twitter easily, so if Twitter is your thing, have a look for recipes, tips, buying advice and all sorts of random information about cocktails by following us http://twitter.com/CocktlShkrBoys. We add pictures where we can on Tweetphoto too. http://tweetphoto.com/19015213 shows you these 2 new ones.

The Woo Woo appears to be a modern classic, but it doesn’t appear in any of our cocktail books, and the Sandbar is one we’ve developed specially for a client’s 50th party celebrations in Birmingham soon.

Recipes

Woo Woo   :    1  1/2 msrs vodka, 1  1/2 msrs peach schnapps, 3 measures cranberry juice. Shake with ice and pour.

The Sandbar   : 1  1/2 msrs Malibu, 1  1/2 msrs golden rum, 3 msrs pineapple juice. Again simply shake with ice, pour and enjoy.

The Sandbar has a real lazy Carribean feel to it. Remember “the sun always shines when it pours !” It’s summer so try some recipes and make yourself some delicious cocktails. You’ll be amazed how popular you become !

New cocktails to be developed by the Cocktail Shaker Boys. We’ve taken delivery of our latest batch of Monin syrups.

Let's make some new cocktails then

We’re planning on developing some fantastic new cocktails based around these unusual syrup flavours. They do something like 65 flavours and we’ve noticed a few coffee shops use them to make flavoured coffee.

We bought Ginger, Green Apple, Butterscotch, Lavender, more Green Apple, Cherry, Raspberry, Rose and Blue Curacao (non-alcoholic.)

We’re already using Monin Green Apple Syrup in the highly popular Green Apple Martini.

We use Rose in the in-house developed Belly Dancer, which has been compared to liquid Turkish Delight.

Stand by for some new cocktail recipes featuring these products, and we’ll post them on Twitter too. In the meantime we’re off to engage in a little liquid alchemy !

30th birthday party cocktails in Milton Keynes. A great night had by all at a fantastically extended house in Milton Keynes. Well certainly the large island made a great serving area for the Cocktail Shaker Boys.

The theme was an 80s night so we got all Bananaramary, topped off with a dash of Foreigner, mixed in with a bit of Nik Kershaw. You just know it was gonna be good.

The Cocktail Shaker Boys offered a range of 80s classic cocktails for the event including Pina Colada, Tequila Sunrise, Harvey Wallbanger, Kir Royale and this the Blue Lagoon…..

Blue Lagoon - Big at 80s night in Milton Keynes

We’re always interested in which drinks are popular, and although other drinks were popular early on, we were serving lots of Harvey Wallbangers and Blue Lagoons later. The amazing blue colour and the light flavour helped make this a popular choice.

This will make an appearance again soon !

Cocktail Shaker Boys and social networking. Well we all have to move with the times don’t we ? People often ask us where else we appear and whether they can see more about us.

Cocktail Shaker Boys can be found on many of the social networking sites

Well the truth is that we’re putting ourselves about a bit on the social networking sites. We’re already on Twitter, so if you tweet and want to connect follow us at  http://twitter.com/CocktlShkrBoys .

We’ve also created a profile on Facebook, which has pictures and even video clips of some of the stuff we’ve been up to. You do need a Facebook account though in order to be able to access this. But if you’re an avid Facebooker, just key in Cocktail Shaker Boys in the search field and you’ll find the pics. You can add us ‘a friend’ and that way you will have access to all our info.

Finally we’re also now starting to post videos to YouTube – again under the name of Cocktail Shaker Boys. Honestly ! All this social networking is keeping us away from developing new cocktails – which isn’t such good news. So better get back to the bar ! See you soon, and enjoy yourself !

Cocktails at the office Christmas party. A new format for the Cocktail Shaker Boys and a great time had by all. We were commissioned to run an interactive cocktail making workshop at offices up at the Point yesterday. We ran this late afternoon, and then the client team got their taxis into town for their Xmas night out.

Cocktails in the office - only at Christmas !

We got the team making a cocktail each, and then they marked each of the 10 drinks made. We’ll update you on the final league table in the more detailed article you can find by clicking on the link below http://www.cocktailshakerboys.co.uk/index.php/home/latest-news/christmas-office-party-with-cocktails/

The 10 we made were the Tequila Sunrise, Pina Colada, Grasshopper, Green Apple Martini, Brandy Alexander, B52, Belly Dancer, Sicilian Kiss, Long Island Iced Tea and Mojito. So some old classics combined with some of the new kids on the block. 

And Rob Webb said of the cocktail event he commissioned “Thanks so much for the event yesterday – it was absolutely fantastic and a very good start to a most enjoyable evening.”

We look forward to working with other organisations over the coming months.

Perhaps a slight hangover for some members of the Market Harborough Breakfast Club this morning, judging by the number of pre-dinner cocktails they knocked back last night ! But still we had a great night serving cocktails to the guests at the Angel Hotel in Harborough. 

Party goers with Kir Royales - Christmas at the Angel Hotel

We served Grasshopper (one of our favourites as you know), the classic green apple martini, Tequila Sunrise and Kir Royale. Plus we offered our in-house developed mocktail the Pacific Sunrise for the drivers. Not that there appeared to be many of them. More details follow here  http://www.cocktailshakerboys.co.uk/index.php/home/latest-news/christmas-cocktails-a-bit-of-an-office-party/     

And we’re even going to try adding a short movie too of some of the action ! Though we’re having some technical issues with this at the moment.

Tried out 3 new homespun cocktail recipes this weekend. All cream based. The Midnight Blue featured blue curacao, the Snowdrift looked all white, and the Tobago Afternoon had a sort of banana and coconut thing going on.

3 new cocktails - from the development lab !