The Thirsty Barber in San Ġiljan / Malta

The Thirsty Barber

On July 1st 2020 the airport of Malta opened again. So I went to Malta, to San Ġiljan on Ball Street, where bartender Tisho was waiting for me at THE THIRSTY BARBER with a surprise. He created me a cocktail to my taste. Malta is a wonderful island and THE THIRTY BARBER is a truly exceptional cocktail bar. Here is the cocktail recipe:

INGREDIENTS

  • Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva rum
  • Angostura & bitters
  • cinnamon syrup
  • liqueur of salted caramel and butterscotch
  • apple juice

METHOD

  1. Add all ingredients in a mixing glass.
  2. Add ice cubes.
  3. Stir for 20 seconds.
  4. Strain into cocktail glass.
  5. Garnish with flowers and fruits.

NOTES

THE THIRSTY BARBER is Malta`s first prohibition style bar. The Thirsty Barber boasts a unique cocktail list, developed by a team of qualified and experienced mixologists. One can choose from a variety of Prohibition-era cocktails, martinis and champagne cocktails, some of which are also to share. The bar’s signature cocktail also happens to be the most expensive on the island. I firmly believe that every guest visiting The Thirsty Barber has a fantastic experience.


Brandy Alexander Cocktail Recipe

BRANDY ALEXANDER COCKTAIL Recipe

The Brandy Alexander cocktail is a brandy-based cocktail consisting of cognac, crème de cacau and cream that became popular during the early 20th century. It is a variation of an earlier, gin-based cocktail called simply an Alexander. The cocktail known as Alexander today may contain gin or brandy.

INGREDIENTS

  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Cognac
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. crème de cacau (white)
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. cream

METHOD

  1. Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice.
  2. Shake briskly.
  3. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.
  4. Sprinkle with fresh ground nutmeg.

SHOPPING LIST

  1. Cognac Remy Martin VSOP | USA * | UK* | Germany*
  2. Crème de cacau (white) | USA | UK* | Germany*
  3. Glasses| USA* | UK* | Germany*

Old Fashioned Cocktail Recipe

OLD FASHIONED COCKTAIL Recipe

STORY

The Old Fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters, adding whiskey or, less commonly, Cognac, and garnishing with a twist of citrus rind. It is traditionally served in an old fashioned glass (also known as rocks glass), which predated the cocktail.

INGREDIENTS

  • 45 ml/ 1 ½ oz. Rye Whiskey
  • 1 sugar cube
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters
  • a few dashes plain water

METHOD

  1. Place sugar cube in old fashioned glass and saturate with bitters.
  2. Add a dash of plain water.
  3. Muddle until dissolved.
  4. Fill the glass with ice cubes and add whiskey.
  5. Garnish with orange twist and a cocktail cherry.

NOTES

Instead of Rye Whiskey you can also use Bourbon Whiskey.

SHOPPING LIST

  1. Rye Whiskey | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  2. Angostura bitters | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  3. Glasses | USA* | UK* | Germany*

White Lady Cocktail Recipe

WHITE LADY COCKTAIL Recipe

The White Lady Cocktail is a classic cocktail that belongs to the Sours group and is made from gin, Cointreau and lemon juice. In many recipes there is also the addition of egg white, occasionally the Cointreau is replaced by another Triple Sec. Without the egg white, the White Lady is essentially a Sidecar cocktail that uses gin instead of cognac as the basic spirit.

INGREDIENTS

  • 60 ml/ 2 oz. Gin
  • 15 ml/ ½ oz. Cointreau orange liqueur
  • 15 ml/ ½ oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice

METHOD

  1. Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake.
  2. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

SHOPPING LIST

  1. Tanqueray Gin | USA* | UK* | Germany
  2. Cointreau orange liqueur | USA * | UK* | Germany*
  3. Glasses | USA* | UK* | Germany*

Rusty Nail Cocktail Recipe

RUSTY NAIL COCKTAIL Recipe

The Rusty Nail cocktail consists of Scotch (Scottish Whiskey) and Drambuie, a whiskey-based liqueur with honey and herbs. Whiskey and drambuie are usually placed in a small tumbler in a ratio of 2: 1 and stirred cold with a few ice cubes and served on the rocks. A lemon zest twist can be used as a garnish.

INGREDIENTS

  • 45 ml/ 1 ½ oz. Scotch
  • 15 ml/ ½ oz. Drambuie

METHOD

  1. Add all ingredients into a rocks glass with ice and stir.
  2. Garnish with lemon zest twist.

NOTES

Despite its purely Scottish ingredients, the cocktail is an invention from the United States, where it became popular in the 1950s. The unusual name of the cocktail is probably due to its rust-colored color. However, according to a modern legend, the name comes from the use of rusty nails in the preparation. Scottish bartenders used rusty nails to stir up revenge on rough American customers.


Absolut Koka Mate Cocktail

absolut koka mate

STORY

What to do with Koka Mate Tea and Absolut Extrakt vodka, Right! A refreshing summer drink.

INGREDIENTS

  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Absolut Extrakt vodka
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Averna
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • cardamom
  • thyme
  • Koka Mate

MEHOD

  1. Fill a hurricane glass with ice.
  2. Add the cardamom.
  3. Pour in the liquors and lemon juice.
  4. Top off with the Koka Mate.
  5. Stir slighly and garnish with thyme and orange slice.

NOTES

Koka Mate is said to be the world’s first coca-plant tea to be legally sold in a soft drink.

SHOPPING LIST

If you want to buy Koka Mate follow that link: https://www.koka-mate.de/


Monkey Gland Cocktail Recipe

MONKEY GLAND COCKTAIL Recipe

The Monkey Gland is a cocktail of gin, orange juice, grenadine and absinthe. TheMonkey Gland is named after the pseudo-scientific idea that grafting monkey testicle tissue into humans would increase longevity, the idea developed by the French doctor Serge Voronoff. He first performed testicular transplants on animals, taking the testicles from young animals and implanting these older animals. Voronoff allegedly observed increases in vitality that encouraged him to apply this method to humans. Since the 1920s, and thus at the time when the Monkey Gland was born, he had transplanted monkey testicles into the scrotum of people who believed that the method would rejuvenate them.

INGREDIENTS

  • 50 ml/ 1 ½ oz. Gin
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon Absinthe
  • 2 teaspoons Grenadine

METHOD

  1. Swirl a dash of absinthe in a chilled cocktail glass to coat it, then dump out any excess liqueur.
  2. Add all other ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice.
  3. Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
  4. Garnish with an orange slice or a burnt orange peel.

NOTES

At a time when Absinthe was not available in the USA, it was replaced by other aniseed drinks such as Pernod or Ricard.

SHOPPING LIST

  1. Gin (Old Tom) | USA | UK* | Germany*
  2. Absinthe | USA | UK* | Germany*
  3. Grenadine syrup | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  4. Glasses| USA* | UK* | Germany*

Vieux Carré Cocktail Recipe

VIEUX CARRÉ COCKTAIL Recipe

The Vieux Carré (French for “old square”) cocktail is an alcoholic cocktail of cognac, rye whiskey, vermouth, Bénédictine and bitters. The Vieux Carré was first stirred to life at New Orleans’ legendary Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone in the 1930s. The Vieux Carré cocktail is at once sweet, boozy, bitter and smooth—in other words, New Orleans.

INGREDIENTS

  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Cognac
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Rye Whiskey
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Martini rosso sweet vermouth
  • 7,5 ml/ ¼ oz. Bénédictine
  • 1 dash Angostura bitters
  • 1 dash Peychaud`s bitters

METHOD

  1. Fill a mixing glass ⅔ full off ice.
  2. Add the ingredients and stir until chilled.
  3. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass.
  4. Garnish with a lemon zest twist and a cherry.

SHOPPING LIST

  1. Cognac Remy Martin VSOP | USA * | UK* | Germany*
  2. Rye Whiskey | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  3. Bénédictine | USA | UK* | Germany*
  4. Angostura bitters | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  5. Peychaud`s bitters | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  6. Glasses | USA* | UK* | Germany*

Mary Pickford Cocktail Recipe

MARY PICKFORD COCKTAIL RECIPE

The Mary Pickford cocktail is a Prohibition Era cocktail made with white rum, fresh pineapple juice, Grenadine syrup and maraschino liqueur. It is served shaken and chilled, often with a maraschino cherry. The cocktail is named for Canadian-American film actress Mary Pickford (1892–1979), it is said to have been created for her in the 1920s by either Eddie Woelke or Fred Kaufmann at the hotel Nacional de Cuba on a trip she took to Havana with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks.

INGREDIENTS

  • 60 ml / 2 oz. Bacardi Superior rum
  • 45 ml / 1 ½ oz. fresh pressed pineapple juice
  • 10 ml / ¼ oz maraschino liqueur
  • 10 ml / ¼ oz. Grenadine syrup

METHOD

  1. Add all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice.
  2. Shake well and strain into chilled cocktail glass.
  3. Garnish with a marschino cherry.

SHOPPING LIST

  1. Bacardi white rum | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  2. Maraschino liqueur | USA | UK* | Germany*
  3. Grenadine syrup | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  4. Glasses| USA* | UK* | Germany*

Americano Cocktail Recipe

AMERICANO COCKTAIL Recipe

The Americano cocktail is a classic aperitif cocktail made from Campari and Vermouth Rosso. Orange and lemon are used as garnish. The Americano was allegedly served for the first time in the bar of the Gaspare Campari, the Café Campari, in the 1860s. Originally the cocktail was not called Americano, but Milano-Torino, which refers to the cities of production of the two spirit ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Campari
  • 30 ml/ 1 oz. Vermouth Rosso
  • A splash of soda water

METHOD

  1. Mix the ingredients directly in an old fashioned glass filled with ice cubes.
  2. Add a splash of soda water.
  3. Stir gently.
  4. Garnish with half orange slice and a lemon zest.

NOTES

A relative is the Negroni cocktail. It differs from the Americano cocktail only in another ingredient, gin.

SHOPPING LIST

  1. Campari | USA | UK* | Germany*
  2. Martini Rosso | USA | UK* | Germany*
  3. Soda water | USA* | UK* | Germany*
  4. Glasses | USA* | UK* | Germany*