Recently we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary (yes, you’re right I really am far too young to have been married so long, thank you ). We debated for ages over what to do to celebrate, and eventually decided on a small garden party, on a grand scale, on as small a budget as we could manage.
I’ve already written about the marquee (no we don’t have a big garden), the decorations and the table dressing, but it seems everyone wants to know about the cocktails…
For the cocktail reception to greet our guests we decided three cocktails plus soft drinks – and we wanted them to reflect something about *us*.
We already had the Peach Bellini (for ‘us’) and the Sloe Gin Fizz (gin = me, of course), so our third choice had to be Mr LittleStuff’s; and he requested something rum, something raspberry.
Only one choice, really – a pitcher of raspberry daiquiri it was, then. All we had to do was decide on the perfect recipe… so many different ways of making them – with or without lemon? Sugar syrup, or sugar? Twice as much raspberry to rum, or equal amounts? So I did what every grown up would do (and no, I didn’t make myself 12 daiquiris); I called on a cocktail-connoisseur friend. No need to experiment when her husband has spent years perfecting the Art Of The Daiquiri. So here it is:
Richard’s Raspberry Daiquiri
Ingredients for two (or one BIG one!):
- Two shots white rum (I used Tesco’s own, simply because it was cheapest!)
- Two shots raspberry puree – I used frozen raspberries, and just hit them with the stick blender then sieve)
- half shot lime juice
- half shot sugar syrup (I always use the BBC recipe)
- Crushed ice.
For a Pitcher:
Start with your raspberries. Personally, I use an entire bag of frozen berries, defrost and then sieve them (is there any job more tedious than sieving raspberries? It’s unfailingly at this point every single time that I wish I’d bought the packets of raspberry puree). Do sieve though – please don’t make cocktails with pips in.
Once you know how much raspberry you have, then scale up the quantities to suit: it’s equal parts raspberry and white rum, to 1/4 each lime and sugar syrup. I find one bag of raspberries gives me around 800ml liquid, so that’s then 800ml rum, and 200ml each of lime juice and sugar syrup.
Once you add crushed ice this gives a great pitcher for a party.
Method:
Simply blend all ingredients together! We serve in a Martini glass (ours were from Rinkit, total bargain at £6 for six!).
If you’re making a pitcher for a party, then create the cocktail during the day without the ice and leave in the fridge. Just before your guests arrive, add crushed ice to fill the pitcher, and serve.
To crush your ice quickly, pop a pile in a thick clean carrier bag and take a meat hammer or rolling pin to it.
Please note, this one really needs a little forethought – sieving enough raspberries for a pitcher takes quite a long time, and you do need to sieve because no one likes raspberry pips in their teeth.
It might also be interesting to note that if you happen to have a muslin sieve stand for jellies etc then it doesn’t work brilliantly, it’s really slow. And don’t decide that you’re in a bit of a hurry, and that giving it a quick prod through might speed things up a bit… *cough*
All that Bacardi, just sloshing all over my bamboo worktop… *sobs*
(AND I’d just scrubbed the kitchen to with an inch of its life ready for the caterers to arrive in about… ooh… 20 minutes… eyeroll*)
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