One of the enduring traditions at Cruiseable is that we encourage the head mixologist on each of our cruises to share their favorite recipes. So on our recent sailing on Virgin Voyages' Valiant Lady, we spent an hour one evening with mixologist Manny Gutierrez.
Manny honed his craft at one of the top tiki bars in New York City and went on to win a mixologists' cocktail competition among several cruise lines.
"The kind of cocktails our sailors order depends on the cruise," he said. "In the Caribbean, people tend to like fruity drinks. But in the Mediterranean, the cocktail culture is different. It has evolved for quite longer and so people gravitate to wines and classic cocktails and aperitifs. You're talking 1,000 years of drinking culture."
That said, we didn't want the same old same old. So we asked Manny to throw something new our way, as I was joined after dinner by my wife Mary and new friends Ralph and Hedwige.
Risc
Our favorite discovery was one I hadn't encountered before — a refreshing, tastebuds-popping drink called Risc. The drink is meant to be imbibed fairly quickly, as the fruit doesn't last long in this kind of mixture.
Ingredients:
Raspberry infusion
Soju (a popular Korean distilled spirit)
Tonic water
Passion Fruit Mai Tai
Ingredients:
4 oz. Passion fruit juice
2 oz. Appleton Estate Reserve rum
2 oz. Ron Zacapa Gran Reserva rum
1 oz. Cointreau*
1 oz. cashew juice
Orange twist or lime wedge (optional)
Shaken and poured over crushed ice
* Grand Marnier may be used instead.
For some of the recipes, you can use your own judgment about the amount of alcohol you're pouring.
Kahuna Cooler
Ingredients:
Appleton Estate Rum
Mount Gay Eclipse Rum
Leblon Cachaca (a premium artisanal brand of the Brazilian spirit cachaça)
Velvet Falernum (a spiced syrup from Barbados)
Grapefruit
Pumpkin
Lime
The Love Boat
Ingredients:
Beefeater Gin
Verjus Blanc (white grape juice)
Lemon
Fig
Lavender
Sailor Blues
Ingredients:
Captain Morgan Spiced Rum
Blue Curacao
Pineapple
Coconut
Lemon
Pirate’s Booty Shot
Ingredients:
Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch
Bitters
Hazelnut
Black sugar rim
Pirates booty
Rum Around
Ingredients:
Pusser’s Rum
Pineapple
Orange
Coconut
Infuse with buzz button
Puckered Lips
Ingredients:
Tito’s Vodka
Grapefruit
Cinzano dry vermouth
Orange bitters
Shiver Me Timbers
Ingredients:
Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch
Ginger ale
Soda water
Lemon bitters
Hope you find some of these recipes tasty. Bottoms up!
