In less than 5 weeks the greatest sporting competition in the world kicks off, and I’m not talking about the Rotterham Working Men’s Club annual Badger Baiting extravaganza.
No, I’m talking about the FIFA World Cup.
Whether your venue is showing the games or preferring to remain a commentator-cliché free zone, you can guarantee that punter’s conversations will change from Clegg and Cameron to Rooney and Ronaldo.
A strange thing happens during the World Cup (besides Croydon becoming more dangerous than Baghdad); people’s nationalism comes suddenly to the fore. You quickly find out that your brummy-accented waitress was born in Italy, or your regular Man Utd supporting customer’s mum was born in Holland and is actually a crazed fan of the men in orange.
As a result, it could be time to capitalise on nationalistic leanings, and on the occasion of the World Cup in general, so BarLifeUK has come up with a World Cup of Cocktails (if Walkers Crisps can do it then so can we) – no country is left untouched:
GROUP A
South Africa
The host nation will be looking to feed off the home advantage to cause an upset or two, failing that they can always sit back with Castle Lager and Biltong. As for a national drink? Well it doesn’t get more South African than Amarula Cream. This classic cocktail calls for Irish Cream Liqueur but Amarula works just as well.
P.S. I Love You
20ml dark rum
20ml Amarula
20ml amaretto
20ml coffee liqueur
50ml double cream
50ml milk
Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice. Shake. Strain into a highball filled with ice. Garnish with a Cape Gooseberry.
Mexico
Whilst their football team may not be the team they once were their Tequila just keeps getting better. The Margarita might be the classic but come on people this is the World Cup so it has to be:
Cocktail on the Attack!
60ml Tequila (use whatever you like but we recommend a good Blanco)
30ml Triple Sec
30ml Dry Vermouth
Juice from 1 Lime
Pour all the ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake your money maker. Strain into a chilled in a champagne glass, garnished with a slice of lime on the side.
Uruguay
This one is a bit tougher but Uruguay has two preferences when it comes to booze. The first is a local drink known as medio y medio which is a mix of White wine and champagne, they also love cider based punches so with that in mind we give you the
Keep It Up
90ml Champagne
15ml Cognac
30ml Orange Juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 sugar cube
Grab a champagne flute add a sugar cube soaked in Angostura, give it a quick muddle and pour in the other ingredients. Garnish with a twist of orange.
France
Well let’s face it besides maybe Germany there is no-one we would rather beat in the final than France. Also let’s face it, we used two classic French ingredients in the Uruguayan cocktail, so what else is there? Hell yeah, Absinthe, and what do we want to do to France?
Knock-Out
20ml Dry Vermouth
20ml Gin
15ml Absinthe (French of course)
1 tsp White Creme de Menthe
1 Cherry
Stir all ingredients (except cherry) with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Top with the cherry and serve.
GROUP B
Argentina
So they cheat right? And they have long girly hair! On the plus side they do great steaks and have a cocktail named after them which isn’t too bad at all.
Argentina Cocktail
30ml Gin
30ml Vermouth
½ tsp Cointreau
½ tsp Benedictine
1 dash Orange Bitters
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
½ tsp Orange Juice
Put it all in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake it up, try and get someone sent off and then pour into a chilled Martini glass
Nigeria
Right? Nigeria? It’s a mainly Muslim country you see so they aren’t too keen on alcohol. They do however have a drink called Chapman which is traditionally a Mocktail served in a beer mug but with a little tinkering can become a really nice cocktail, well we think so anyway.
Chapman Substitute
10ml Pomegranate Syrup
45ml Campari
2 dashes Orange Bitters
Squeeze Lemon
Squeeze Lime
Top with Ginger Beer
Shake all ingredients minus Ginger Beer with ice pour into ice filled hi-ball glass and top with ginger beer. The traditional garnish is cucumber (no idea why) we use an orange twist.
South Korea
It is becoming tradition in the World Cup nowadays that an Asian country does well, is this Koreas turn? As for drinking, Koreans have a national drink called Soju which was traditionally a version of Sake but has more recently been turned into a kind of potato vodka. This recipe has been adapted from the original however if you can find some Soju then simply use it in place of the vodka and sake.
Apple Soju
30ml Potato vodka
10ml Sake
30ml Tonic Water
30ml Apple Juice
Pour into cocktail shaker full of ice and stir to chill. Strain into a Martini Glass or if you want the traditional Korean touch pour into a hollowed out apple filled with crushed ice. Garnish with apple matchsticks.
Greece
Let’s assume for the purposes of this exercise that they can afford the flight to South Africa and move on! You say Greece you think Ouzo. You say Greece you think money. Well then this should be the drink.
Greek Buck
45ml Brandy
1 tsp Ouzo
2 tsp Lemon Juice
Ginger Ale
Shake brandy and lemon juice and pour into a collins glass. Fill with Ginger Ale and float Ouzo. Garnish with a 5 pence piece!
GROUP C
England
We’ve searched high and low and yet haven’t been able to find a cocktail which tastes like disappointment and crumbling dreams if we had it would be here. So in a pre-cup moment of belief and hope what could be better that the Union Jack cocktail (be prepared to take it off your list after the group stage!)
Union Jack Cocktail
45ml Gin
20ml Sloe Gin
1/2 tsp grenadine syrup
Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a cocktail glass. Go on garnish it with a mini union jack flag – you know you want to.
USA
They are still learning how to play a game that is over in just 1.5 hours but they’re getting better. Their cocktails haven’t quiet caught up yet though so finding a footy related bourbon drink wasn’t easy. Then we found it (you might want to stick with something more Old Fashioned!!)
Villa Park
90ml Bourbon
30ml Pineapple juice
30ml Orange juice
Combine ingredients in a shaker and give it some welly. Pour into a highball glass with ice, and serve.
Algeria
Not the home of great drinks or great football, but who knows what they could do to England? A little hunting did find a rather nice cocktail with their name literally all over it.
Coctel Algeria
20ml Pisco
20ml Cointreau
20ml Apricot Brandy
30ml Fresh Orange Juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with flamed orange peel, and serve
Slovenia
You may not know this but Slovenia have a great history of brandy making which they call žganje (they have a honey brandy called medica don’t you know!). With that in mind we went back to the classic brandy cocktail Horses Neck which was originally a non-alcoholic drink which when brandy was added was known as Horses Neck with a Kick – so in homage to Stuart Pearce I’m bringing the name back
Horses Neck with a Kick
60ml Brandy
180ml Ginger ale
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Spiral lemon peel (the horses neck)
Place the spiral lemon peel into a collins glass. Secure one end of the peel over the lip of the glass. Add ice to the glass followed by the brandy then ginger and bitters – give it a stir and you’re off.
GROUP D
Germany
Ahhh the old enemy, not the team of the 80’s but they’re still German so let’s go get them. As far as a drink goes they are famed for their Herbal Liqueurs and with the new Josef Meiers hitting our shores this is the perfect opportunity to get in on the action.
Bed of Roses
30ml Josef Meiers
40ml Lemon juice
20ml Grenadine syrup
10ml Lime juice
Lime slice for garnish
Cherry for garnish
Combine and shake all ingredients over ice. Strain into cocktail or highball glass. Add a slice of lime and cherry to garnish.
Australia
Ahhh our friends from down under – hate their cricket team, love their football team. As for their booze? Well they obviously have a great beer culture (ignore Fosters, try Coopers) and a burgeoning rum industry. Ignore Bundaberg and focus on Inner Circle and the new Holey Dollar brands. The Dark n Stormy might make you think of Bermuda but they aren’t in the WC and it is just a popular in Australia where they add some lime the crazy cats.
Dark ‘n Stormy
60ml Dark Rum (a good aussie brand if you can)
90ml Ginger Beer
Good squeeze lime
It’s Australian so keep it simple! Cchuck it in a rocks glass with ice and serve with lime wedge.
Serbia
It seems the Serbs are not only very capable of causing an upset but they also produce some damn fine plum brandy. So damn fine in fact that they have a very nice cocktail named after them. The fact that the name is also something very rude according Urban Dictionary we will ignore (it includes the word pounding!).
Serbian Sidecar
60ml plum brandy
30ml Cointreau
15ml Lemon juice
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Ghana
The Ghanaian’s make their own gin and their own ginger wine and whilst you can’t get either outside of Ghana this did inspire my choice of cocktail for them. La Coloniale is basically a ginger martini – we use Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur personally.
Le Coloniale
45ml Gin
45ml Ginger liqueur
Cucumber slice for garnish
Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cucumber slice.
Groups E – H are to be found here