Varsity's Choice

Mix and shake cocktails

by Maggie Yu

Drinking cocktails at social gatherings is popular. It can be more fun if one knows how to mix a colourful and tasty drink for himself or his friends and guests.

Those who are new to cocktail-drinking may worry about the alcoholic levels in the drinks. But the key to make a cocktail that will suit the taste of many is using appropriate measures of spirits and fruit juices or other ingredients. A cocktail will taste bitter and unpleasant if too much alcohol is added. The strong flavour of a drink and its sweetness can be changed by putting in, for example, a different amount of soft drink and slices of lemon.

Cocktails come in a great variety of choices and can satisfy the palate of different people by changing the content of ingredients used. Each glass of cocktail is unique and shows the character of the person who mixes or takes the drink. There is much knowledge in each little glass of cocktail.

Instead of just enjoying cocktails at bars and pubs, one can take a course to learn the skills of making the drinks and become a bartender at home or own parties. Such interest classes are available in the Hong Kong Cocktail School , which was established in 2003 to train professional bartenders, or mixologists, and cocktail lovers.

The school offers courses on cocktail-bartending, bottle tricks, introduction of red and white wines, and bar operation and management. The bartending course is the most popular. It teaches course participants to mix 40 kinds of cocktails, including classic and popular ones like Pussyfoot, Long Island , Daiquiri and Zombie. Most of participants are aged between 18 and 35, and some of them run their own bars after completing the course.

The cost of a four-lesson basic course is $800, with each lesson lasting for one and a half hours. The charge covers all the ingredients and equipment needed. After taking the course, participants can try their hands at mixing their own cocktails as a bartender in certain bars within a particular period.

Special workshops will also be held occasionally for both course students and professional bartenders to learn new methods of mixing cocktails in other countries.

The Hong Kong Cocktail School is located at Room 101, 8 Hau Fook Street , Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon .

Its website is: www.cocktail.hk and telephone: 2765 0227.


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