It's National Mai Tai Day! Let's celebrate!

Thanks for everyone that responded to last week's poll - we officially have a new name, The Stir Down... (any logo designers out there?)

My week has been jam packed with cocktails to celebrate drink holidays. Most of these "drink holidays" are probably created by brands in order to sell more product but hey, it's another excuse to make great drinks!

The 25th of August was Whiskey Sour Day whilst today is Mai Tai Day! Anyone keen to celebrate Creme de Menthe Day next month? I think Cachaca Day is more up my alley as I'll be knocking back a few Caipirinha's!!

Oh, and it's NEGRONI WEEK coming up! Don't worry, for those that DON'T like Negronis... I'll have a special video coming out full of delicious drinks that you'll want to try.

📷 LATEST VIDEOS

Watch the full video

MORE VIDEOS:

• 5 ways you are ruining your MOJITOS (and how to fix them) | STB

• 15 Essential Bottles to Build Your Bar | Anders Erickson

• Superjuice - 8x your Citrus Juice Yields! | Cocktail Time with Kevin Kos

• 7 x Negroni riffs | Truffle on the Rocks

Spotted a great video on YouTube? Feel free to hit reply and share it with me (it might get featured!).

🔥 TIP OF THE WEEK

Whip shake your way to better tiki drinks! Whip shaking is a simple shaking technique popular among tiki bartenders. Simply add one or two cubes of ice or the equivalent in pebble ice and shake until the ice is completely gone. The advantage of this style of shake is that A) you know exactly how much dilution you've added into the drink and B) it's somewhat like reverse dry shaking so it ends up being highly aerated, perfect for tiki drinks.

Drinks that are whip shaken are commonly served over pebble ice - the drink is already cold and therefore it slows the rate of dilution once served.

Alternatively, if you make A LOT of tiki drinks then I highly recommend purchasing an inexpensive spindle blender for flash blending your drinks.

📚 RECOMMENDED READING

Smuggler's Cove is a must have cocktail book ESPECIALLY if you love tiki drinks. My favourite section would have to be Understanding Rum (page 183) which explains how rum is produced and defines rum into 21 categories (unaged, aged, pot still, column still, blended, etc. etc.). The book is worth it for this section alone let alone the techniques and 100+ cocktail recipes.

🍾 NEW BOTTLES ON THE BAR

I was recently gifted a bottle of one of Lark Distillery's latest releases, Wolf Release V (a collab between House of Lark and Wolf of the Willow's brewery). I'm starting to get back into drinking whiskey and holy moly this is one special bottle. I had a small sample bottle but it was polished off within a couple nights of receiving it. Read more...

Do you have feedback on today's issue of The Stir Down?

Comment below and let me know!

Cheers,

Steve the Bartender

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🤔 Got a question? DM me on Instagram!