Forget Bunnings: DIY Cocktails Instead

As the popular meme goes, everyone knows someone who’s been victimised by tequila. If you can relate, we hope you’ve had the pleasure of being benched by a quality margarita, and you can’t relate we want to know your secret. Either way, tucked up safe at home is the perfect place to test out your sea legs – and and our mates at Alma Mexican Restaurant in Avalon have shared their go-to Margarita recipe for you to get the very best margi hit from the comfort of your own home.

Bar Manager Christian Leibenatus says the key is to get the best possible quality tequila, use 100% agave syrup – and fresh limes!! These guys are juicing a whopping 25kg a week – whut – a real testament to how well they shake up a margi, and the very definition of crushing it.

The Margarita Recipe:

Margarita Ingredients: 1 oz Cointreau, 1 oz Lime juice, 2 oz Tequila

Drinkware: Margarita glass

Margarita Preparation: Rub the rim of the glass with lime so the salt sticks to it, shake the mixes ingredients with ice, and pour.

How To Serve A Margarita: With a lime slice garnish and salt on the rim

Pro tip: for a jalapeño maragrita, blend with chillies – and leave in the seeds.

Named for Count Camillo Negroni when he returned from his rodeo adventures in the American Wild West with a taste for hard liquor and gave it his seal of approval. In some circles it’s affectionately referred to as rocket fuel, but get the balance right and it packs just as much bitter sweet flavour as it does heartwarming KICK!!

Christian’s advice (part 1): never skimp on the ingredients, especially the vermouth which he recommnds you go all out on with his personal pick and apparently hands down the very best vermouth rosso for a negroni – Carpano Antica.

Part 2 of his advice: go BIG on the ice. BIG on quality of water and BIG on size, so you can savour the flavour undiluted for as long as it takes you to start mixing the next round.

The Recipe:

Negroni Ingredients: 1 oz (1 part) Campari, 1 oz (1 part) Gin, 1 oz (1 part) Sweet red Vermouth

Drinkware: Old Fashioned glass

Negroni Preparation: Mix, stir, and pour

How To Serve A Negroni: On the rocks (aka one giant ice ball) with a twist of fresh, zesty orange peel…