Cocktails

Cognac Summit

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on July 10 2015 at 17:12

Sometimes cocktails seem like just one more thing you have to do when you have people round but this summery cognac one is so easy it's no hassle at all.

I tasted it at a a pop-up supper club I was co-hosting for the Bureau National Interprofessional du Cognac (for which - declaration of interest - they paid me). But they didn't ask me to run the recipe or tweet about it. I just thought it was so good I wanted to pass it on. And you don't even need a shaker - you just make it in the glass.

For each glass you need

1 strip of lime peel/zest

4 thin slices of fresh ginger

40 ml (1 ½ oz) VSOP cognac

60 ml (2 oz) traditional lemonade (something like R. White's - nothing fancy)

1 long strip of cucumber peel

An old-fashioned/rocks glass

Place the lime zest and ginger slices in the glass.

Pour in 20 ml (3/4 oz) of VSOP Cognac.

Lightly press the lime and ginger 2 or 3 times using a pestle (in other words 'muddle' it)

Half fill the glass with ice. Stir well for 5 seconds using a bar spoon.

Pour in the remaining cognac

Add the lemonade and cucumber peel.

Stir well for 5 seconds and serve

You can reduce the amount of cognac if you want to, obviously, and skip the muddling and it'll still taste good.

* If you're wondering the cocktail is named after the International Cognac Summit in 2008 which brought together mixologists from all over the world to create cognac cocktails. Bet they had a good time ....

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