In the comment sections of this and this post, some readers and I shared our views on the quality of cocktails served at some of Nairobi‘s most popular bars and nightclubs. In this discussion, Mercury Lounge and Casablanca were named as establishments that were thought to serve good cocktails, while Hidden Agenda and Soho’s came up as places to avoid when in search of a good cocktail.

Frankly, of late, I have not been too impressed with what I’ve been seeing  many establishments pass off in the name of certain cocktails. Because it is trendy to serve (and be seen drinking) cocktails, I find that a lot of  East African establishments are great at having all the right cocktail names on their beverage lists, but do an extremely poor job when it comes to actually making these cocktails. In my opinion,  the cocktails served are often overpriced, too little (in quantity), and  barely have any alcohol in them. One place that I have been to recently, though, that does not disappoint me when it comes to cocktails is Coral Beach Hotel in Masaki, Dar es Salaam. I’ve tried a couple of their cocktails, and each time, I have been pleasantly surprised. My favorite cocktail there, the El Presidente (TSh. 7,500), is a delicious blue drink that packs a real punch (you’ll have to sip this one slowly! )

Coming to think of it, there’s absolutely no reason for you to limit  yourself to drinking your favorite cocktail to only when you are out on the town, when you are not completely sure what you’ll get when you order your favorite cocktail and yet will probably still be charged a pretty penny for it. Do you know that it’s quite simple (and very cost effective) to make your favorite cocktail in the comfort of your own home?

A number of years ago, a friend of mine and I, decided to get together once a week at either of our homes for a fun girls night in, where we’d learn how to make a new cocktail of our choice, followed by a nice gab fest and sampling of said cocktail . Although we didn’t keep it up for too long – we both love going out way too much – the experience taught me how simple it is to make even the most complicated sounding cocktails.

So where to begin? One of my favorite online resources when it comes to making cocktails is DrinksMixer.Com. I like this website because, here, I can find recipes for a wide variety of cocktails and use cool features such as the ingredient-based search (useful for making cocktails with drinks you already have at home); or the ingredients scaler, which allows me to scale a recipe up or down depending on the number of servings I want to make; as well as get useful information about the cocktail I am making such as the alcohol content and the average rating given to the drink by other users who have also tried to make the same cocktail before.

No clue as to what cocktail to try? Well, why don’t you try out one of my favorite cocktails, the Strawberry Daiquirí, a fresh fruity cocktail that can be made with or without alcohol and be served both as a slushy (as it’s done so well at Tamambo) or as a liquid (like it’s done at Slims). Here’s a recipe from AllRecipes.com for the slushy variety.

I hope this post has given you a few ideas. If you do try to make your favorite cocktail at home (or at a friend’s home) please let me know how it goes.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Biche

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