Six Tips for Valentine’s Day Cocktails from Bohemia Bar

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - today we're talking cocktail making!

If you’re contemplating spending Valentine’s Day at home this year, why not romance your other half with some spectacular cocktails......or maybe you want to enjoy a scrummy cocktail or two at home with your friends? Whatever your reason, the mixologists at Bohemia Restaurant and Bar in Jersey have lent us their top tips for creating home-made cocktails!

Whichever cocktail you chose to create, learn from the professionals with these six top tips:

1. Glasses Galore

If you’re out to impress (friends or lovers!), it’s worth investing in good quality glasses to add a touch of class and elegance to your home-made beverage. If you opt for a stemmed glass, you could also tie a pretty ribbon or flower stem around the base. 

2. Shaken vs Stirred

As a general rule, any drink that contains only alcohol should be stirred, while any drink which contains a mixer should be shaken. 

3. Ice Ice Baby

A little-known tip is to boil water before pouring it into your ice-tray as these means no bubbles will form whilst your ice cubes freeze.

4. Sweet and Sour

The perfect formula for achieving the sweet and sour balance is 2:1:1. That's two parts alcohol, one part sour, and one part sweet. Use sour ingredients such as lemon or lime juice; and a sweet ingredient, such as simple syrup or triple sec. 

5. Make a big batch 

If your guest is a fan of straight-spirit cocktails, why not create a batch of your drink ahead of time. You can then chill this in the fridge in an empty wine bottle and pour individual drinks when you’re ready.

6. Garnish

A garnish is more than just pretty decoration— it's often what brings the whole drink together and is worth doing well! It’s the first part of the drink that our customers judge so we put a great deal thought into this part of the cocktail process. Green garnishes look wonderful with clear drinks, and can even be added to ice for an extra wow-factor.  

I don't know about you, but I don't need any excuse to buy new glassware! I'll definitely be putting these tips into practise....who is joining us for a cocktail??

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Top Tips for Scone Baking!

Hello there!

Here at Tea With Me and Friends Lorna is the scone maker and she is really good at it (I’ve tried and failed miserably…I’m much better at eating them!). She has a recipe that we shared with you last year and her scones are always scrummy. Being such an awful scone baker myself I decided it was about time I did a little research on the subject......before hitting the kitchen again.

There is an awful lot of recommendations on the Internet, I learnt a lot during my research....so much that I decided to share it with you.....

So, apparently there are some key things that I need to remember when baking scones! Firstly....butter makes your scones light and fluffy. Too little butter and you will end up with dry and heavy scones (aka “stodgy”). So it’s really important to have the correct flour/butter ratio (follow your recipe and measure everything out!). It’s also really important that your butter is cold when you use it…..again this helps with fluffiness!

Are you ready for the science bit?

Butter forms small pockets throughout your dough, as it melts it is replaced by the carbon dioxide from your raising agent...allowing your scones to rise. If your butter melts or softens before you start baking your scones, the carbon dioxide has nowhere to go and therefore escapes from your dough….resulting in flat, hard scones. Just like my last attempt......

Hmmm....flat scones are never good!!

The way you cut your scones is also important, when you use your cutter or knife don’t cut all the way through the dough. Press about three-quarters of the way through and then tear the rest. It sounds a bit weird, but if you press the cutters all the way down, you seal the sides of your scones….and this hampers the rising!

The final piece of advice is to handle the dough as little as possible. You don’t want gluten to develop in your dough and remember.....you want the butter to stay cold before baking – so stop touching the dough!

Now as I read through the pages of advice and various articles my various failed batches of scones flashed before my eyes. A slightly depressing experience considering I love baking! So armed with all these tips and Lorna’s favourite scone recipe I headed back to the kitchen!

(An hour or so later……)

Well, what do you know....the advice helped! I have to say I was quite pleased when I opened the oven door and saw these beauties....

Thats much better - a light and fluffy scone!

Plus they taste wonderful and were light and fluffy too…everything that a good scone is supposed to be! And they definitely rose! If you fancy doing a little science in the kitchen, get your apron on and whip up a batch of scones following these tips!

I hope you are as successful as me….or maybe you already knew all this….

Thanks for popping by today,
Rachel