Hellooo lovelies,
On Wednesday night I was very lucky to attend a bloggers exclusive cocktail masterclass. Of course as soon as cocktails were mentioned I was up for it and it also gave me a chance to meet up with some of my beautiful blogging buddies that live near me! We were lucky enough to learn how to make cocktails and get to try as many as we wanted for free....sound ideal to anyone else!?
The event was hosted by the lovely Andy Pearson who is the cocktail king and funny heart radio presenter Paul Harper who sadly had brought his car so could not enjoy the cocktails that were on hand. The PR and marketing girls were equally lovely and looked absolutely stunning despite the fact that they were rushed off their feet... very jealous girls! Andy told us a bit about the most expensive cocktails in the world and there's one in Dubai that costs £100,000 but.... it comes with the keys to a Ferrai but the most expensive one Andy has watched being being is in Dublin for £750, that's one pricey drink.
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| Me and Sultana |
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| Me and Emily |
For my first drink I opted for the 'Zoom' which is layered to look like a rocket ice lolly which not going to lie was the main reason I ordered it first. It was really nice and tasted like melons but not overly fruity as you could definitely still taste the alcohol in it. This cocktail actually takes the longest time to make, so long that the staff have rejigged the way they make it 4 times in the manual in order to try and get it made faster. This has something to do with the ingredients being added in a certain order to ensure that the layers are formed correctly and don't just merge together to form a yellow colour.
The filling station also brought out some of their menu for us to try which has been partially revamped and also a few new foods thrown in. As a very fussy eater most of it would not be good for me but everyone else seemed to love it, Emily especially loved their Pepperoni slices from their BBQ board. I tried the salted pretzels which are new if I remember correctly and they were very tasty, I'd never even tried a pretzel before much to many peoples surprise and I love the way they come out in a silver bucket with newspaper in it.
I found it amazing watching cocktail expert Andy and Ivan who works at the filling station make the cocktails and the energy that goes into shaking the cocktails up looks exhausting!! It really was fascinating learning how some of my favourite drinks are made and picking up some handy tips so I can try (massive emphasis on the word try!!) and recreate them at home. The biggest tip I picked up was to not add ice until last with most of the cocktails in order not to dilute them and that the main thing to aim for in making a cocktail is to not let one flavour over power the others and create a balance of flavour.
The second cocktail I had was a Red Berry cheesecake cocktail which is one of their after dinner cocktails because it's so heavy but oh my it is amazing!!! Guys, you have got to give this a try. I am not a massive alcohol lover...I love to drink it but I don't particularly love that 'alcohol taste' so I much prefer my sweeter more sugary cocktails. This is one of those and it actually tastes exactly like cheesecake, don't be fooled though cause this one packs some punch because it has a lot of alcohol in it. This is the one I really would love to be able to make at home and anyone at the event would back me up in saying how much I loved this because everyone was joking about how much I evidently loved it due to my glass being emptied very quickly!
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| Red Berry Cheesecake in the making! |
Andy also informed us of how they use fresh ingredients in their cocktails so instead of buying ready made lime juice they will actually squeeze the juice out their limes themselves etc. They also don't skimp when it comes to buying ingredients, the Coconut cream they buy is one of the most expensive out their but the taste is totally worth it for making the perfect pina colada..everybody's guilty pleasure drink!
I also discovered that I actually really like Mohjito's which I had always believed I didn't like because of trying ready made bottled one's from Tescos. Nothing compares to the real thing! According to expert Andy the key to making a mohjito is not to crush your mint leaves so you aren't left with pieces of mint in your teeth which definitely is not the one.
Near the end of the night some of the girls actually got up and got to create their own cocktail which we named The Edinburgh Handbag after Emily's bag. In this drink as far as I can remember was peach vodka, cointreau and something raspberry..maybe raspberry puree. It actually turned out amazingly and tasted exactly like Dollymix sweeties.. filling station I definitely think the Edinburgh handbag should be added to your official menu!
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| Red Berry Cheesecake and The Edinburgh Handbag |
Don't worry if you like the sound of the Edinburgh Handbag and want to try it because the Filling Station actually want people to go in and tell them the kind of flavours they like and it gives the bar staff the flexibility to use their skills. So if you fancy some new exotic cocktails or traditional classics that actually taste as good as they should then definitely head over to the filling station and relax with some cocktails.
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| More Selfie fun! |
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| More selfie fun |
Have you been to the filling station before? What's your favourite cocktails?
Lots of Love,
A x x x
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