THE PERFECT COCKTAIL

People really do taste with their eyes so it’s really finding a balance between something that looks great and tastes great when mixing a cocktail. This can be a huge task – you need to find seasonal fruits, cool and quirky glassware, balance between sweet and sour, the list goes on and on…

Today the possibilities of cocktail mixers are endless however we still love the tasty classics – The Manhattan, Mojito, Bloody Mary. Our Bar Manager Tristan is a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to his favourite cocktails. In summer he loves a Mojito “it’s simple, its fresh, its light, I could drink them all day!.”. In winter he rates a good Bourbon Sour but admits this one is not for everyone!

Then there’s the classics that we simply can’t recreate anymore such as the Vesper Martini, the famous “shaken, not stirred”. This martini was invented and named by Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond book series for the very famous “Casino Royale”. Originally the recipe included Gin, Vodka, Kina Lillet and lemon peel, however as the recipe for Kina Lillet was changed in 1986 and Gordon’s Gin was reformulated in 1992, whilst there are a few contemporary versions there’s no true way to ever capture the original flavour of this drink, unless you can take a step back in time and access your grandparents liquor cabinet!

Here at The Guildford Hotel we offer the classic cocktail mixers as well as our own take on a contemporary cocktail offering. We love to get our team involved when creating our cocktail list as they have so much passion for what they are doing and creating new cocktails also provides them with the opportunity to learn more about different flavours, and the techniques of how to create a successful cocktail.

Our cocktail list is 100% made by our team from start to finish! We go through about 7,280L of ice a week which is largely contributed by our team busily mixing and primping to make the perfect cocktails for our thirsty patrons! That’s the equivalent water use of about 182 showers, every week!

Our most popular cocktail would have to be the ‘Sugar Gum’ – the magic ingredient with this one is watermelon, everyone loves watermelon! No wonder this one flies out the door!

You can see some of our cocktail range here or otherwise come in and try one out for yourself! We mix them up every day from 11am, no judgement from us!