More cocktails in 2014! Let’s start with Tipplesworth Travelling Cocktail Cases

We’re back! Happy New Year to you all, may it be a fun and full one.

Regular readers will know we don’t do New Year’s Resolutions here on TWR, who has the time? And as someone older once said to me when reflecting on ageing,  “Life is short and then you die” so really, what’s the point in suffering by giving things up? Surely we should be TAKING things up and doing more to get the full value out of life?

I am bored to tears by people who whine on about  ‘giving up stuff’ for January -carbohydrates, alcohol, sugar (the new demon food, even grapes are dangerous apparently), eating meat before 6.00pm (the vegan diet, ‘rolls eyes’) slovenly-ness and fun. Just shut up until you’ve kept it up for six months, until then you’re just sharing your job list with me!

Instead, we advise doing more things you love during 2014. If you absolutely have to give things up, then give up what you don’t like doing, not the stuff you like and definitely not bread in the month when toast seems the most appropriate foodstuff for a cold, wet, windy grey day.

Which brings me to cocktails. Last year I made more cocktails than ever before, learnt lots about gin (my favourite spirit) and found a new sub category of vintage to search for on ebay (cocktail shakers, Boston shakers, ice buckets -like the gorgeous vintage ones above, strainers, decorative glass jars in which to store home made sugar syrups…I could go on but then you’d think I was a bit obsessed).

I am convinced we make a better cocktail as we get older. You need experience to create a great martini and maturity to appreciate the wonders of a negroni. I’ve also met many menopausal women this year who’ve found that they can’t consume wine any more without feeling like they are being poisoned but still want something punchy to drink.

I want to ensure we have a comprehensive guide to good cocktail making this year on The Women’s Room, so stick with me over the coming months for all you need to know. Including the fact that bergamots are the ESSENTIAL new citrus to add to your weekly shop.

We will also be looking at what to wear when drinking them, obvs.

But let’s start the year with female mixologist Frankie Snobel, who had the brilliant idea of creating the Tipplesworth Travelling Cocktail Case kits, which make the perfect present for anyone interested in getting started with cocktails.

Frankie has curated three cases, The Bramble, The MInce Pie Martini and The Old Fashioned which contain all the ingredients, high quality barware, glasses and the recipe to make interesting cocktails. The portable cases are charmingly retro to look at and make for great storage if space is limited. I did NOT get one for Christmas, but I would have been extremely delighted if I had.

As well as these lovely cases, my favourite thing on Frankie’s website are the quirky ‘how-to’ video clips, which have a cheeky retro glamour and sense of humour often lacking from more serious mixologist sites. She covers basics from how to crush ice (Ice is a MAJOR topic of discussion in cocktail-speak) to how to make an old fashioned. I’ve put the one on how to make a Bramble cocktail below, but check out the rest of them here, bookmark them under useful and get shaking.

What will you be doing more of in 2014?