The 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London are ready to open. What about a summer London Olympics cocktail party with 6 different cocktails, each with a different color and taste representing the 6 colors of the Olympic games?
6 colors of the Olympics?
The symbol of the Olympic Games is composed of five interlocking rings, colored blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field. So 5 rings + white background makes 6 colors. The symbol of the rings was originally designed in 1912 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin the founder of the modern Olympic Games. The 5 rings represent the 5 continents and stand for passion, faith, victory**, *work ethic, and sportsmanship.*
The classic Collins as a starting point
As the Games take place in London, the spirit in the cocktails could only be… London dry Gin. A classic Gin cocktail is the Tom Collins. In a first step we defined which basic recipe we wanted to use for the Collins.
The following basic recipe worked the best for us; – 5 parts of gin – 3 parts of simple sugar syrup – 2 parts of lemon juice – 3 parts of sparkling water
We used a Tumbler glass of about 300 ml and we didn’t shake, but stirred the cocktail. We lost too much flavor if we shaked the cocktail.
Making 6 variations on the Tom Collins
Foodpairing is an ideal tool to make variations, little twists on classic cocktails. How do you start? As our cocktail is a Gin cocktail, you have to explore the Foodpairing tree of Gin. This is for example a Foodpairing tree of Gin. All ingredients around gin, can be combined with gin. The closer to the middle the better the match. Gin combines perfectly with cardamom, grapefruit, basil,… but all the ingredients in the tree match.
Foodpairing Tree
Following Foodpairing variations were selected based on the Foodpairing tree of Gin; Red: red bell pepper, strawberry, vanilla Yellow: mango, ginger, passion fruit juice Green: pea, basil, white beer Blue: blue curaçao, grapefruit juice White: peach, almond, cream Black: coffee, passion fruit
Recipe Red Collins with Paprika – Tomato
preparations
Bell pepper-strawberry syrup
-100 g red bell pepper (peeled) – 100 g sugar 200 g water – 0,5 g vanilla pod – 40 g strawberry
Cocktail
- 50 ml gin
- 30 ml bell pepper-strawberry syrup
- 20 ml lemon juice
- 30 ml sparkling water
Mix the bell pepper with sugar, water and the vanilla pod in a pan. Heat on a moderate fire (confit the bell pepper). Leave to cool down. Mix with the strawberries with a blender. Add the gin, the bell pepper-strawberry syrup and lemon juice to a mixing glass. Stir. Strain in a tumbler glass filled with ice. Finish with sparkling water. Add some grinded black pepper as a finishing touch.
