“What was that you said? You want me to make a cocktail and blog about it?”
(… Took me all of thirty seconds to say yes to this one!)
I love a good cocktail. In fact, having just come back from holiday, I’m having cocktail withdrawal!
I’m a firm believer that a good cocktail can mentally transport you to holidays pre-kiddies, with white beaches, sunsets and a bikini-clad body unkissed by the stretchmark fairy. Far away from the world I sit within now; nursery runs, Fireman Sam marathons and face-to-floor tantrums! In fact, “me time” is rarer than rocking horse poo at the moment. The kids cry if I so much as brush my teeth without them.
So being sent an ebook from Travelbag crammed full of island-inspired recipes, means I have my pick of the best cocktails and the best mental imagery going. I can whisk myself off to Puerto Rico, then stop over in Haiti, before enjoying a quick 10 minutes in Trinidad & Tobago. As www.travelbag.co.uk are one of the UK’s leading top online luxury travel agents, they certainly know their cocktails!
So Craig and I have been stocking up on Barcardi, Bailey’s and Crème de Banane and slowly picking our way through the recipes. We’ve decided to showcase The Painkiller (a traditional drink from the British Virgin Islands) for you as it gave us the biggest shock so far; we really weren’t expecting to like it, but like it we very much did. It also got us sufficiently drunk enough to cuddle up to each other like teenagers on the sofa - usually our evenings run more like mash-up of Bottom & Men Behaving Badly.
If you fancy a night off tearing each other a new one, and you’ve forgotten what life was like before your children gave you a constant migraine - here’s how to make it:
Apologies for the lack of appropriate glasses. It’s very unusual for me to make anything more exotic than a pint full of Nesquik with a nob of ice cream.
Simple hey? In fact all these recipes are. The trickiest bit is nipping to your local Sainsburys, browsing the alcohol aisle and NOT buying tipples that aren’t on your ingredient list (or indeed falling to your knees and offering up a little prayer of thanks to the God of Vodka for its very existence). So if you can display the tiniest smidgen of restraint, this is the book for you.
*** Travelbags #CaribbeanCocktail Comp ***
The purpose of my bringing you this post however, isn’t to rouse a stampede of family, friends and fellow bloggers into hitting their drinks cabinets. It’s to bring you news of a awesome competition ran by my friends over at Travelbag. You might have spotted my cute new Magimax Le Blender in the pics above? Well how about winning one for yourself in Travelbags #CaribbeanCocktail comp?
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning, is name your very own exotic cocktail and tell Travelbag which Caribbean country you’d like to be enjoying it in! It doesn’t get any easier than that, surely! Three winners will receive a Magimix Blender worth £150 - perfect for making drinks and processing food (we love ours).
Simply leave your answer on their TWITTER or FACEBOOK feeds - T&Cs are HERE.
Collaborative post with www.travelbag.co.uk
