Five unique cocktails to celebrate retirement

Key points:

• If you’ve got a signature drink, throw a spin on it and get wild with mixology
• Put some effort into presentation — there’s nothing celebratory about a boring mix of browns or whites without some dynamic flair
• Remember to drink responsibly

This edition of Your Retirement Living offers you the tart, the colourful, the refreshing and subtle drinks you can make to commemorate something you’ve waited for. If there were ever a time to go over the top, your new adventure tops the charts and naturally — deserves a top shelf night to top it off.

Margarita

Recipe:

1. Get a coupe glass or rocks glass
2. Add 45 millilitres of blanco tequila — preferably 100 percent blue agave blanco
3. Add 30 millilitres of freshly squeezed lime juice
4. Add 15 millilitres of triple sec, also known as orange liqueur
5. Shake with ice
6. Rim the glass in lime juice, then lightly twist in salt
7. Strain into a coupe glass or serve on the rocks
8. Garnish with lime

A margarita is a staple of any retirement party, but ditch the cheap cordial mixes and do the drink justice. Better yet, opt for a spicy margarita with some jalapeño salt on the rim or take your mixed drink and pour it into a blender with a heaping of ice for a frozen variation on the classic, cruisy and boozy drink.

Think those are the only types of margarita to exist? If you pick up some different liqueurs, fruit juices and find a flavour you like, the sky’s the limit — watermelon margaritas, raspberry margaritas and yes, even the controversial Tommy’s margarita, which replaces the orange hint with another serving of tequila.

Yet, if you’re leaving the office on your final day and want to make one in a moment’s notice, just remember the three-two-one rule for the original and unbeatable mix: three parts tequila, two parts lime juice and one part triple sec.

Sazerac

Recipe:

1. Get a rocks glass
2. Gently coat with absinthe
3. Pour absinthe out of glass when evenly distributed
4. Pour in 60 millilitres of rye whiskey
5. Add a few shakes of Angostura Bitters
6. Add brown sugar cube
7. Slowly muddle cube into the bottom of the glass
8. Stir gently
9. Garnish with a maraschino cherry

A sazerac is basically an Old Fashioned, but with the added aniseed zing of the minty and medicinal absinthe flavour. On its own, an old fashioned is a smooth and rich blend of sweet flavours which balance out the coarse flavour of rye whiskey.

The sazerac is interesting for its unique melting plot of flavours which bounce off of each other and work together like a firework jetting out across the Crescent city of carnivals, parties and dancing parades.

Cuba libre

Recipe:

1. Grab a rocks glass
2. Add ice
3. Add 30 millilitres of rum
4. A splash of fresh lime juice
5. Fill with cola
6. Garnish with lime

The Cuba libre isn’t a complicated drink which requires a kitchen cupboard of ingredients to put together, but it has all of the refreshing qualities you’ll hope to enjoy on your next cruise.

The type of rum used in a Cuba libre is instantly recognisable when your tongue touches the tip of your distilled delight — a dark spiced rum with strong vanilla notes can turn an otherwise bland and caustic highball into a liquid dessert.

Death in the Afternoon

Recipe:

1. Grab one coupe glass
2. Grab one champagne flute
3. Fill the champagne flute with chilled French champagne
4. Add 30 millilitres of absinthe
5. Pour the champagne flute into the coupe glass
6. Stir gently until milky gold

We all love a good book and some might even fancy a quirky cocktail to accompany it, so curling up with this literary best-of-both-worlds drink — one must wonder whether the man himself, Hemingway, could describe the experience. 

With retirement on the horizon, spending an afternoon with a Death in the Afternoon is not only a possibility, but a chance to take a stroll back to the time period. Hemingway, a friend of The Great Gatsby author Francis Scott Fitzgerald, invented the drink, which has gone on to stand the test of time as a 1920s – 1930s time capsule.

Adios, muchachos

Recipe:

1. Line up a highball, rocks or collins glass
2. Create sour mix using one-part freshly squeezed lemon juice and one-part simple syrup — a mix of sugar and water
3. Add 30 millilitres of sour mix
4. Add 30 millilitres of blue curacao, which is an orange-flavoured blue liqueur
5. Add 15 millilitres of blanco tequila
6. Add 15 millilitres of clear gin
7. Add 15 millilitres of white rum
8. Add 15 millilitres of vodka
9. Fill with clear citrus soda
10. Garnish with a lemon wheel

If you’re looking to forget the years you spent in your office, this bright drink — a variation on the dangerously potent ‘Long Island iced tea’ — will lead to a colourful farewell party in more ways than one.

Adios!

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