A perfect night for cocktails under the stars

Friends of mine from Rhodes might remember a certain fondness I have for throwing cocktail parties involving drinks requiring swizzle sticks. The only drawback was that my prowess at correctly measuring the ingredients didn’t match my enthusiasm, resulting in incredibly strong drinks. Fast forward…

A vigorous mint plant and overflowing liquor cabinet led to a Minty Cocktail party on our roof deck yesterday evening. Learning from the lessons of the past, I armed myself with:
1. Two new cocktail shaker sets complete with jigger measures
2. Multiple print outs of the recipes
3. The key ingredient for success? A partner who took on the role of primary mixologist. Who knew Jay was so good at mixing cocktails?!

The fourth critical success factor revealed itself to be my helper C. He enthusiastically helped me prepare batches of simple syrup — mint infused and plain. He helped harvest our massive mint plant until all that remained were a few small stems, “Don’t cut that Mama, the plant needs that to make its food!” And he stepped in to fill the void of us not owning anything like a Vitamix/Nina/Bullet/ice crushing device. Can you tell how he solved the problem?

We decided to serve two signature cocktails: mojitos and mint juleps. The added bonus was getting to use run with provenance to make the former.

Your mojito choice of rums included a 50-year-old Red Heart rum that I had held on to from my parents. It cost ZAR2.25 back then from a liquor store in Pretoria located on a street that has since been renamed. Half of it had evaporated, so when I opened the bottle and tested it, what was left was distinctly medicinal and probably about 500-proof if such a thing is possible. We decided it a wiser decision to enjoy the incredibly politically incorrect label and forego the contents.

The remaining choices were “Honeymoon rum”, a bottle of Bounty we had acquired eight years ago while in St. Lucia, or Babencourt, a Haitian white rum we bought here. The result was they all made for delicious drinks with Jay in charge.

And what of the kids at the party, you wonder? We adults were having a great time up on the deck that we failed to notice the methodical ‘distract and pillage’ raid that they organized and executed until we realized that most of the food had disappeared. The successive raiding parties would enter with flair and an announcement, usually clad in some kind of armor and sporting a weapon such as sword or Nerf crossbow. Meanwhile, it turns out, one or two of the party were making off with bowls of fruit, chips and crackers.

I was reduced to tracking one of our younger guests and when they unlocked the door to Calvin’s bedroom after she provided the necessary password and secret knock, I barged in with her. Imagine my shock to discover a carpet picnic being tucked into that included not only all the pillaged provisions from upstairs, the food that had been set it for the kids downstairs from the dining room table, but also extensive contents of the fridge and various kitchen cupboards. Sad to say I did not have my phone handy to capture the evidence, as I was forced to re-pillage a bowl of fruit and plates and beat a hasty retreat!

It was later reported by Calvin that the kids had eaten all the raspberries and many of the strawberries, some bananas. (I pretended to be shocked to their delight, but secretly noted that that study about kids naturally choosing healthy foods if left to their own designs appeared to be true!)

Calvin announced this while brandishing a freshly-baked baguette that had been intended for adult consumption. In a manner that called to mind Jean Valjean of Les Miserable, he waved about the baguette and then proceeded to take a huge bite out of it. After sharing out modest pieces with friends, including a single, very modest piece for all the adults to share, he was seen during the course of the ensuing hour eating the baguette until none but a small end piece remained!

We concluded that it was one good party when we finally bid goodnight to our last friend six hours later at around 1 a.m. (DS, you are amazing to help us clean everything up! Thank you!!!) We also thanked our lucky stars that the thunderstorm forecast for the day turned out to be a few minutes of sprinkles that resulted in an outstandingly pleasantly cool evening.