CITC: Cocktail Class Tasters - Flamboyant 1980s

We held a series of special cocktail making classes at One Marylebone, as part of Cocktails in the City London – a 3-day celebration of all things cocktail-related.

Guests were given the chance to recreate three iconic cocktails representing three very distinctive eras in the history of mixology – the roaring 20s, the flamboyant 80s, all the way up to the innovative present-day.

The 1980s were an interesting era for cocktail culture to say the least. It was a decade characterised by peacocking disco drinks, which tended to be flamboyant, colourful and every so slightly ridiculous.

So, that said, it’s time to bring on our most ostentatious cocktail – the ‘Magnum P.I’.

To create this exotic libation, our spirit of choice was El Dorado’s 3 year old white rum (AKA ‘The White Gold of Guyana’).

This superior light, dry white rum’s subtlety and balanced exotic flavours have won it numerous international awards. It is aged for 3-6 months in oaken barrels, before being refined and blended to perfection – leaving it bright, clear and aromatic.

Foremost for us, however, is the liquid’s versatility – making it an ideal mixer for long cool cocktails, be they refreshingly simple or wildly exotic like our Magnum P.I.

The Magnum is a shake and strain drink. So we start with filling a hurricane glass with cubed ice, before we get 50ml of El Dorado 3 year, 25ml Lemon Juice, 12.5ml Tonka Syrup & a dash of Green Seaweed Extract and pour them all into a shaker. Shake it all together, before straining the liquid into the glass over the cubed ice.

All that’s left to do now is garnish, and make sure you do so as flamboyantly as humanly possible – the more paper parasols and pointless flamingos the better.

Drink and enjoy.