Where in London can you learn how to make 5 cocktails, drink 7, and spend two glorious hours having fits of the giggles for just £20 a head? I think you’d be hard pushed to find a Groupon deal with terms that great but branches of Balans across the capital are giving their customers the opportunity to do just that.
I was asked to one of their recent cocktail classes and took a friend. All I can say is that we learnt how to shake, stir and mix with the best of them and left more than a little squiffy from the Kensington High Street restaurant.
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Behind the bar, ‘Ginge’ AKA Simon Warneford from Bibendum Wine and who has years of bar experience is our mixologist for the night and 8 of us are his more than willing pupils.
We start the evening with a Bellini, a glass of Italian Prosecco with a peach cocktail mix.
We were then shown step-by-step how to concoct the perfect Bloody Mary,
Cosmopolitan, Mojito,
French Martini and Margarita.
We almost decimated an entire lime crop with the amount of fruit we managed to squeeze between us.
We finish the evening, as if we needed more booze, with a Balans-made strawberry Daiquiri.
You leave with the recipes and a short history on each of the drinks. Who’d have guessed you turn part-pyromaniac when preparing a cocktail? Amazing what tricks you can perform with a little orange zest!
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If this has whet your whistle then the dates for the next lessons are:
Tuesday 3rd July at Balans Kensington
Tuesday 18th September at Balans Westfield Stratford City
Tuesday 2nd October at Balans Earl’s Court from 6:30pm – 8pm.
The lessons continue in rotation on the first Tuesday of each month.
