The grand opening of The Winter Garden is happening this Friday 25th November. The Winter Garden is a unique outside venue for the Winter, completely under cover, this bespoke winter garden allows you to enjoy something different this Winter season. With the capacity to hold 50 people, The Winter Garden is the perfect place to come for your Christmas work do or even to enjoy a mulled wine on a crisp Winters night with the warmth and coseyness of an inside bar. We are currently offering warm cider, mulled wine and the full cocktail menu MaiTai has to offer, alongside a fantastic Winter warmer menu!
The Winter Garden is open 6 days a week, from 6pm-11pm, when The Winter Garden sadly has to shut there will be a table reserved for you and your guests inside with full table service. To ensure your spot at The Winter Garden, you are able to make a booking by calling 01202 733881, emailing: dave@umixltd.co.uk or facebook us by clicking on The Winter Garden logo above.
Also this week at MaiTai we are introducing a new line of Boutique Beers from all around the globe! Come along to MaiTai or The Winter Garden, 'check in' on your smartphone or 'like' our fan pages and receive a free shot to get your night started!
Right as Christmas fast approaches I think its best to update everyone on developments at Brambles. Brambles Bar and Restaurant now has a new chef Drew Jarvis and he has been producing awesome stuff. His sunday roast is getting very popular and i'd like you guys to come on down and try it out. The bar was relaunced last month and the word of mouth about the light bad menu is getting louder and louder. Its fairly simple but with Brambles new touch. Rustic with style. Brambles is now a wine bar with the main focus on fine rare wines from vineyards around the world specially chosen by our suppliers. I have tried some of them and they are to die for. Saying that we still have cocktails on the menu and they will get better and better in terms of presentation and service of them. Our vision for brambles is coming to fruition and the xmas will only ignite the atmosphere at Brambles. We are very passionate about what we want to achieve and we hope you enjoy it when you come down. I am planning a day to have eveyone from maitai down to Brambles to enjoy our offerings, so please let us know which days are convenient for you all and we are in business.
Throughout next week i am de-listing all wines on our previous menu. Hurray cos this means the wines are on offer with a whooping 25% discount. So hurray while stocks last. Let friends and family know. Live music on Fridays now but an exceptional live music on thursday the 24th November too. Just thinking of you lot.
Brambles Bar and Restaurant is bracing itself for a fantastic christmas. The menu has been designed, fine rare wines have been sourced and our cocktails are ready to be sampled. All you have to do is come, come and be pampered.
Our Chef's Sunday lunch is twisting a storm here in Broadstone, find out why and local businesses are about to enjoy Brambles local business partnership. I say we 'walk the talk'. From December Brambles relaunces its launch service, can't wait and the christmas decor comes out too. Ho la la, music to my ears.
Dear I say you have to behave yourselves when you come to Brambles as a few guest have been brambled at Brambles. This is not a bad thing in good company. Please enjoy responsibly, order a taxi and then enjoy some more. Evening service starts at 4pm from December and half price cocktails are back on the menu. Get in!!!!!!!!!!!!
For more info check out our website www.brambles-restaurant.com.
As we are named after this fantastic classic cocktail, it only seems right that we should cover it, there have been many variations on this cocktail some better than others we are going to look at just two of the original recipes and there associated stories
firstly we will look at Tiki Cocktails and how two claims to fame on the Mai Tai
came about. The two original movers in tiki tum drinks after Prohibition where Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic) and Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt (Donn the beach) there rivalry was legendary however it is generally regarded that Donn the beach was the pioneer and Trader Vic was inspired after visiting Donn's bar, Donn the beachcomber in Hollywood, he returned to his bar in oakland California, Hinky Dink's. He converted into a palm tree and coconut tiki heaven. Donn the beach created the Mai Tai in 1933 in Hollywood, based around a good 17 year old Jamaican rum he had around. This was ten years before Trader Vic first offered his creation. Donn served his Jamaican Rum concoction to a pair of friends from Tahiti, Ham & Carrie Guild, After tasting the drink Carrie raised her glass and said 'Mai to roa ao,' which in Tahitian means 'Out of this World' or 'the best'. And thus the drink had its mantle!
Below are both recipes, simply pick your favourite;
Mai Tai (Trader Vic's)
50ml of Aged Rum
20ml of Orange Curacao
20ml of Fresh Lime Juice
10ml of Orgeat/ Orzata syrup
Shake all ingredients together strain over hard ice in a rocks glass
Garnish with a lime wedge and mint sprig.
Mai Tai (Donn Beach)
40mls Myers Dark Rum
25ml of Havana Club 3 yrs
25ml of fresh lime juice
30ml of fresh grapefruit juice
15ml of Velvet Falernum
20ml of Cointreau
2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
4 spigs of mint
Dash of Absinth
Shake ingredients hard for a minute serve in a double old fashioned glass
Garnish with mint sprigs, Donn recommended sipping the drink slowly through the mint.
These drinks optimise the tiki culture so know one on up jump in your hammock and enjoy on a lazy afternoon. Perfect!
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Homemade & Well made
At U-Mix we endeavour to make as many of our ingredients as possible from scratch. Homemade fresh ingredients will always taste better than pre-packaged products . Below we will go through some of the methods and recipes we use for making these products.
Starting with, simple/sugar syrup
Probably the easiest ingredient to make yourself, and by far the most cost effective.
Simply mix sugar and hot water at a ration of 2:1 in a pan on a medium heat until dissolved. Once your satisfied with its consistency bottle it and leave to cool. Once bottled it will keep for a good few weeks at least. The ratio of 2:1 is purely a guideline if you feel it needs to be thicker then add more. Bare in mind that as it cools the syrup will become more viscous.
Flavoured Syrups
The method of making flavoured syrups depends on the flavours you wish to acheive for example to make vanilla syrup you can use vanilla sugar (which unless made from scratch can be expensive) or cook vanilla pods in warm water then strain off and follow the above reciepe. Flavoured teas make fantastic syrups simply add several tea bags to your hot water until strong enough then strain off and add your sugar. Bare in mind this style of syrup won't last quiet as long.
Homemade lemonade
You will need;
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)
Method;
Make simple syrup using the water and sugar
While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher.
Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength.
Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes.
If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.
Serve with ice, sliced lemons
Whatever flavours you would like to try, have fun be creative!
The Art of great service
Considering we work in the service industry many venues can fall short on just that. All the greatest products in the world can't make up for a poor experience of bad service, at the same time people don't always expect great service in bars in the same way as they would in a restaurant. This is due to a lack of understanding of what great bar service really is.
Below we have listed some simple things that are part of a great bar service.
''Welcome''
So many bars fall at the first hurdle, the welcoming of guests to the venue, once you enter a venue it is up to the staff to make sure you are looked after, this includes welcoming you into the bar. The feeling of being welcome in a bar is in its staff and the service they provide once your there.
Napkins
Great bartenders will use napkins as a great tool, as such a simple thing it works in many different ways. Firstly it helps to keep the bar top dry, every drink that's made will make the bar top wet, napkins reduce this drastically along with this when you leave the bar they can be used to clear behind you. Also during a busy service placing a napkin in front of the next customer to be served can really help to eradicate the issue of customers wondering when they are going to be served.
Menus
Once your at the bar the bartender should offer you a menu, its a great tool for allowing you to select drinks based on what you are looking for. It also give you as a customer an indication of what the venue has to offer for you and your guests. The menu should be clean, undamaged and relevant.
Drinks
The drinks part of the service should be clean, organised and above all quick, a single drink or cocktail should take no longer than 60secs to make. When it comes to cocktails, the bartender should talk you through what he is doing and offer suggestions on alternative products that could be included in your drink. Bars are fortunate that we now have a plethora of products at there disposal so there are alternative ingredients that can be used to tailor a drink just for you.
Bill/Tips
When it comes to clearing your bill it should be placed on a bill tray, allowing for you to check that it is correct. Once your bill is paid, change should be left on the bill tray allowing you to choose if you wish to leave a tip. The tipping culture varies from country to country, tips are expected for every drink in places such as America, however us Brits are a little more restrained, the general rule is that if you have received great service then a small tip would be greatly received by the bartender.
Luca Cinalli at Space bar Moscow, giving a masterclass in entertaining service.
If you do recieve great service at a bar make sure you shout about it,
good quality service should be the norm!
And if like us you work in hospitality remember,
''If you have a strong sense of self worth, you will provide service, not servitude.''
With the bank holiday fast approaching we at Mai Tai decided what would be the best way for us to celebrate Mai Tai's 4th birthday and the summer bank holiday...!!!
Well two things... Cider and Sausages.. both huge in the summer, so why not pair the two together to celebrate these most humble of British staples!!
The BBQ will be fired up and the cider put on ice!
Well through Saturday the 27th August and into Sunday the 28th Aug - we are going to have a large selection of sausages and ciders for everyone to try!
Live Music on the Sunday Afternoon I Stowford Press - £3.00 all weekend I local ales I BBQ available both days.
Cider & Sausage Festival 2011 - Mai Tai Lounge Bar - 27th/28th August open till 02:00am
At Mai Tai we are fans of anything that's a little quirky! And this summer is no different, coming soon to the bar are some very unusual drinks, so if your interested in something quite cool and a little unusual then read on!
AFTERNOON TEA;
First off we have the fantastic Hendrick's Gin afternoon tea set. Serving a various selection of Gin based summer drinks to share in these fantastic retro teapots. I can see the looks now as you drive past our terrace and there we are sat in the sun sipping a fantastic concoction from our afternoon tea-sets. It doesn't get much more unusual than that!
6s & 7s Hendricks Gin Fresh lemon juice MAI TAI Ginger & Lemongrass Tea syrup Smooth Orange Marmalade Dash of soda
A TASTE OF THE DEEP SOUTH
At present I'm a big fan of some of the colourful and varied arts coming out of New Orleans and the deep south. Art, music, drinks it all going on. With this we will soon have are hard working mitts on new Southern Comfort Jam Jars. Harking back to the Pewter Julep tins of old, which held the South's equivalent to the Mojito, the Mint Julep. Fresh mint combined with a good quality bourbon, bitters and a little sugar. The Jam Jars are designed to hold Southern Comforts new Louisiana Jam a great drink combining SC with jam, mint, sugar, bitters all shaken up and packed with crushed ice.
At Mai Tai we are going to serving a selection of different drinks designed by our bartenders.
JAM JAR HAND SHANDY (Courtesy of Raoul's Oxford) Woodford reserve bourbon Vanilla Sugar Lemon juice Strawberry Jam Dash of soda
We have a few more funky products lined up, keep an eye out!! And always enjoy Mai Tai Responsibly and support your local bartender (we are an indangered species!)
by Dave Winstanley
Thursday, 19 May 2011
OUR BARTENDERS SPIRIT OF THE WEEK
ST GERMAIN ELDERFLOWER LIQUEUR
With the summer finally on its way, the guys at Mai Tai are looking for new and interesting summer products to use in some truely brilliant drinks for the long summer evenings. After testing it last Summer a firm favourite has returned to the bar, St Germain Elderflower Liqueur.
St Germain is one of the few spirits in the world (that we can think off) that has its main ingredients hand picked, fresh elderflower blossoms are picked by men (Un Paysan's) at the foot hills of the Alps. There are only around 40 to 50 of the Paysans, who in total collect all the elderflower required for St Germain. Once picked the blossoms are bagged ready for the cysle ride down to the bottom of the mountain and the local market where all of St Germains Elderflowers are purchased.
St Germain is a small batch liqueur that is both sweet, but also has a very natural flavour unlike many mainstream liqueurs. Its flavour is light, and unique and can be mixed with many ingredients such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberry and apricots.
It also has a depth of flavour that can stand side-by-side with these strong fruit flavours. When mixed with a Dry London Gin, St Germain explodes into life, with little more than a touch of tonic water.
Definately one to try this summer!
The guys from the bar are working on some fantastic cocktails with St Germain which will be up on here soon!
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
A COCKTAIL MENU IS BORN
With the launch of our new menu we would love to share with you some of our thoughts behind some of our new drinks created by our team.The menu was completely designed in-house by our old and new bartenders.
ORIGINS
For our fourth menu we decided that it was time to take a different direction with a new menu that was both unique and mature in its drinks.All the classic drinks have been stripped away, and the menu then began to be created around each of the staff, their creations being tasted, judged then compiled together.
The classics where removed as most people will order classic style cocktails by name without even looking at the menu, we wanted our menu to be based on original creations not listing someone else’s mixes.
We have also taken out a lot of the puree style cocktails and replaced them with cocktails based around the fantastic flavours found in good quality products. These products can stand alone in a drink without their flavours being lost to overly sweet purees and sugars
If you think of spirits as you would fine cuts of meat, when your cook it and present it you want its natural quality and flavour to be the focus, so you would add as few additional flavours as possible. We have done the same in a liquid format. A classic Martini would be a fantastic example of this, good quality dry london gin, a dash of vermouth and a twist of lemon, a spirit based cocktail in its purest form.
BARTENDERS
Niall Percival
Niall is an advocate of cobining complex drinks based on unusual or lesser known spirits; many of his drinks use base spirits such as Cognac or Blended Whiskeys. He has also used classic drinks as inspiration, for example his Famously Smashed is a mix of Black Grouse blended whiskey with homemade Raspberry & Pepper Syrup, fresh lemon juice, Cherry Marnier and Jerry Thomas bitters.Created by stirring ice gradually into the drink in much the same way as you would create an Old Fashioned, one of the longest standing cocktails of all time.
Dave Winstanley
For my cocktails I wanted a mix of drinks inspired by fantastic creations that I had tried on my travels.The Fifty Fifty for example is based on a fantastic drink I was lucky enough to enjoy at Salvatore Celebrese’s cocktail lounge in Mayfair, Salvatore @ fifty (before it closed).Simply blending vanilla vodka with fresh chilli, lemon juice, and homemade vanilla syrup.At present my most popular is the Pornstar Martini a fantastic drink I had at LAB in London, after a fairly heavy night I couldn’t remember what the bartender had told me was in it, so I set about recreating this fantastic cocktail that blends vanilla & passionfruit together with a charge of prosecco on the side.
Ricky McGowan
Some drinks just come together easily, Ricky’s cocktails use various different ingredients from across our back bar, from Patron XO Café to Whitley Neill Gin, Ricky’s taste for experimenting has come together fantastically in his creations.The firm favourite at present is his Willy Nilly, blending Whitley Neill Gin with homemade caramel, fresh grapefruit and cranberry juice.A simple blend of flavours that come together perfectly, and a name that just seems to fit!
Gina Dunnett
Gina’s cocktail have a real fun element to them, while using great products, but in a simple easy to drink fashion.Her Gecko Sour is fast becoming a regular’s favourite, using Lambs Spiced rum, Di Sarronno Amaretto, fresh lime and sugar.Made to the standard sours mix this easy drink blends the cinnamon aromas of Lambs Spiced with the sweet Almond flavour of Amaretto
DESIGN
Our new menu was designed by Jason Rubino of Candy Black designs with photography by Ben Roberts.
If you haven't seen our new menu, then pop in for a drink or two and chek it out.
We would like to thank everyone who came down this weekend, Mai Tai rocked all weekend! Next weekend we do it all over again!! Tables bookings call 01202 733881
Following my recent holiday to Cuba, I was lucky enough to try a true Mojito in its birth place. And I can honestly say that it was one of the best i have ever tried, and put many of the one i've tried here in the UK to shame.
At the bar we visited they only served Mojitos or beer, so the choice was obvious. The bar was full of people drinking Mojitos and the bartender was making them in batches of 12 or more.
As we waited for ours to arrive the local gardener arrived with a huge bag of freshly picked mint, you just don't get fresher than that!
Below is their recipe and the version that I hope to start serving at Mai Tai, its very similar in style of drink to the bar standard of Vodka, lime & lemondade served here, designed to be both easy to drink and thirst quenching, ideal for the summer months we are all waiting for!
CUBAN MOJITO
50ml of White rum (Havana Ideally!)
25ml of Fresh lime juice (they call it lemon?!?!)
3/4 barspoons of granulated sugar
Large handfull of fresh mint
Sparkling or Soda Water
Dash of aged rum (again ideally Havana)
Method: Add sugar, lime and mint to a collins glass, a 12oz will be ideal, muddle ingredients hard until fully mixed, half fill the glass with sparkling water, scoop off mint (unless you like it in the drink) fill the glass with hard ice, add rum and stir.
Serve with 2 straws and a sprig of fresh mint, Voila!
In association with Larios Gin, we have a day in the sun on the Mai Tai Terrace. With some great food, including BBQ, and the chance to try some great Gin Cocktails from bartenders, chefs and the public from over the south coast. What better way to enjoy the last of the Bank Holiday.
Its free to attend and/or enter
Call Dave on 01202 733881 or email dave@umixltd.com for entry details
Get your bank holiday weekend off with a bang at Mai Tai, we have a great line up of DJs playing all your favourite tunes to really get you in the party mood!
Call Dave/Ricky on 01202 733881 to reserve your table (they are limited so get in there fast!)
**Special Offer**
Book a table with us and recieve a complimentary glass of bubbly on arrival for you and each of your guests!
by Dave Winstanley PIMM's O'CLOCK This summer why not enjoy a touch of Pimms with a twist. At Mai Tai we are offering Pimms Cup Punch Bowls. Served in our vintage copper punch bowls.
Why not share a Punch of Pimms Cup with friends, check out my recipe below.
Also available is our Winter Punch bowl using Pimms No 3 Winter edition, based around a Brandy base rather than the traditional Gin base of the No 1 version. With its full body and heavy citrus notes its ideal to provide a depth of flavour to our Punch.
PIMMS CUP Pimms No 1 Larios 12 Dry London Gin Fresh chopped strawberries Fresh raspberries Chopped orange. Chopped cucumber Large fresh mint leaves (slapped to break viens) Fresh lemon juice Homemade lemonade Homemade Low-sugar syrup A pinch of cinnamon.
Mix all ingredients in a punch bowl, serve with ice on the side, chilled glasses and great company. Enjoy.
History of Punch (Bowls)
The word punch is a loanword from Hindi panch and the drink was originally made with five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices. The original drink was named paantsch, which was derived from the Persian word panj meaning five. When creating a punch the following ingredients would be broken down into 5 categories, specifically rum punch which would be 'one of sour, two sweet, three of strong, four of weak and then a dash of bitters or spices. Alternatively, it may have derived from the word puncheon, a cask that held 72 gallons, from which a punch bowl could be made.
The drink was brought back from India to England by sailors and employees of the British East India Company in the early seventeenth century. From there it was introduced into other European countries. The term punch was first recorded in British documents in 1632. At the time, most punches were of the Wassail type made with a wine or brandy base. But around 1655, Jamaican rum came into use and the 'modern' punch was born. By 1671, documents make references to punch houses
Recently Courvoiser Exclusif have been flying the flag for punch bowls with their summer of punch promotion which has helped bring the punch bowl back from kids party favourite to a serious cocktail category.
At Mai Tai we are always trying to help you the customer out in what ever way we can... so to make choosing from our brand new menu that little bit easier, we have came up with our cocktail of the week....
This will change from week to week so you have a wide variety to choose from for the coming weeks. we will choose them depending on how the weather is looking from a refreshing gin cocktail when its hot! to a warming brandy cocktail when the weather changes as it loves to do to rain!
So why not pop in and come and see what we have to offer because we love feed back on our drinks....!
Our new menu is here and we are launching it with a BANG!
We have decided to combine our new menu and our awesome half price cocktail offer... to bring you!
HALF PRICE COCKTAILS AT MAI TAI....
Tuesdays - Fridays 4pm - 8pm
Experience some of the best cocktails made by the best cocktail bartenders in the industry!
Cannot find a cocktail that tickles your fancy? Just tell the team what alcohol and flavors that you like and they can make you your very own custom cocktail...
We also offer full table service... so to avoid disappointment book a table early!!
Here at the award winning Mai Tai lounge bar we are currently running a beer of the week!! and the chosen beverage for this week is.... San Francisco's famous Anchor Steam! I first tried anchor steam about 1 month ago and all i can say is... i have fallen in love! This beer has been consistent from the 70s and is one of the forerunners of all craft brews in the US.
Amber/orange in color, crystal clear with a cream-colored head that stands proud at about an inch with really good structure and pretty decent retention. Pretty beer.
Refreshing floral smell, rich with noble hops against a malt presence reminiscent of honey oat bread. Very perfumy and not in a bad way.
Noble hops again balance well with the honey/oat bread malts. Same as you smell and very crisp. Again, the consistency of this beer over the decades is amazing. An all round good beer in my opinion, but then who am i to say what you like... i will leave that one down to you, so come on in and give it a try!
The grand opening of The Winter Garden is happening this Friday 25th November. The Winter Garden is a unique outside venue for the Winter, completely under cover, this bespoke winter garden allows you to enjoy something different this Winter season. With the capacity to hold 50 people, The Winter Garden is the perfect place to come for your Christmas work do or even to enjoy a mulled wine on a crisp Winters night with the warmth and coseyness of an inside bar. We are currently offering warm cider, mulled wine and the full cocktail menu MaiTai has to offer, alongside a fantastic Winter warmer menu!
The Winter Garden is open 6 days a week, from 6pm-11pm, when The Winter Garden sadly has to shut there will be a table reserved for you and your guests inside with full table service. 
