Oh how I am praying that the rain eases in time for the big parade tomorrow. Even though I am not LGBTQ or I, Mardi Gras is one of my favourite times of the year. I may no longer venture out to watch the parade live, but I will be enjoying a cocktail and watching it on TV.
Cocktails were always on the cards for Mardi Gras. This year, when Gillian of Casella Wines contacted me in regard to creating ‘winetails’ with Yellow Tail wines, timing was just perfect.
Believe it or not the first time I came across Yellow Tail wines was on a road trip in the USA. Massive Yellow Tail billboards seemed to pop up everywhere. When I eventually returned to Australia I discovered that Yellow Tail is the success export by the Casella family. I love it when an Aussie family/company is a success story in the export market.
I decided to play around with Shiraz, Moscato and Yellow Tail Bubbles to create my winetails. I didn’t want to use an exhaustive amount of ingredients, which is so easy to do when creating cocktails. I decided to choose a few key flavours that worked well with the three wines.
Lychee & Lime Fizz
- 2 lychees (peeled, seeded & halved)
- 1/4 lime
- 30ml vodka
- Moscato to top
Muddle lychees, lime and vodka with some crushed ice in a glass. Top with Moscato and serve.
Coconut & Chilli Sparkle
- 15ml chilli sugar syrup
- 15ml vodka
- 30ml young coconut juice
- Sparkling white wine
Pour chilli sugar syrup, vodka and coconut juice into a tall champagne glass and mix. Top with sparkling white wine and serve.
Sangria with kick
- 8 lychees, peeled, seeded and quartered
- 1/2 lime sliced
- 1/2 orange sliced
- 1/4c brandy
- 1/4c cointreau
- 60ml chilli sugar syrup
- 500ml Shiraz
Place all ingredients in a jug with ice, stir and serve.
Chilli Sugar Syrup: Place 1/2 cup of caster sugar, 1/2 cup of water and 2 split red chillies in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar has completely dissolved. Give the chillies a squish and then strain your sugar syrup to remove chillies and seeds. Leave to cool before use.
I am in love with the re-sealable cork on the Yellow Tail Bubbles, it works and is so handy. I wish every sparkling white had this feature.
If you are interested in playing around with Yellow Tail wines and creating some more winetails, head over to their Facebook page where you will find a great selection of recipes.
To help you get creative Casella Wines have kindly offered a giveaway fort three lucky Belly Rumbles readers. Six bottles up for grabs, three readers will each receive 2 x 750ml Yellow Tail Moscato, 2 x 750ml Yellow Tail Bubbles and 2 x 750ml Yellow Tail Shiraz.
To enter all you need to do is leave a comment letting me know the strangest cocktail you have ever had, be over 18 and a resident of Australia. Winners will be chosen through a random number generator. Entries close Midnight Friday 9th March and winners will be announced on Monday 12th March.
Happy Mardi Gras to all, and for those heading in to town tomorrow and parade participants. My fingers are crossed for the ease up on the rain!
Mmm I love cocktails. I especially like the sound of the lychee and lime fizz.
Jennifer (Delicieux) recently posted..Lemon Cake with Blueberry Frosting
I hope that it doesn’t rain for tomorrow night too! We don’t need to encourage Fred Nile further!
I wish I had remembered to do a Mardi Gras item for the blog-maybe I’ll just have to have a cocktail instead 
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella recently posted..Leaning Oak Dairy, Market Street Cafe, Lowe Wines & Roth’s Wine Bar, Mudgee
I am coming to party at your house next time in Sydney…. OMG!!! Love cocktails… you are so wicked! The chilli one would be weird, never had that… Thx for recipes
Jackie B recently posted..Pandan Kaya
The strangest cocktail I ever had was at the now-sadly-closed Rambutan on Oxford st. It was a hollowed out coconut, filled with coconut gelato, with a sugared lime half filled with rum & set ablaze, then dropped in the coconut.
It was delicious, but highly complicated. Also on the menu was a Lob Loy, which was the love child of “a Scottish hero & a Thai ladyboy”, direct quote.
Lucas @ coverversions.tv recently posted..Episode 12 – Mountain Meatballs in Chilli Coffee Sauce
I’m reading this at 11.20pm. Just about the right time for a lychee and lime fizz … if you ask me. Thanks for the recipe.
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Hi, thanks for the giveaway!
The strangest cocktail I ever had was in America. One night it was really late and I looked and felt tired, so the bartender offered to make me a drink with coffee in it. He called it “Butt Sex” and it contained strong black coffee, vodka, triple sec, lemon juice and was topped with whipped cream. Unusual but tasty… and it definitely woke me up!
Mmm I think I would have to have both the lychee lime fizz and the chilli coconut spakle – closely together. Strange cocktails… hmmm… Would probably have to be a cucumber mojito, savoury but quite nice actually. Great for a hot day.
Martyna@WholesomeCook recently posted..Maha’s Turkish Delight donuts + win a copy of Flavours of Melbourne!
I once had a disgusting white wine and tomato soup cocktail mixed together by a well-meaning friend who’d heard about Bloody Marys and was trying to make one!
Banana co#K sucking cowboy
My wife likes banoffee
These flavours lassoed me back for more
Red wine and coke – hmmmm apparently a big winner in USA.
The strangest cocktail I had was on a Sitmar cruise when I was 17. many moons ago lol. They called it a Mexican Fly, It tasted beautiful, hence had about five and woke up with a picture of Freddy the Fairstar frog on my lap and had slept in a deck chair all night!!!! still cant remember what happened, but freddy stalked me the whole cruise ?
The strangest one I had was in New York, and it had absinthe, brandy, honey and cayenne pepper. It was insane, but it worked!
JasmyneTea recently posted..Balla, Pyrmont
Strangest cocktail? Gorilla Snot – Lime cordial, southern comfort, lemonade and Baileys. Actually very very good, but I’m very partial to Soco.
Mai Tai had a cpl on my honeymoon in Hawaii on a cruise, they made me instantly sick, i suppose the big storm rolling in didn’t help either & hubby almost getting washed overboard, would never drink them again!
Is Fred Nile still alive??? I thought he had already died and gone to hell
Nevermind…
I love cocktails! I have been learning to make all sorts on the cruise. The strangest one contained dried chilli pounded and vanilla syrup with the usual vodka, apple juice and topped with sparkling wine. It was quite delicious
GourmetGetaways recently posted..Pacific Dawn Cruise – Day 1 The Evening
I think the saddest thing for me is that, at the ripe young age of nearly 34..I have NEVER had a cocktail!
Whaddaya mean chosen by random numbers? Isn’t it mine, mine mine and wait, mine too?
Jackie B recently posted..Chicken Stirfry with Black Fungus
Shocking name but tastes delish:-)
Gorilla snot cocktail
1/4 measure lime cordial
1 measure southern comfort
6 measures lemonade
1 measure Bailey’s Irish Cream
The strangest cocktail I’ve had is when we had a cocktail night and at the end we just mixed all the drinks together…..wasn’t very nice!
More entries means more chances!
Further odd cocktailings include the Hullaballoo, which is brandy, scotch, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Can be pleasant, but can also, quote, “taste like high school.”
Lucas @ CoverVersions.TV recently posted..Episode 13 – Barley Wine Steak with Herb Stirfry & Cured Cucumbers
A shrimp cocktail! Not really strange if that is what I was after, but when I send hubby to the bar to order a “cocktail” it is not really what I expect!
The strangest cocktail I ever had was a ‘cherry surprise’, that tasted pretty much like straight cherry syrup!!! It was the ‘special’ on the menu, and yep, it was pretty special lol. Ewwwww. Could only take a few sips and I was done with that one.
The strangest cocktail I ever had was called “Gorilla Snot”
1/4 measure lime cordial
1 measure Southern Comfort
6 measures lemonade
1 measure Baileys Irish Cream drizzled over the top but not mixed.
The strangest and yet delicious cocktail I has was Gorilla Snot
Basically you mix the Southern Comfort, lime cordial and lemonade together, then drool the baileys over the top – do not stir as the baileys curdles and gives it that look of, you guessed it….
SNOT!!
That’s really STRANGE!
Tequila ‘sunlies’ – well it was in Thailand. Tequila, orange and red cherry brandy instead of grenadine. Really delish!
Coffee, chilli and kahlua
Smurf Sperm …
Equal parts – Amaretto, Bailey’s, Blue Curacao
A B52 was my first cocktail – so it was my strangest. Then I got into experimenting and it was so tame in comparison
Chili and Pomegranate Mojito at Red Spice Road in Melbourne – I was feeling a little under the weather, so it gave me a great kickstart!
Just last year I was at a bar in Melbourne and asked the bartender to make something up for our group of four. We didn’t have any particular preference, but probably should have said something because we ended up with a glass with a muddled chilli in the bottom, black sambuca, tequila, lime juice and (I think) whiskey. It was atrocious.
(Unfortunately, after that we managed to forget how bad it was and asked her for another. Oops!)
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[...] If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to enter the Yellow Tail wine giveaway HERE [...]
At a seedy bar in the city, I was incredibly drunk, chatty and pestering the barman. Eventually I asked him for a cocktail suggestion. He suggested ‘The Barmat Martini’ Open to suggestions I agreed only for him to wring out the disgustingly wet bar mat into a martini glass – NOT ONE WORD OF A LIE! I think I threw up just watching him do it!
I had a pumpkin martini at a Halloween party once!
A strawberry milkshake one,
It was presented so fun!
And tasted alcohol free,
After a few I was happy!
It was supposed to be a strawberry margarita but I’d recently used the blender to make “extremely!!!” hot chili jam, so boy did it have a kick. Still gotta beat Gorilla Snot IMHO!
Vodka chilli cocktails was not a pleasant experience
jelly donut
The strangest cocktail I had in Thailand was at a bar in Bangkok. I was served something called ??? ????, meaning Pig Guts. Being in Thailand, this was either very much possible or just a play on words but the stench of the cocktail made me feel like I had been rolling around all day in mud with a pig with bad breathe!
lavender mojitos are quite yummy, if you get the chance make sure to try!
there’s nothing better than a lemongrass gin and tonic in summer. I love the addition of lemongrass.
Carrot cake cocktail
Weirdest Cocktail – Jalapeno Martini
1 jalapeno pepper (fresh)
1 pt vodka
1/2 cup jalapeno (pepper vodka)
1 1/2 tbsps dry vermouth
4 ice cubes
2 slices jalapeno peppers (fresh jalapeno peppers for garnish)
A drink that will really wake you up
gin and grapefruit juice with salt YUCK!
The most unusual cocktail I’ve had was one with cracked black pepper from Zeta bar. I had a look and it found the ingredient list – made with grilled pineapple, cracked black pepper, Belvedere vodka, caramel and chamomile liqueurs and finished with fresh lemon juice…hehee it was a good night I just remember choosing this because I thought black pepper was so unusual – but they have a bacon-infused & maple syrup manhattan (I havent tried…just know you like bacon tehee!!)
The strangest cocktail I ever had was towards the end of my 30th birthday cocktail party. I can’t be sure of all of the ingredients, but the boys had started making cocktails by this stage of the night, and the main liquid was beer!!! Not something I ever want to try again!
Home grown MANGO DAIQUIRI …
Haha the strangest cocktail I’ve had is the ‘cement mixer’ – shot of baileys, salt and lime juice and squished around until the cream curdles with the citric acid. It had the taste and consistency of snot.
Thank you everyone that commented and entered. Winners have now been announced, just look here …..
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