Koh – What's New

Mary Pickford was the star of silent movies and, along with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, was at the pinnacle of the first generation of movie royalty. She was also one of the original founders of The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences.

The drink was created in the 1920s, during Prohibition, by Fred Kaufman who was tending the bar at Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, Cuba, where Mary was filming at the time.

The Mary Pickford is a tasty, sweet little number made with white rum, maraschino liqueur, grenadine syrup and pineapple juice. The drink was shaken with ice and strained into a martini glass and garnished with maraschino cherry. In this drink maraschino liqueur takes the rum/pineapple combination in an unexpected direction, adding nutty-almond notes to the drink while the grenadine adds a touch of sweetness and colour to it.

Here in Koh the recipe we use is: 50ml Angostura Reserva rum, 15ml grenadine (a sweet syrup made from pomegranates), 5ml Luxardo Maraschino, 40ml pineapple juice. For the grenadine we use real pomegranate syrup (this can be purchased in any high-end off licence) and for the pineapple we use pressed pineapple juice. The ingredients are shaken with ice, strained into a chilled martini glass and we garnish with a raspberry.

Josko Babic

The Sidecar, one of the most famous cognac-based drinks, was invented in Paris during World War 1 and was named after a well-known Army Officer who used to travel to and from the bar in which the drink was created in a motorcycle sidecar.

The standard recipe for the Sidecar consists of 45ml of cognac, 20ml of cointreau (orange flavoured liqueur) and 20ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

The Sidecar belongs to the ‘Sour’ family of mixed drinks (eg Whisky Sour) however sour doesn’t necessarily describe the drink’s taste as it is a balance of sour (fresh lemon juice) and sweet (in this case cointreau) flavours. The secret is to find your own preferred balance of ingredients, depending on your personal taste, which you can describe to any of our bartenders.

For the Koh Sidecar No.2 we use equal parts (30ml) of cognac, cointreau and sour. We personalise the drink by infusing our cognac with vanilla pods and by using fresh lime juice instead of lemon juice. The ingredients are shaken with ice and strained into a chilled martini glass. We coat the rim of the glass with brown sugar and then garnish the drink with flamed orange zest. By doing all this we are adding depth and subtle layers to our Sidecar No.2

Josko Babic

Over the last 4 years, especially during our very popular Koh Cocktail Masterclasses, there have been a few cocktails our guests regularly ask about. Over the next few weeks I’m going to give an overview of these classics, which we serve with our own unique Koh twist.  Starting with the Old Fashioned:

OLD FASHIONED

Created in the 1880’s, this cocktail gets its name from the original ‘old fashioned’ way of making cocktails. The old fashioned technique was to make the cocktail in a tumbler glass, stirred over ice. The generic recipe for these cocktails was one teaspoon of sugar, one teaspoon of water, 2 dashes of Angostura bitters and 60 mls of a spirit of choice (which at the time was gin, cognac or rye whiskey), decorated with an orange or lemon peel.

We in Koh make our Old Fashioned with a twist by using our Kilbeggan Irish whiskey with orange peel and substituting the sugar and water with two teaspoons of maple syrup. The ingredients are stirred in a mixing glass with ice and then strained over fresh cubed ice. We find that by making these changes, infusing our whiskey and adding the maple syrup, that we are adding an extra layer to the already great Old Fashioned cocktail.

If you have any particular queries feel free to send them directly to me by commenting below.

Sanuk!

Josko Babic

Head Bartender

A big thank you to Una Healy of The pop group The Saturdays for choosing to have her 30th birthday in Koh last weekend. A great night was had by Una’s family and close friends.

As a special surprise for Una, we organised a live Skype link up with her boyfriend Ben Foden, who was in the Crowne Plaza, Auckland, New

Zealand on duty with the English rugby team. Ben sang ‘happy birthday’ to Una as the birthday cake was brought out. Ben told Una and her

guest he hoped they were having a great night and he would be seeing them all a little sooner than he had planned!

We hope to see Ben and Una in Koh again in the near future when they are back in Dublin again.

Click to view the YouTube video of the night

Click to view the YouTube video of Una’s surprise on the night

Check out the link below for mention of Koh by Perez Hilton. He covered Una Healy’s 30th birthday in Koh last week.

The Saturdays’ Una Healy celebrates the Big 3-0!

We love the controversial celeb blogger’s thoughts on great Thai food!