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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and whether you’re looking for a cheeky sharpener, a steady stream of liquor or, indeed, a cure, Dublin’s cocktail bars have something with your name all over it. Which one will you try?
The Mexican export mezcal is trending in the US and UK but it’s still rare enough in Irish bars to cause genuine excitement when it does make an appearance. This bordello-style spot within The Blind Pig speakeasy is the perfect place for popping one’s mezcal cherry. Prop up the teeny bar below scarlet fringed lampshades and feel the earth move from this smoky sozzler – or, tell the bartender your liquor likes/dislikes and he’ll rustle something up accordingly.
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Elegant sips can be found in The Sidecar, the bijou bar off The Westbury Hotel’s Wilde restaurant. It’d be rude not to try its namesake – The Sidecar Signature Cocktail, which combines Hennessy Fine de Cognac, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao, sugar and fresh lemon juice at €15. Or, if you’ve won the Lotto/robbed a bank/are a banker, how about the Champagne-infused Sidecar Privileged Cocktail at €150 per glass? To justify the price tag, only six bottles in the world contain this special blend of Hennessy Cognac.
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Back by popular demand is The Mint Bar’s Christmas cocktail menu, where seasonally-monikered concoctions, such as Nutcracker, Winter Delight and Red-Nosed Reindeer are keeping their specific ingredients very close to their chest. But we still love their all-year-round Flight of the Cocktails: a tasting sampler of four 25ml classics served on a plinth, including the most delicious Sazerac, for €15.
Find out more at ww.themintbar.ie
If you liked the mezcal at The Little Pig, bar-crawl over to Fade Street, for a Blood, Sweat and Mescal: a cockle-warming brew of the aforementioned spirit, tequila, Cherry Heering, sweet vermouth, blood orange juice and sugar syrup, one of many innovative signature cocktails designed on-site. Too heavy? Try a Mad Martini, comprising Mad March Hare Poitín, Jasmin Syrup and Crème de Violette.
Find out more here.
They take their cocktails extremely seriously here and have a number of moreish concoctions and not just for Christmas. There’s a good selection of Irish liquor, from Teeling whiskey and poitín to, yes, more La Penca mescal. We also love the Garrigue: Bacardi Carta Blanca, yellow chartreuse, lemon juice, orgeat and – beautiful curveball alert – dried lavender.
Find out more here.
Photo Credit Jennifer Schmidt, Unsplash