Shake, Muddle And Stir Like A South Beach Bartender At Home

MIAMI BEACH, FL — If you want to party like you're in South Beach even when you're in your own back yard, you just need to know the basics, according to a longtime bartender in the sizzling nightlife destination.

"You never know who is going to walk into your bar," confided Sarah Brezil of Minibar at the Urbanica Hotel in South Beach. "We get people from all over the world in South Beach — a lot of different cultures, a lot of different languages ... Every day is new."

She told Patch the hottest drinks being served up in South Beach right now include mezcal, a smoky liquor from Mexico made from a variety of agave plants.

"Right now mezcal is definitely the spirit of choice," she said. "People do different cocktails with that. They'll do like a spicy mezcal margarita, a mezcal Negroni. We have a mezcal cocktail on our menu with mezcal, Frangelico, a little rye whiskey and a dash of salt."

Anyone can make great cocktails at home once they master a few go-to recipes. The Urbanica recently launched a weekly Wednesday night mixology class for $50 for people who want a hands-on demonstration in the art of the cocktail.

"Drinks are all based on classics and then they take a new twist on it," Brezil said. "Once you know the classics then you can move forward with tweaking them and making a New Fashioned out of an Old Fashioned."

Brezil's favorite tip: "Don't over muddle," she cautions. Evidently, a little muddling goes a long way.

"A lot of people are going to crush the mint too much or they are going to shake the crap out of it," she said of the most common mistakes by home bartenders. She prefers to "swizzle" her Mojitos.

"It breaks the mint oils out but doesn't necessarily break them into parts so you get all of the flavors cohesive in the cocktail and you are not getting all of these chunks of mint in your straw and preventing you from actually getting through the cocktail," she said.

The weekly mixology classes cover the Mojito, Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Margarita and Sazerac but students can ask about any cocktail they want to learn how to make.

If you can't make it to a class or you merely want to get a head start on your studies here are five South Beach favorites courtesy of the Minibar that will leave your friends thinking they are steps away from South Beach all year long:

Mojito

• 6-8 mint leaves
• .75 ounce simple syrup
• 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
• 2 ounces rum of choice

Instructions:

• To a Collins glass, add crushed ice and above ingredients.
• “Swizzle.”
• Top with soda water, more crushed ice and a mint sprig.

Old Fashioned

• .25 ounce simple syrup
• 3 dashes angostura bitters
• 3 dashes orange bitters
• 2 ounces bourbon whisky of choice

Instructions

• To a mixing glass, add ice and above ingredients.
• Stir.
• In a rocks glass, strain mixture with a large block of ice.
• Garnish with orange peel.

Manhattan

• 3 dashes of angostura bitters
• 1 ounce sweet vermouth
• 2 ounces rye bourbon of choice

Instructions

• To a mixing glass, add above ingredients with ice and stir.
• To a chilled martini glass, strain the mixture. Garnish with a cherry.

Sazerac

• .25 ounce simple syrup
• 3 dashes Peychauds bitters
• 1.5 ounce rye whiskey of choice
• 1.5 ounce cognac of choice

Instructions

• To a mixing glass, add above ingredients.
• Prepare a coupe glass with ice and .25 ounce Absinthe.
• “Rinse” coupe glass with Absinthe and dump the ice.
• Into the coupe glass, strain the cocktail.
• Garnish with lemon zest.

Meridian Hotel

• 1/2 rosemary sprig
• .75 ounce simple syrup
• 1 ounce pineapple
• 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 of an Absolut mini bottle or .85 ounces

Instructions

• Into a shaker, combine the above ingredients and shake.
• Into a mini pineapple can with the top removed, strain mixture with 2-3 ice cubes.
• Garnish with 1/2 rosemary sprig and top with remaining half of the Absolut lime mini bottle or .85 ounces.