Thursday, 15 December 2011

"Hurricane Bawbag" Cocktail by Adam Smithson of Graphic Bar

On December 8th 2011 Scotland was battered by the worst gale force winds in over 10 years. As winds got up to 180 miles per hour and electric pylons fell to the ground - Twitter started trending with Hurricane Bawbag. Having lived in Scotland I instantly got the reference and spent the next few hours constantly chuckling at some of the hilarious #bawbag tweets. This particular favourite was retweeted well over 100 times:

#Scotstorm Hurricane Bawbag Update: A plant pot has fallen over in Airdrie. An eye witness retold the horror "it pure went sideways"

Even Wikipedia - the information resource for the 21st Century - has an entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bawbag

On December 8th I happened to be out and about in London and popped into Graphic Bar in Golden Square in search of a cocktail...
It was Adam from Graphic who first introduced me to the "Monkey Gland" a cocktail using Gin, Absinthe, orange juice and grenadine which was so named after the rather gross and quite bizarre practice of grafting monkey testicle tissue onto human male testicles. Bizarre indeed, although the cocktail, admittedly, is rather tasty.... It became clear that Hurricane Bawbag deserved a cocktail of its' own and of course a 'twisted' Monkey Gland would fit the bill perfectly!

Hurricane Bawbag
by Adam Smithson
8th December 2011

50ml SW4 London Dry Gin
20ml Grenadine
20ml Blue Curacao
Several dashes La Maison Fontaine Absinthe

Shake all the ingredients hard over ice and pour into a coupette. Garnish with a small tuft of hair stuck to the side of the glass. (NB non-edible)


The Hurricane Bawbag understandably has a pinky, bluey hue, but is essentially purple in colour. The overall flavour profile is well rounded with a soft mouthfeel and good length. I would suggest however if you were going to make the Hurricane Bawbag at home or in your bar to use an edible garnish.. perhaps candy floss....