In homage to the Commonwealth Games currently underway in Glasgow, a local mixologist has created a monster cocktail made with 71 ingredients sourced from every competing Commonwealth country.
For his Commonwealth Cocktail, Mal Spence of the Kelvingrove Cafe in Glasgow used exotic ingredients like Tanzanian cloves, dragon fruit from Belize and galangal from Malaysia in an elixir anchored with blended Scotch whisky.
Commissioned by the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, the cocktail is billed as a record-breaker for the sheer number of ingredients used in the coral pink drink.
The drink is the result of six months of research and experimentation that included working with 300 ingredients before the final 71 were chosen.
“To find a recipe that could combine all these different flavours and also taste good was a challenge I couldn't resist,” Spence said.
“It's been a case of trial and error as many of the combinations of ingredients just didn't work. I went through over 300 different ingredients before finding the final perfect blend.”
Visitors to Glasgow can sample the cocktail themselves at the Kelvingrove Cafe where the bartender will give away samples of the drink for a limited run during the games.
Here’s the full list of ingredients for the cocktail and the country they’re meant to represent:
Africa
- Botswana: devils claw (genus clerodendrum)
- Cameroon: bitter leaf (piper umbellatum)
- Ghana: taro (psidium guajava)
- Kenya: chives
- Lesotho: rosehip
- Malawi: cacao (pycreus cyperaceae)
- Mauritius: wild raspberry (rubus rosifolius)
- Mozambique: cassava
- Namibia: prickly pear
- Nigeria: utazi leaves
- Rwanda: papaya
- Seychelles: citronella
- Sierra Leone: cashew nut (piassava)
- South Africa: roobus
- Swaziland: sycamore fig
- Tanzania: cloves
- Uganda: nakati eggplant
- Zambia: sorrel
Americas
- Belize: dragonfruit
- Bermuda: arabica coffee beans
- Canada: logan berry
- Falkland Islands: bitter cress
- Guyana: sugar cane
- St. Helena: St. Helena tea plant
Asia
- Bangladesh: jujubi
- Brunei Darussalam: durian fruit
- India: mangosteen
- Malaysia: galangal
- Maldives: pomegranate (annaaru)
- Pakistan: saffron
- Singapore: rambutan
- Sri Lanka: ripe jakfruit
Caribbean
- Anguilla: mango
- Antigua & Barbuda: tamarind
- Bahamas: egg fruit
- Barbados: sour cherry
- British Virgin Islands: noni
- Cayman Islands: sage (salvia caymanensis)
- Dominica: guava leaf
- Grenada: lemon grass
- Jamaica: okra
- Montserrat: devil's horse whip
- St. Kitts & Nevis: tamon
- St. Lucia: sweet basiI
- St. Vincent & The Grenadines: arrowroot
- Trinidad & Tobago: tonka bean
- Turks & Caicos Islands: sapodilla
Europe
- Cyprus: basil-thyme (Άκινος)
- England: red apple
- Gibraltar: maqui berry
- Guernsey: blueberries
- Isle of Man: new potatoes
- Jersey: lavender
- Malta: star anise
- Northern Ireland: bog rosemary
- Scotland: wild Scottish strawberry
- Wales: wild cotoneaster
Oceania
- Australia: aniseed myrtle (syzygium anisatum) (gundabluie) (bardi bush)
- Cook Islands: custard apple seeds (annona reticulata)
- Kiribati: dried coconut meat (copra)
- Nauru: pumpkin seeds
- New Zealand: manuka honey
- Niue: paw paw
- Norfolk Island: yam
- Papua New Guinea: taro (colocasia esculenta)
- Samoa: ladies finger (small, sweet banana)
- Solomon Islands: taro leaves
- Tonga: avocado (avoka)
- Tuvalu: breadfruit
- Vanuatu: plantain
- Fiji: kava root
The Commonwealth Cocktail Recipe:
Ingredients
- 50ml blended Scotch whisky
- 40ml Hawthorn Drinks Honey and Lavender Shrub
- 10ml Hawthorn Drinks Dandelion & Burdock Syrup
- 3-4 Drops Commonwealth Bitters (contains 71 ingredients)
Method
Add ingredients to shaker, shake with ice and double strain into pre-chilled coupe.
Spence has also created a more at-home friendly version of the cocktail that whittles down the list of 71 ingredients to a more doable five.
Ingredients
- 50ml blended Scotch whisky
- 25ml lemon juice
- 20ml dandelion and burdock cordial
- Half a mango
- Rambutan
Method
Slice the fruit and place in a shaker tin, muddle with muffler or flat end of a rolling pin. Add ingredients and ice and shake. Strain into a tall glass with ice and serve.
