BLT Market: Mixology Series

Monday night mixology, yes please!

I love hosting friends at my home, so expanding my cooking and mixology knowledge has been at the top of my learning list this year.

I was SO excited to hear about the new classes that BLT Market was planning on holding. Basically, every month they dive into a different alcohol to teach the public how to make their own cocktails like pro bartenders. Awesome!

We were welcomed with a Spanish style gin & tonic that everyone was raving about. It was very good & the perfect way to kick off the evening. The featured gin that we used in each drink was by Bombay.

We learned how to mix, shake and stir three different cocktails at this month’s gin cocktail class. This class was led by the wonderful Dan and Jayson, and of course BLT Market’s in-house beverage director Sarah Landry was there. She’s amazing!!

In the class, you watch the pros do their thing. They talk through each step, explaining why they add certain ingredients and mix it the way they do. We also learned a bit of history on the alcohol, cocktails, and methods. It was all very interesting. But again, the class is just watching and listening, which is perfect for learning while enjoying your beverages. They also encourage you to go to the front and try mixing it yourself if you’d like.

The first drink we made was the classic Tom Collins featuring Bombay Sapphire East Gin. This one was my favorite drink of the night. We learned two ways: from scratch and by perfecting the bottle concoction. Yum! Both were sweet & refreshing.

The next drink was also delicious, the Aviation. This one was right up my alley. A bit fruitier than the others, and a little too easy to drink. This one featured Bombay Sapphire Gin and delectable Maraschino cherries!

The final drink was the Martinez. This one was Tom’s favorite of the night. We use our barspoons to stir the ingredients with the Bombay Dry Gin, strained, and garnished the drink with a lemon twist and Luxardo cherry.

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After the class, we were gifted a card with all of the ingredients and instructions for each drink. They also gave us an incredible bag of goodies which included a bar shaker mat, muddler, jigger, bar spoon, lemon press, shaker, wine glass and more!

At the end of the evening, you are sure to be leaving feeling very good; good enough that we decided to call an Uber home.

It was such a fun, educational, tasy experience that I would recommend these classes to anyone!

Here is BLT Market’s complete list of the first few classes with the details (I went to the first):
‘Gin’uary: The extremely mixable spirit with a diversity of flavor profiles and styles, and a shared taste derived from juniper berries, takes the class spotlight on Monday, January 22.
Feb’Rum’ary: Dark. Spiced. Agricole. Aged. The world-renowned sugarcane-derived spirit behind the mai tai, Cuba libre, daiquiri and mojito gets its due on Monday, February 19.
March’Tini: The class focus shifts from individual spirits to the ever-growing variations of the classic martini cocktail – with its basic recipe gin, vermouth, and added lemon twist or olive origins – on Monday, March 19.

Classes are $50 per person per class, or $135.00 per person if you had signed up for all three. Hopefully they extend beyond March!

If you want to reserve a spot at the next one, head to https://mixologymonday.brownpapertickets.com!