Mix your drinks to stay sober

A North London cocktail lounge is launching mixology classes to raise awareness about the contents of its drinks. Annies Bar in Kentish Town, renowned for its calorie counted cocktail selection, is also introducing a unit awareness menu so people know exactly how much alcohol they are drinking.

“Customers have always asked us how we make our cocktails so tasty,” says Maria Connolly, owner of Annies Bar, “but they also want to know how many units and calories they will be sipping.”

Since launching as a cocktail lounge last year, Annies Bar has built a reputation for innovative beverages – including menus to mark the G20 conference and MPs expenses scandal.

“With these classes, designed and taught by our expert mixologists, we want to encourage responsible drinking by educating people on how many units they contain,” says Connolly.

“In the summer people should really be drinking longer, weaker cocktails because, in the heat, they are likely to want more. It is also notoriously tough to taste the alcohol in some well-mixed drinks.”

As well as the serious side, however, the classes are also designed to be fun.

“Participants will learn how to muddle, shake and stir their own drinks. The classes are perfect as a warm-up for a hen or stag party, a reward for staff or for a birthday treat,” says Connolly.

“Participants will know their own safe limits, and can impress their friends and family at home.”

Annies Bar’s Cocktails

Classic Mojito: two units/160 cals

Four limes
Two teaspoons Demerara sugar
Six mint leaves
50ml Havana 3 rum
Carbonated water

Cosmopolitan: two units/160 cals

35ml Ketel One vodka
15ml Cointreau
7.5ml lime juice
30ml cranberry juice

Dry martini: two units/115 cals

50ml Tanqueray gin
5ml Noilly Prat Vermouth

Mai Tai: three units/350 cals

25ml Havana 3 rum
25ml Myers dark rum
12.5ml apricot brandy
12.5ml Disaronno Amaretto
20ml lemon juice
30ml orange juice
40ml pineapple juice

Ziara's delight: one unit/65 cals

25ml Ketel One vodka
20ml rose water
20ml cranberry juice

Annies Bar is at 180 Kentish Town Road and is open from 12pm to 11.30pm Sunday to Thursday, and until midnight Friday and Saturday. Two for one cocktails are available all night Sunday to Tuesday, and from 5pm to 8pm Wednesday to Saturday.

For more information, visit annies-bar.com.