Beautiful Friendship

There are acquaintances, friends, good friends and BFFs – but all of them pale in comparison with ‘beautiful friendships’. These are usually forged over several drinks and sometimes even involve some form of collusion in concealing a crime – although this is not mandatory!

The most famous example of such a bond comes from the legendary 1941 movie Casablanca where Humphrey (now there’s a name long overdue a comeback!) Bogart in his absolute prime says to Claude Rains; ‘Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.’ The context being that Rains’ French chief of police was willing to turn a blind eye to Bogart’s jaded American nightclub owner shooting dead a Nazi major just so his ex-girlfriend could escape war-torn Europe. Romantic, heroic and just plain old awesome this act creates a beautiful friendship built on great deeds – even if they are not wholly legal!

Even if you never know such a beautiful friendship yourself – and hopefully you will never need to! – you can always celebrate them with a toast of your own Beautiful Friendship cocktail that is easy to make – and delicious too. ‘Here’s looking at you, kid!’

Ingredients

20ml Cointreau L’Unique

45ml Mount Gay Black Barrel Rum

15ml Fresh lime juice

5ml Simple Syrup

1 bar spoon   Tamarind concentrate

5 leaves Fresh mint

1 pinch Cinnamon

60ml Soda

Method

1. Muddle mint in simple syrup in the bottom of a shaker.

2. Add Cointreau, rum, lime juice, tamarind concentrate, and pinch of cinnamon and fill with ice.

3. Shake and strain over ice into a Collins glass.

4. Top with soda and stir to combine. Garnish with mint sprigs.