With the Tihar holidays coming up, you can celebrate this brief respite from work and stress by visiting these places and ordering these drinks or try to recreate them at home and celebrate. Either way, we guarantee you will have a good time.

Maya cocktail bar | Thamel

Bartender Madhav Basnet (Tek Basnet) has been a bartender at Maya Cocktail Bar for almost 25 years now. He learnt all his bartending skills from the owner of the place who learnt bartending in Europe and returned to the country to open this quaint little bar. Basnet only drinks on the job when there are a lot of patrons and he has to make a lot of drinks in a small amount of time. He’s been working at the bar for such a long time now that he hardly drinks mocktails and prefers imported hard liquor.

Mango Daiquiri   

For this refreshing frozen cocktail you will need:

60 ml white rum

1 ½ spoon sugar  

15 ml fresh lime juice  

20 ml mango juice  

2 slices of fresh mango  

7 to 8 ice cubes

Instructions:

Place the mango juice, mango slice, sugar, and lime juice in a blender and process on high speed until smooth. Pour in the rum and blend well. When the mixture is smooth, add in the ice cubes and mix until slushy. Pour in a tall glass and enjoy your chilled drink!

Maya Special

To make this delicious mocktail you will need:

15 ml orange squash

15 ml lemon squash

10 ml fresh lime juice

Soda water to top off

Ice as preferred

Instructions:

Put the ice in a glass and add the orange squash and the lemon squash. Top it off with the soda slowly and add the fresh lime juice. 

Cosmopolitan

For this widely loved drink which is also known as Cosmo, you will need:

45 ml citrus vodka 

(citron or absolute vodka with lime) 

15 ml triple sec

15 ml lime juice or sour mix

Cranberry juice to top off

Ice to shake with

Cherry for garnish

Instructions:

Chill the glass well by placing ice cubes on it and putting it in the refrigerator. Add the citrus vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and the lime juice or sour mix in the shaker and shake well. “Shake the drink at least 35 to 40 times to ensure everything blends well together,” says Basnet. Take the glass out of the refrigerator and put aside the ice and pour your drink into the glass. Pop in the cherries, and enjoy the drink chilled.

Wicked Spoon, Fork and Rock  

Jhamsikhel

Bar tenders Raju Khinju and Ronish Dangol both studied the art of Mixology at Flair Bartender Institute in Kumaripati. Khinju has been bartending for two years and gained experience working at Premiere Hotel in Malaysia. Dangol has been bartending for a year and freelances at various events. 

Why not 

To make this layered drink, you will need:

40 ml gold tequila

50 ml guava juice

15 ml grenadine  syrup

15 ml Curacao bleu

Half a lemon 

Sprite to top off

Ice 

Instructions: 

Put a couple of cubes of ice in the glass and pour in the Curacao bleu. In a shaker, pour in the tequila, guava juice and grenadine syrup, and ice and shake well. Pour it into the glass carefully, without the ice, and top off the drink with sprite by placing a spoon inside the glass, directly over the drink so as to not disturb the layers and drink up!

Evil lady

To make this dramatic sounding drink, you will need:

2 scoops of strawberry 

 ice-cream

15 ml of grenadine

20 ml of pineapple juice

5 ml sugar syrup

Orange juice to top off

Instructions:

Blend the ice-cream with the pineapple juice and pour it into the glass. Add in the grenadine and stir thoroughly. Carefully top off with orange juice and enjoy your drink. We wonder why it’s named Evil lady though, because it doesn’t get you drunk.  

Manny’s Eatery and Tapas Bar | Jawalakhel 

Manoj Basnet, owner of Manny’s Eatery and Tapas Bar, used to own a bar of the same name in Manhattan for nine years. His bartending skills are purely based on street knowledge he picked up from his college days where he had to work and support himself. He believes that all bartenders should be well versed with the characteristics of all the liquor they are working with and emphasizes that the drinks need to be mixed properly; which is why the trade is named Mixology in the first place. 

Cranberry cooler

To make this drink to enjoy on a warm afternoon, you will need:

Half a glass cranberry juice

Half a glass soda

15 ml lime juice or sour mix

Cherry or cranberry to garnish

Ice 

Instructions:

Fill the glass to the top with ice and add the cranberry juice, soda, lime juice and the garnish. Stir the drink to mix the ingredients together and your drink is ready. 

 
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