Artisanal Liqueurs & Cocktails

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I truly believe that free-form, original, non-traditional cocktails are the best way for a mixologist to express themselves.

Simone Francois-Whittier

I’m sitting at my desk when I should be in bed, thinking about the events of the past week. This week was brutal, physically, emotionally and psychologically, throw in some difficult conversations and you have the ingredients for a migraine. It’s too late for a cocktail lol at this point.

I spoke to a lot of different people this week with regard to the sale and marketing of our drinks, one thing was constant, many of them had no idea what a cocktail (Coqtail, in IndelimeTT speak) really is, not to mention their unfamiliarity with Liqueurs. I must say the mixologist in me was shocked and a little disappointed. I took their ignorance to mean that people like me haven’t been doing our best to educate the public and our customers about what they’ve been consuming. Needless to say many sales-related conversations turned into teachable moments.

I’ve been encouraged by a few people to do a blog post on what a Cocktail really is, at least to my knowledge. I’ve seen many definitions but the ones that I most agree with tend to distinguish between mixed drinks and cocktails.

A mixed drink is thought to be a drink with two ingredients eg. rum and coke. While a Cocktail has three or more ingredients, basically the liquor, the liqueur and a modifying agent (juice, soda etc).

I like to think of a cocktail as being a drink where the mixologist can truly demonstrate their self-expression, so just like a painter, the mixologist has a canvas, in our case, it’s our cocktail; in that cocktail we could use any ingredients, and combinations thereof, to create our own unique drinks with specific flavour notes just like a painter paints on a canvas with specific colours and media.

I always tell people mixing drinks is my creative outlet, my happy place. I truly believe that free-form, original, non-traditional cocktails are the best way for a mixologist to express themselves.

So when I make a cocktail I pour not only my knowledge, personal preferences and tastes into the drink but my enthusiasm, love, dedication to my craft and positive energy into it as well, just like when a painter is creating a masterpiece.

I like to think of us all as artists so I refer to myself as an artisan not just a mixologist and to make it a bit more fun I refer to our Cocktails as Coqtailz, I mean you only live once right lol.

So that’s all for now, enjoy your Easter and be safe!

Cheers!

Friday evenings are always a bright spot in my week. I often find myself mixing a new liqueur or coqtail or two and then sampling them, I label it my “creative time”. But, this week, this Friday is different. This week our sales team was out and about marketing and distributing samples of our liqueurs and coqtailz to prospective buyers. It’s an exciting time but it is also fraught with anxiety and uncertainty.

This Friday evening will meet me, the artisan, sitting at my desk, not standing in my mixing Kitchen, asking myself if the people who tasted our samples liked them? I’ll be asking myself if these people will taste the love, effort and emotions I’ve put into these drinks? “Will these unknown people appreciate my drinks’ uniqueness or will my drinks get lost in the crowd?” While me, the business woman, will be asking very loudly in the background, “More importantly, will they buy the drinks?!”

It’s interesting how being in business can show you that you have no control over outcomes even after you’ve done your best, poured your all into a venture and worked your hardest. …

So this Friday evening, maybe I’ll go mix myself a coqtail anyway, I will remind myself that at some point you just have to let go of the need to be in control of the outcome and just trust the process. You have to trust that all your planning, energy, effort and, yes, talent are enough and resolve to keep pressing ahead Here’s to a great Friday evening!

Cheers!

I’m working late again. No surprises there. As a woman in business I often find myself pushing well past my comfort zone and known (healthy) capacity in order to achieve the goals I’ve set for myself and my businesses. We women rarely prioritise ourselves. That’s actually what I’m trying to do now as I type this at the end of another eventful International Women’s Day. This year I marked the occasion by participating in a radio talk show hosted by a friend/mentor of mine Charlene Pedro on THE L.A.B. Radio, the topic we discovered mirrored International Women’s Day’s theme of Embracing Equity. One of the issues we discussed was claiming your power.

I’ve been thinking about this all day. I’ve been asking myself, “How do we as female business owners/leaders claim our power in a world that doesn’t always welcome or facilitate our presence?” Especially when you’re operating in a sector that is male dominated, like mine.

My answer is simple, keep doing what you’re doing anyway, don’t wait to be invited to the table, don’t wait for permission. The women in whose honour we celebrate IWD didn’t stop what they were doing and they certainly didn’t get permission, equity was not something they were offered. They grabbed it forcibly, and forcefully took what equality and freedom they wanted, when they had to, in order to see progress and a measurable shift towards equality of treatment. I think this generation of women, female business owners in particular, can do no less.

So in order to honour them I’ve decided to identify one area of my life that I can live more authentically, where I can push for more equity and equality (they aren’t the same) so that not only my life, but that of the woman next to me becomes a bit more bearable, joyful and successful.

I’ll leave you with this African proverb, “If we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors.”

Let us honour those who went before us by doing our best to stand tall.

Happy International Women’s day, today and everyday.

Cheers! 

Hi Indelimers! I promised that I’d start back writing the Tipsy blogs so this is me keeping my promise.

Over the past few months IndelimeTT has resumed production and you’ve been seeing us out and about in various artisanal markets around the country and on social media. One question that you all have been asking is where you can purchase our drinks other than the artisanal markets. I’m letting you know that we’re working on it so stay tuned.

We’ve really appreciated your support over the past couple of years and we’re looking forward to your continued support in the years to come. There’s still a lot we need to do but rest assured we’re really working hard on it and we’ll be around for some time to come.

Have a great week and remember to drink something nice this week!

Cheers!

This pandemic hit everyone hard, including us. It forced us to close shop, stop selling and get very still. We took this time to step back, recalibrate, re-strategise our business model and plans.

We were waiting on the right time to get back out there, but honestly the right time never comes, so here we are 🙂

During the next few months you’ll be seeing changes to our site, our bottles and our flavours, but we think you’re going to love the new and improved IndelimeTT. We’re making these adjustments to improve our products and service and ultimately level up the customer’s overall experience.

Thanks for staying the course with us and we look forward to serving you in the coming months….. Cheers!

I think we all could agree that this year has been tough. We thought 2020 was bad but 2021 came around and showed us who was boss. After celebrating Christmas during a pandemic last year I think we should all know the ropes by now, in terms of what to do and what not to do, what to expect and what not to expect. I’ve been trying my best to remain positive and to focus on the lighter side of things and to talk and think more about the things I enjoy. One of those things is, of course, liqueur. No surprises there.

I’ve been thinking about which drinks I’ll be making this Christmas season, after all it’s the second Christmas we’re celebrating during this pandemic. I’ve come up with my top 5 favourite holiday drinks for 2021:

1. Sorrel…. anything sorrel flavoured, Sorrel liqueur is at the top of my list, as well as sorrel rum punch and sorrel wine.
2. Chocolate… another popular choice. I’ve been seeing Chocolate-flavoured ponche de creme, I don’t think anything could go wrong with this choice. I’ve been making Chocolate flavoured liqueur for quite sometime and it’s always a crowd favourite.
3. Christmas punch, basically sorrel (again, yes) mixed with fruit juices and a dash or two of your favourite alcoholic beverage. The recipe for this IndelimeTT Christmas punch is on our recipe page.
4. Buttered rum ice cream shake, I came up with this one after hearing someone mention it on a TV show I was watching. It’s basically, blended coconut ice cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, amaretto mio liqueur and butterscotch liqueur with a dash of rum (red rum preferably), add crushed ice and enjoy. The recipe for this IndelimeTT buttered-rum ice cream shake is on our recipe page.
5. Trini-Irish cream, my own take on Irish cream. It’s made up of coconut cream (can you tell that I have a bias?), coconut condensed milk, cocoa powder, vanilla essence, coffee liqueur and whisky. See the recipe page for this recipe too.

I hope you give some of these drinks a try. I think you’re going to love them.

I wish each of you the very best for this season and 2022. May we all be blessed!

Cheers!