Does she look familiar to you? She is Mariana Murad and maybe you have seen her in a renown bar, either in Madrid or in New York, the city where her interest of the world of distilled spirits began. She has baptised her #SpanishGintonic as “Lizard King” and we are lucky due to we have tasted it, so trust us, it is pure rock and roll.
Recipe:
6 cl of Rives Special Gin
Pink pepper tonic
Grapefruit twist
Slice of blood orange
Why did you choose to be a cocktail barman ?
Being honest, I didn’t choose it intentionally; it started to came bit by bit… There were some changes in my life, I moved abroad and I started to be interested in the distilled spirits world. It was 5 years ago.
How was your beginning in this world? Do you remember your first cocktail ?
When I relocated to New York, in 2012. There I started to work in restaurants and bars, most of them of mexican food… There are lots of them! I specialized in distilled of agave, tequila and mezcal. In addition, my room mates was bartender, so he helped me a lot. When I came back to Spain I began in Taüer with Diego Cabrera. With regard to my first cocktails, I remember specially the “negronis” that I used to prepare to my grandfather when I was just a child (laughs). He had a drinks cabinet so he used to tell me which ingredients did I have to include, I loved preparing them!
An advice to prepare the best #SpanishGinTonic, where do you think the key is?
The key is a good gin, I prefer dry gins, like Rives Special Tridestilada, and also finding a good citric is important.
What’s the ingredient that should always be in a cocktail bar?
A lemmon and a bitter.
Have you got any favourite tool? We mean an instrument that you always carry with you…
I usually have an opener, however, my favourite tools are jiggers, I have a collection!
Any advice to a new barman?
To enjoy the profession, that is incredible. With passion and attitude people can do fantastic things. And also being patient is important, because there are hard moments.
