The Mood Therapist

Sous Vide in Cocktails.

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Sous vide in cocktails raspberry and pine tip gin by Mood Therapist

I’ve been using sous vide in cocktails ever since i got my shiny new Nomiku immersion circulator fresh from their successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012. Over the years I have found additional uses for it in addition to what struck me as obvious – the slow cooking of syrups to create a greater depth of flavour. After I created the Marouni in 2015, the good folk at Nomiku saw it on my Instagram account and contacted me to see if I would write a guest blog for them on sous vide in cocktails.

Of course I said yes. [Read more…]

Quinine Sulfate in Cocktails: The Lavender Gin and Tonic

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lavender gin and tonic by the Mood Therapist

The lavender gin and tonic came out of my first foray into the world of home made tonic water and was the most successful of the initial four variants I produced. Force carbonated, it is extremely fizzy, in a way a regular G&T never is because the gin gets carbonated as well as the tonic and you can really amp up the pressure if you so wish. Also, as you control the sugar level, it doesn’t have to be cloyingly sweet and the finished drink is crisper and drier than anything made with the commercially ubiquitous Schweppes… [Read more…]

The Marouni

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Marouni Cocktail - Another Modernist cocktail by Rich McDonough, Hanoi's Mood TherapistThe Marouni – Because it’s simply too difficult to order a Marou Cacao Negroni after a few of them…

This is a very simple concept, made woefully complex. I wanted to make a chocolate negroni using Marou chocolate – a Marouni, if you will. It wouldn’t be the first one of course, but I reckoned I could make it better. [Read more…]

Szechuan Pepper Negroni

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Szechuan Pepper Negroni - Another Modernist Cocktail from Hanoi's Mood Therapist, Rich McDonoughThe Negroni has had a big resurgence in the last few years and with good reason. In a sea of overly sweet and formulaic cocktails, the Negroni is a staple whose bittersweet notes hit the spot while even the most junior of bartenders find it hard to get it wrong. It’s also a cocktail which lends itself well to a myriad of variations, like this Szechuan Pepper Negroni. [Read more…]

Passion Hot / Passion Not

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Passion Hot/Passion Not - A modernist cocktail by Hanoi's Mood Therapist, Rich McDonoughInspired by the Hot Frozen Gin Fizz served up at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli restaurant, the Passion Hot / Passion Not features one of Vietnam’s natural flavour heavyweights – the passion fruit. 

This layered drink consists of a frozen gin, centrifuge clarified passion fruit juice and simple syrup mix, topped with a hot foam of the same flavours and stabilised with egg whites. [Read more…]

Location, location, location…

My location is your location! The Mood Therapist is a wandering soul who pitches up with his bag of magic at your home, business or event. Based in Hanoi, the Mood Therapist can offer more options closer to home but can always bring a little cocktail happiness across the region.

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