How have you been? Have you been soaking up the festive cheer this season? Was Santa good to you?

The Raj’s have been …phew (wiping my brow)…busy! However the highlight was our daughter starting to understand Christmas and be totally gorgeous and surprised by all things Christmas.

However, I can’t believe in just blink it will be 2015!

Around Christmas I was feeling a little sorry for myself as the family were cracking back the wine and spirits and I sat there with my boring soda water and lime. So I thought for Christmas day surely there has to be a drink that you can easily swap in and out as a mocktail and cocktail and doesn’t require a lot of skill or ingredients.

And I knew the person to call on. Our lovely reader, Emmanuel, General Manager at Bacckanalia, Singapore (check out how awesome this place is if you are ever in Singers – http://www.bacchanalia.asia/).

I knew he would have the answer to my question – what is a great tasting drink that you can serve as a mocktail but also as a cocktail??

Being pregnant is terribly boring at this time of year but to feel less uncool he recommended this FANTASTIC drink the Ginger Basil Manolito (or Virgin Ginger Basil Manolito in my case- boo!)

So here it is if you want to give it a crack on New Years Eve or 2015.

What you need

Tall glass/ Collins glass (ok… we didn’t really follow this memo as we didn’t have enough tall glasses so go with what you have!)
High quality Ginger Beer
White or dark rum/ Cachasa (Brasillian Rum)
Ice
Limes – 1 per drink
2 basil leaves per drink
How to make it

Half fill glass with ice
Cut the lime into quarters and pinch. Squeeze into glass
Tear 2 basil leaves into half and put into glass
Add 45 mls rum
Stir drink so to layer through the glass the lime segments

This was a enjoyed by everyone – including me. Here’s to the Manolito! I’m certainly keeping this up my sleeve for many future occasions!

Are you entertaining this New Years Eve? All sorted or looking for inspiration?