Image by The Adventure Handbook The experience of being outdoors is always so refreshing. Out from the crush of the city, there’s nothing like fresh air and a little peace and quiet to make you feel at ease. Relaxation can at times be enhanced by an effective combination of liquor, otherwise known as cocktails. It might just be your garden variety dipsomania, but after a 4 hour drive out into the wilderness, it’s doubly hard to beat a good stiff drink.
Camping and cocktails do not have to be mutually exclusive. Certain drinks exist comfortably when sipped from fancy crystal in a luxury cocktail bar, or a beaten-up mug around a campfire. And while beer is beautiful, it can take up too much space, leave too much mess, and go warm too quickly. Next time you head out of town, enhance the experience with an all too easy camping cocktail…
The Negroni
A bitter-sweet mix of equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, and the most balanced way to send yourself sideways. Simple, sophisticated and very easy to make.
Negroni ingredients
- 30ml Gin (West Winds Sabre or Melbourne Gin Company if you want a great local, otherwise most classic gins are fine)
- 30ml Campari
- 30ml Sweet Vermouth (My favourite is Antica Formula, but most will do the trick. If you’re after something fancy head to a boutique bottle shop like Blackhearts & Sparrows)
- An orange peel for garnish
If you’re bringing the whole bar, the best thing is to go to Muji, get some of those 100ml screw-top travel bottles, and make little one-drink batches. This way you don’t need to carry around heavy glass bottles, and when the time comes for cocktails, all you need to do is pour it over some ice, drop in a wedge of orange, and give it a quick stir. If you’re sticking to your lifelong favourite, opt for an ‘old-fashioned’ flask.
Photo by The Adventure Handbook Old Fashioned
The Old Fashioned is a simple, classic cocktail. It consists of spirits (usually bourbon or rye), sugar and bitters, stirred over ice. For this one however, there is a product which makes the whole process deliciously easier. Bittermilk from Charleston S.C. make a syrup which is designed to be mixed with liquor to make a two-ingredient cocktail. My favourite of their range is the No.1, which is a Bourbon Barrel-Aged Old Fashioned. You can get the syrup from a Melbourne based company called Only Bitters.
Old Fashioned ingredients
It’s very easy; all you need do is mix one part syrup, with four parts liquor. You can use bourbon, rum, whisky, rye, but I would stick to the dark spirits. Place your mix into one of the 100ml bottles, and off you go! When you are ready to drink, simply pour your mix over ice, give it a quick stir, and garnish with an orange twist. For maximum taste, fillet a slice of orange peel (avoiding the white pith as much as possible) and give it a little squeeze into your mug. This will release the oils from the skin, resulting in great natural fragrance and flavour.
Tip: Ice
You could always head to the local servo and get a bag of ice, but I find it turns to mush pretty quickly, watering down your cocktail before you get a chance to experience the flavour. This is why I prefer blocks. They are easy to make, all you need to do is get a Tupperware container, fill it about two inches deep with water and pop it in your freezer. When ice is in one large chunk it will stay frozen for longer, and because it has a much lower surface area, it will dilute your drink less.
Once you are ready to serve up your drinks, you just need to break up your ice. An easy method is to cut a shallow line in the shape you want with a breadknife, then with the knife still in place, tap the top side of the blade gently with a rock or hammer, until you see the ice just pop apart. Cubes are easy enough to make, you can shave them down with the breadknife to fit any vessel you have.
Gin & Tonic
Another one of these great cocktail ingredients you can get is tonic syrup. Tonic syrups were the original way of preparing this drink, until it was mass produced, losing some of its flavour and quality. But now we have the chance to taste a delicious G&T once more, With real Quinine (the flavour of tonic) making a comback and great additions, like lemongrass and citrus, we can recreate those delicious G&Ts once more. My tonic picks are Australian producers Sin-Ko-Nah or Blood Moon.
Gin & Tonic ingredients
- 30ml Gin
- 15ml Tonic Syrup
- 90-120ml Soda Water
- Lemon, Lime or whichever garnish takes your fancy.
Mix these ingredients together with some ice, and bask in the entirely refreshing environment you have created.
Words and images by Tom Ambroz.
The best way to enjoy camping cocktails is to prep well, drink cold and stay safe! Homecamp and the author advocate responsible drinking, so keep your head and it won’t hurt so much the next morning. 
