Behind the recipes: how a WAKIZA cocktail is born
A great cocktail doesn't happen by accident. Behind every recipe published in our Journal — the Spiced Apple, the Basil Mule, the Citrus Spritz — lies a process of testing, adjusting and tasting that can take several weeks.
When we develop a signature cocktail for a WAKIZA reference, we always start from the same principle: the cocktail should reveal the liqueur, not mask it. Too often, cocktails built on craft liqueurs drown the product under dominant ingredients. We do the opposite.
Step 1: understand the liqueur's profile
Before even thinking about accompanying ingredients, we taste the liqueur alone, at room temperature and on ice, to identify its dominant notes, its acidity, its sweetness, its finish. For WAKIZA SHURI, for example, the soursop's tangy freshness naturally called for herbaceous, slightly spicy pairings — hence the idea of basil and ginger in the Basil Mule.
Step 2: test, adjust, start again
A cocktail recipe is almost never right on the first try. The proportions of the Basil Mule, for instance, were adjusted several times: too much ginger beer drowned the SHURI, too little made the cocktail too sweet. It took several tasting sessions to find the balance at 5 cl of liqueur to 10 cl of ginger beer.
The choice of glassware matters too. The copper mug for the SHURI Basil isn't just an aesthetic choice: copper speeds up the drink's cooling and slightly changes the aromatic perception in the mouth, softening the ginger's bite.
Step 3: think home as much as bar
Our recipes are designed to be achievable at home, with ingredients that are easy to find — not only in a fully-equipped professional bar. This is a deliberate choice: we want every consumer to be able to recreate the experience of a great WAKIZA cocktail at home, without specialized equipment or hard-to-find ingredients.
This is the invisible but essential work behind every recipe you find in the Cocktails section of our site. And the list keeps growing as new references join the range.