Low Calorie Cocktails
This week we teamed up with Alex, one of the bartenders at La Mesa Taina, the new farm to table restaurant and sushi bar at eXtreme Hotel, Taino Organic Farm and Master Trainer Zach, and collected a few ideas for low calorie cocktails we wanted to share with you.
When you stayed with us at eXtreme Hotel, you probably realised that we enjoy life and love spending time with you at the Restaurant having a cocktail or two while sharing stories. Especially now during the holiday season we don’t want to miss the social gatherings with family and friends. Nevertheless, we are a healthy bunch, that’s why we sip in moderation and replace as many ingredients as possible with organic, low calorie versions.
Zach recommends for example to replace sugar by Stevia. Stevia is extracted from the leaves of the plant species Stevia rebaudiana. Stevia has an negligible effect on the blood sugar level which is great if you take care of your carb intake. On top it is 150 times sweeter than sugar. You can even make your own flavoured syrup with Stevia instead of sugar. Other great, healthy sugar substitutes are maple syrup and of course honey!
Or you can leave the sugar entirely away and experiment with miracle berry tablets. If eaten before, miracle berries transform any sour taste to sweet. So no additional sugar needed at all in your favourite cocktail!
If it comes to beer, Zach recommends to stick to the dark varieties. Although having more calories, they contain more high value nutrients.
Dominicans love sugar. If you eat something sweet, it has to be SUPER sweet. Now you can imagine how brave it was from Alex to actually prepare a Mojito with honey from Taino Farm. He diluted 4 parts of honey with one part of hot water to create a simple honey syrup. Then Alex used instead of sugar 1 oz of this honey syrup and prepared the mojito as usual. Of course with our own organic mint fresh from the aquaponics of the eXtreme hotel garden.
While he was picking mint in the garden, he was inspired by the starfruit growing there as well. At least in Europe the starfruit is used a lot, but only for decoration of cocktails. You cannot do much more with it as the imported version tastes of nothing at all. We grow two versions of starfruit, a sweet one and a more sour one at Taino Organic Farm and the Hotel garden. Alex used the sour one to create a new cocktail, the Alex Organi Cocktail. It contains 1 oz of Malibu Rum, half a starfruit, a few dominican cranberries, honey and ice.
