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How to turn sherry and mandarins into Bomba’s signature Spanish cocktail.
About the cocktail
While THE Drink was a source of inspiration, a signature cocktail is something a bartender can make with their eyes closed. It's a drink they’ve honed to such a degree, they've become known for it.
For Bomba Bar’s Cara Devine, that cocktail is the Rebujito. “I guess it’s a bit more of a summation of what we do here at Bomba,” Cara explains. “We have cocktail templates that we use again and again, just with different fruit and veg that are in season, made in a kind of Spritz style. And we do a lot of them. This is based on a drink that is found in the Sherry Triangle in Spain, called the Rebujito.”
If you’re not familiar with the Sherry Triangle, it’s an area in the province of Cádiz in southwestern Spain that’s known for (you guessed it) sherry, with the most popular being fino. We suggest you become familiar with fino sherry because we’re seeing a LOT of bartenders utilise them in their cocktails (stay tuned).
“In Cádiz, they have this big festival that runs all day and it gets really hot so you need a drink that is really refreshing,” Cara explains. “That’s generally fino sherry and lemon-lime soda.”
At Bomba, Cara takes this idea, but gives it a seasonal makeover each month. “So, for example, mandarins are in season, so we work mandarins into the recipe template. The mandarin shrub is floral with hints of citrus, then we just build that with that same sherry base and lots of spritz to make the Rebujito.”
Ingredients: Mandarin shrub (enough for 10–15 drinks)
10 mandarins 3–4 tbsp white sugar 2 tbsp pink peppercorns 100mL water 100mL apple cider vinegar
Ingredients: The Rebujito cocktail
60mL fino sherry 15mL mandarin shrub (see above) 15mL lemon juice Soda to top up (to your taste) Garnish: thyme sprig
Method: Mandarin Shrub
Peel 10 mandarins and put in a container Cover with sugar and sprinkle over the pink peppercorns Use a blunt utensil to muddle (squish) and mix the ingredients together before adding apple cider vinegar and water – leave to steep overnight Use a fine strainer to strain the mixture into a jar or bottle and it’s now ready for use in your Rebujito cocktails
Method: The Rebujito Cocktail
Add your sherry, 15mL of mandarin shrub, and lemon juice to a highball glass Top up with soda to around halfway (or to your taste) Add ice to fill and garnish with a sprig of thyme
Cara's top tips
Once you’ve got all your elements, it’s an easy drink to assemble, but making the shrub for the Rebujito base takes a little time and isn’t something you can do day-of.
You’ll need to make the shrub at least a day in advance to allow the flavours to truly shine. Cara makes her shrubs in batches, so using about 10 mandarins will do the trick for around 10 to 15 drinks. Depending on how bitter you want the shrub to be, you can either discard the mandarin peel or leave some in for a more bitter brew.
When it gets time for assembling, Cara explains that generally “the more ice you add to the glass the better” for this kind of drink, so feel free to add as much as you like.
The last thing to do is throw on some flamenco tunes to accompany your delicious, easy-sipping Rebujito cocktail.
