If travel is food for the soul, then Javier Reynoso, Global Ambassador for Torres Brandy certainly isn’t going hungry! From Barcelona to Mexico City, from Helsinki to Montreal – he’s been everywhere.

Some say it’s work, others call it a way of life. His mission is to travel to different cities in the world, visiting bars and meeting bartenders to explain the role that brandy plays in cocktails, and how in a delicious cocktail it can reach right to the heart.

A cocktail is much more than simply a mix of ingredients, it’s innovation and mastery. As Javier knows, and shares with others. He inspires, and helps to ensure that cocktails prepared with Torres Brandy encourage us to dream, sparking sensations, emotions and memories. Because if the world’s most widely acclaimed brandy fails to captivate, which one will?

With Javier you’ll discover that speakeasy that nobody’s talking about yet, that cocktail that’ll open up a whole new world and the best of the city, those hidden gems that aren’t on the tourist radar. Because Javier is like that friend you always ask about which restaurant or cocktail bar to go to when you really want to have a good time. If Javier doesn’t know, nobody does. 

“To create a cocktail is to unite what is separate. To taste it, on the other hand, is to analyse separately what has been united. Inverse but complementary processes”.

And to celebrate the role of brandy in the history of cocktail making, Javier recommends an iconic cocktail that’s very much of our times, easy to prepare, and even easier to enjoy. Sweet, dry and sour, the perfect combination with which to pay tribute to the birth of the cocktail bar in the Europe of the 1920s. A tribute with a capital ‘T’ that will delight your senses, and surprise your guests. Take note.

Sidecar Torres 15 – ingredients

• 45 ml Torres 15
• 20 ml de Magdala – Orange Liqueur
• 10 ml fresh lemon juice
• 0.5 ml glucose syrup (or a small spoonful of sugar)
• Lemon zest
• To decorate: 1 cocktail cherry

Preparation: 

Place all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with lots of ice.

Shake for a few seconds to chill, and to break down the ice.

Strain into a coupette or Martini glass, and serve.

Decorate with a cherry on top of the glass, and squeeze in a few drops of essential oil from the lemon zest. Don’t leave the lemon zest in the glass – either remove it, or reuse it in another cocktail recipe.