When Devin McKeigan created her cocktail for the Bacardi Legacy cocktail competition, inspiration shone around her like a bright beam of light.
“Within the industry I’ve met so many people…everybody fuels my light, not just in the hospitality industry, but everyone I’ve met. It’s all of us working together,” says the bartender for the Toptable Group’s newly opened Elisa Steakhouse.
And so she created Mi Luz, which means “My Light” in Spanish and pays homage to the light within that burns strong when everyone stands tall and together. It also pays homage to a landmark she loves: “I spent a lot of summers growing up in Nova Scotia on the East Coast and I took my inspiration form Peggy’s Cove, from the lighthouse.”
Nova Scotia is justly famous for its apples and, she says, “I started thinking of flavour profiles of what would go with the apples and I thought of the sea crashing on every side of the lighthouse.” She created an apple-and-demerara syrup as sweetener, and then added earthy, salty notes from a caraway seed saline solution.
“You get these flavours hitting together and playing together as they do around the lighthouse,” she says. “The biggest thing is simplicity. Making sure this cocktail can be made by anyone.”
