Cocktail Masterclass at Jalou, Newcastle

It's the final post of Hen Week and today I'm sharing something that you'll love if you're planning a hen party or girls night of your own.

Welcome to the Cocktail Masterclass at Jalou in Newcastle, the hen capital of the country!

The Cocktail Masterclass at Jalou promises to teach you and your girls the craft of making your own cocktails all from the privacy of an exclusive VIP room that comes with your very own bar tender.

I headed down to Jalou with some of my favourite ladies Sam, Katie and Laura for a night of blue cream, blow torches, singing and drinking games - all great ingredients for a night on the Toon I think you'll agree.

We were welcomed into our own private room away from the main bar which had plenty of space for us all to kick back and relax. If you're celebrating a special occasion it's so nice to have somewhere private to have fun with your friends and it certainly makes for a special evening.

We were greeted by Tom, our bartender for the night who gave us all a large flute of fizz to enjoy. After we'd finished our drinks we were invited over to the bar where the real fun began.

The Cocktail Masterclass gives you the opportunity to learn how to make cocktails from a set cocktail menu, however the list had gone missing that evening which meant we were let lose to make anything that we fancied from Jalou's extensive cocktail list.

I promise I didn't purposely hide it just so that I could make whatever I wanted! Honest!

Being able to make any cocktail I wanted meant only one thing for me - the opportunity to have a go with the blow torch!

The Marshmallow Martini is one of my favourite cocktails to order at Jalou, thick gooey marshmallow mixed with Stoil Vanilla Vodka, Cointreau and cranberry juice with a toasted marshmallow sitting on top.

After the all important safety briefing from Tom I set to work on creating my cocktail before carefully toasting my marshmallow. All those years at Guide camp certainly paid off, although I will admit after watching Sam cremate her marshmallow I did get some extra help from Tom.

Katie and Laura decided they wanted to make one of Jalou's most popular cocktails, the Flaming Zombie, Rum mixed with secret Zombie mix, and shaken with pineapple, mango and citrus juices before being poured into the special novelty Zombie glass.

I have to say I wasn't too impressed with Katie's cocktail making skills, most of her ice seemed to end up over me rather than in her glass!

Before I moved to Newcastle I was obsessed with researching every detail of my new city. Spending hours reading North East blogs, I pretty much knew it all before I'd even arrived. Sounds a bit silly but one thing I was most excited about was having a Cookie Monster cocktail at Jalou. They are rather famous in the Toon and I made sure that I had one on my very first visit - eager!

So when Tom asked what we wanted to make next it was a very enthusiastic COOKIE MONSTER from me!

I was like a kid in a sweet shop getting to go behind the bar and make my very own Cookie Monster, although I couldn't allow myself to get too giddy as it was competition time!  Once Tom had shown us how to make the Cookie Monster it was a race between us all to see who could make it the fastest.

Well, I had no idea how competitive Sam was until it came to the Cookie Monster challenge!  There was no stopping her, I don't think I've ever seen someone squirting blue cream into a glass with such determination.  She won of course, but I like to think mine looked far better (even if he did lose an eye at the end!)

Now you might be thinking that the Cocktail Masterclass all sounds like great fun but things were about to get serious with the Ultimate Cocktail Making Quiz!  Yes, Tom had told us that we had to pay attention to all that we'd been taught as we were going to be tested at the end of the night, and he wasn't lying!

Lining up the shot glasses he asked a question one by one with winners getting a nice shot and losers getting a nasty shot! I was definitely stitched up when I had to list the ingredients of the Cookie Monster. I got it half right and half wrong so ended up with a nice shot and a nasty shot!

All too soon our evening was over and feeling slightly merry we left Jalou, all agreeing that we'd had the most amazing night out and that we hadn't laughed so much in ages.

The Cocktail Masterclass at Jalou is available for parties of 6 - 20 and costs £20.95 per person for the 2 cocktail package or £25.95 for the 3 cocktail package. Each package includes a welcome drink, cocktails, bar snack platter and shots for the more adventurous! Contact PR@Jalou.co.uk to book.

Our Cocktail Masterclass was complimentary for the purposes of review but all views are my own.  Huge thanks to the team at Jalou and especially Tom for such a great night!