‘I like trying to push myself,’ says Sofie McKeever-Ford

Apollonia is the small, basement cocktail bar in the Sydney CBD that channels The Godfather for its aesthetic; billed as a Sicilian bandit’s drinking den, the bar’s name is taken from the character of the same moniker in The Godfather.

You’ll find Negronis down here, of course, but you’ll also be treated to a smart list of other cocktails. Sofie McKeever-Ford is one of the talented bartenders here helping to run the show — she’s the assistant venue leader at Apollonia — and she’s also one of the top 25 bartenders in the Espolòn Afterlife To The Bone cocktail competition.

Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Sofie talks about her Afterlife drink, Azure Memoria, and the inspiration behind it, and how she goes about developing new drinks.

Would you like to tell us who you are, where you are?

I’m Sofie McKeever-Ford. I’m in Apollonia, in Circular Quay.

What do you do here at Apollonia?

I’m an assistant venue leader. Making sure service is in progress, helping with cocktails and everything and making sure people are having a good time, making sure cocktails are spot on.

Okay what’s the name of your Afterlife drink, what’s the big idea behind it?

I’ve taken the classic of the Blue Hawaiian and kind of revamped it. It’s a really fun, tropical kind of drink and I’ve named it Azure Memoria, which is blue memory.

This drink came to me because anytime you think of like a fun tropical drink, you think of something that’s blue and iridescent and it’s so fun — you’re just like, my god, I want that.

As a kid, we’d always go camping. And there’s one time my parents woke me up at 12 in the morning, saying come down to the beach, come down to the beach. I don’t want to go to the beach right now — are you joking? But it was the greatest thing because there was this phosphorescence that was going on. So this normally calm beach was lit up in this blue light from all these little bacterials that were glowing and I wanted to also bring that into my drink idea.

So what’s in your version of the drink?

So typically it’s got vodka, a blue curacao, and the old-fashioned thing of a sweet and sour mix.

So instead of using a blue curacao, I wanted to challenge myself a little bit — I’ve made a super citrus cello, which is lime, lemon, and orange in a cello, and then I’ve added blue spirulina to that so it adds a really nice deeper blue hue to it, and if you see it kind of shifts in the light.

I’ve also taken what normally would be pineapple juice, I’ve made a salted pineapple cordial, so sous vide and that gives it a nice rich kind of caramelised pineapple taste, which goes really well with Espolòn Reposado, just brings out all that nice richness, and a little bit of sweetness to it as well. Lemon juice, freshly squeezed.

Tell us what you love about Apollonia. What’s the big idea here?

Apollonia is pretty fun. It’s a little bandits’ drinking den we like to say. You know, come down, it’s dark, it’s moody, you smell gunpowder and rosemary everywhere.

The crew here are amazing. It’s just been a really good time and you can really see that on people’s faces whether it be dates or like meetings and things.

When it comes to making drinks, you have a philosophy on how you kind of create things?

I just like trying to push myself in every way and just trying something new whether — it fails or succeeds.

Azure Memoria

45ml Espolon Reposado
15ml Blue Limon/Lime/Oran Cello
25ml Lemon Juice
15ml Salted pineapple cordial

For the salted pineapple syrup:
700ml raw sugar
700ml Pineapple chunks
5gm Flakey sea salt

Simmer on a low heat until sugar is dissolved and thickens.

For the Blue Limon/Lime/Orang Cello:
Citrus peels - 35gm
Skyy vodka - 222.7 ml
Water - 403gm
Sugar - 140gm
Spirulina - 5gm
A
llow it to steep for two days, then bottle.

For the yuzu/pineapple sherbet dusting:
100 grams pure icing sugar
4 tsps dehydrated yuzu peel
4 tsps dehydrated pineapple
1 tsp citric acid
1 tsp baking soda
Blend yuzu and pineapple in a food processor

Once fine, add icing sugar, citric acid and baking soda to a medium size bowl and stir well.

Add Tequila, Blue Cello and Lemon juice to shaker. Shake with ice, fine strain into Highball glass. Add crushed ice, float pineapple cordial. Garnish with pineapple wedge, leaves and yuzu/pineapple sherbet dusting.