Recipes

Get the recipe for Pillow Talk, a new Double Deuce Lounge slushie we love

A little sub-threshold chilli makes for a moreish frozen gin and mango delight.

Sam Bygrave

Feb 23, 2024 — 2 min read

The Pillow Talk cocktail at Double Deuce Lounge in Sydney. Photo: Boothby

It’s Friday. It’s hot, it’s humid — here’s some frosty, fruity drink inspiration for you.

I recently spoke to Alicia Clarke, the new general manager at Sydney cocktail bar Double Deuce Lounge (you can read that piece here), and she spoke about taking the reins and getting stuck into her first menu change within weeks.

“Everything’s been going pretty well. People seem pretty happy,” she says. “[But] there are some people that are a little bit sad about certain cocktails going off the list.”

One of those cocktails is the Two In The Pink, one of Alicia’s cocktails and one that landed at number nine on the Boothby Top 50 Drinks of the Year last year.

Alicia Clarke makes the Pillow Talk at Double Deuce Lounge. Photo: Boothby

The prep for that drink, Alicia found, couldn't keep pace with demand, so it ended up getting the boot — sometimes you have to kill your darlings.

But I do think I’ve got a new favourite at the bar: this slushie-style drink, Pillow Talk — and I’ve got that recipe below.

“The slushies have been flying,” says Alicia. That makes sense. It’s hot and humid in Sydney right now, and a little frozen relief in slushie form is a welcome thing.

The thing, I think, that takes this cocktail from good to great, is also what makes it moreish to drink.

“It’s got a little sweet treat, some chilli salt on the top,” says Alicia. “It’s just to get the pepperiness of the Suze out there.”

It’s a moreish style of slushie — you’re at risk of developing some proper brain freeze, because each sip leaves you wanting just a little bit more.

“I think the chili salt helps with that because it’s so subtle,” says Alicia.

The chilli isn’t prominent — it doesn’t burn the palate at all; it’s a just a little sprinkle on top that goes a long way.

I don’t know if sub-threshold chilli is a thing — the way it is with salt, where a little unnoticeable bit of salt can make flavours pop — but it certainly works here.

Combine that with the other ingredients — the aforementioned gentian glory of Suze, gin, peach brandy, and a fresh-prepped puree of peach and mango — and you’ve got a drink that is ideally suited to the warmer weather.

And it’s a drink Alicia is proud to make, too.

“It’s not often that I can like make a drink that I can drink and be objective about,” she says. “This one I’m like, I’d drink that.”