Be Excellent To Each Other

I wondered when you'd surface today Cavey, respect on making it here before noon *



* Does this post meet DrG's strict criteria? I'd hate to clutter up his thread with more pointless bollocks.

Gaywood was out of order in suggesting that A post you made was pointless bollocks.

I didn't use the word 'alcopop' either, but it'd be a shame to let facts get in the way of his innate sense of superiority.

I see what you did there.


I like cocktails, hard to beat a well made margarita.

I guess a large part of the attraction of cocktails is that they are ludicrously expensive for what is essentially a small amount of alcohol with juice and the 'value added' process of being poncey about the preparation. And are thus decadent.

I like Mojittos. No a fan of most other cocktails as they're usually too sweet or just rank rotten. It's pish because I like the look of all the big daft poofy looking ones

That said I like it when Gill's Jen makes me cocktails as they're invariably just booze topped up with booze & maybe some more booze with an umbrella stuck on top

Maria's breakfast martinis are ace. The only mixers are ice and marmalade!

Pernod, Ouzo, marmalade and salt.

I have hated Ouzo ever since I drank a pint of it.

Now that's impressive! The Evil Eye in York has a hell of a lot of bottles, but it's much more, er, "bohemian" than that. That looks like a proper classy joint.

The Esther Rantzen.

Me and Mrs Bulge made one once. It was horrible.

After seeing it on Oz and Hugh, I've wanted to visit The Rhum Shack in Camden. But y'knaa, That London and all that.

See, I'm not sure that's true. Or rather, it's true of most of the ones you see in the UK, but there's plenty of sophisticated, interestingly-flavoured concoctions if you look a bit harder. I think it's one area where America does really well (it having pretty much invented the whole concept).

Yep. We have prohibition to thank for that. Cocktails were a way of masking the terrible gutrot that the speakeasies used to peddle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_fine_a ... ing_drinks

Some of the book I have is on Wikipedia, this covers the basics

As said I like a cocktail before dinner, but sometimes (like tonight) I just like a glass of neat booze with lots of ice.

Irish Whiskey is tonights choice

E if it's Irish

I spell at 9 year old level so I changed the spelling, just like my drink... Brandy now

If I was ruler of the Universe, I'd force all whiskey/whisky type beverages to be known as Whiski.

Mojitos are nice, I tried an Adios Motherfucker once, and that was very nice. It will also destroy you.

Then you'd be unable to differentiate between dirty scotch and whiskey.

I like Bloody Marys and Long Vodkas.

Very rarely have them though.

I am drinking a mojito with seven year old Havana Club right now. 7/10.

I had a rum and coke with that very run earlier tonight.

True story.

Magical.

I've been drinking some sort of IPA that my dad forced on me. I'm pissed, so that's a start.

And that's a cocktail how?

Yeah, Irritating Paedophile Arse. Warning, may contain raw sewage.

Irn Bru, Pimms & Absinthe. Also known as the Glasgow Bummer.

Hurrah! I have officially joined the poncey cocktail society.

£1.79 per bottle, special offer from Shoprite.

That envelope could do with being put in the bin.

Shoulda gone the whole hog and bought 750ml of 20/20 and a bottle of white lightning.

It could actually go in the bin now, as I filled in our tax return online this year. (Quite excellent it was too, it actually filled most of it in for me, since the government's online services talks to all the relevant backend systems.)

I have to explicitly write things like that on important stuff, or Mrs AE will 'tidy it up', which means of course, 'throw it in the bin'.

It's perhaps unsurprising you don't like cocktails.

Oh I dunno I've happily polished off that mango one, starting on the Pina Colada now.

It makes me feel witty, urbane, cultured, and rich.

Meanwhile, I'm celebrating buying a bottle of Maker's Mark today with an Old Fashioned.

Can't have taken too long to complete.

yellow, yellow.

I had an 'under cover squirrel' cocktail from be@1 today, it is really nice.

Yummy! I need to come to your house for food and drink sometime, my eyed light up everytime you post about your culinary adventures.

You'd be more than welcome -- I know you come down to Cardiff sometimes, just say when, Gill.

How strong are they? I'm betting 5% or so? Not sure I would class them as cocktails

A measly 4%, and after 1.5 litres of them I'd well and truly had enough

Fortunately I had a nice box of Namaqua in the fridge to move on to.

I was going to nominate this for POTW, but then realised that I'm the only person who would get the joke.

I made espresso martinis last week. I spent the morning making espresso and then put it in the fridge. Then equal parts espresso, Patron XO cafe liqueur, and vodka. Shake vigorously with ice, and serve with some coffee beans.

Probably needed more ice as they were a little strong, but I had run out.

With respect, I absolutely disagree. They were gert lush.

I always have one at Jamie's when we go

I'll keep that in mind.

Sweet god. That's, umm, yeah.

I’ve been following my previously mentioned “Cocktail Bible” The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

I read some of it this time as a pose to just looking at the recipes!

The book has some very sound principles, some of which are...

1. Use the best quality booze you can afford
2. Cocktails should be a minimum 50% hard stuff
3. 2 should be enough for even the most heavy drinker

It’s a bit dated in that vodka is largely dismissed as a tasteless drink that simply provides some strength to a cocktail made up of many ingredients, the author also praised Smirnoff as a good vodka, which is ridiculous in the age of premium vodka like Grey Goose.

That said I have been running some experiments on cocktails over the last few weeks on myself. The difference from my normal drinking here is that if after one or two sips I don’t like what I taste it goes down the sink.

So first up last week was the “Martini” as follows, nice and simple

7 parts English gin
1 part Lillet Vermouth

I used a single spirit measure as 2 parts

First mistake was to ignore the recipe and use some dry martini, the first 7-1 batch was vile, so went down the sink, so then I tried a 6-2 measure, down the sink again, finally settled on a 4-4 measure which was ok. I don’t like gin and it was still quite over powering.

So I did some online research on the Lillet Vermouth, found that it cost £15 for 700ml. As I don’t like gin I sort of forgot about ordering it, then I found that Tesco sell it.It’s not cheap at all, a 1 litre bottle of branded “Martini” Martini is £8 in Tesco whilst this stuff is £15 for 700ml.

So for a while I talked myself out of it. Then I found £23 worth of Tesco vouchers so bought a bottle along with another expensive cocktail "must have" Angostura bitters which is £6 for 200ml.

Lillet Vermouth is not like any Vermouth I’ve seen before, it’s yellow in colour and has a distinct (not unpleasant smell) as a pose to Dry Vermouth.

So onto tonight, I made a “cautious” Martini with a 6-2 mix, and it was pretty good, the gin was still there but I enjoyed the drink even though gin is not a favorite spirit.

Next it was time for a drink I really like and could use the Angostura bitters on, it’s also a favorite of Don Drapers from Mad Man – the Old Fashioned. A very old cocktail but really nice when done well.

Last year my brother took me out for my birthday in London and we started at Claridges Bar, cocktails are more or less £20 a pop. When I came to ordering, I ignored all the stuff on the menu and ordered the Old Fashioned, the waiter gave me a nod of respect!

Ingredients\Method here were

• Pour into each glass 1 to 2 teaspoonful’s simple syrup (you can buy this or make it, just sugar and hot water) and add 1 to 3 dashes Angostura.
• Stir with a spoon to blend the bitters with the syrup.
• Add about 1 oz. whisky and stir again
• Add 2 large cubes of ice, cracked but not crushed
• Fill glass to within about 3/8" of top with whisky and stir again. Add a twist of lemon and drop peel in the glass.
• Decorate with a maraschino cherry on a spear. Serve with short stir rod or Old-Fashioned spoon.

Followed this pretty much to the letter using Makers Mark as the whiskey, added more ice as I like it that way, end result was the best The Old Fashioned I’ve ever had including the one at Claridges Bar.

Will be sticking to the books 2 max cocktail rule, but there are 4 more staple cocktails to try so I will post back my findings over the next few weeks.

While I was in New York we went to a speakeasy called Raines Law Room. If you don't have the address you wouldn't know it was there, it's just what looks like an apartment door on an average street with a wee plaque outside that you can't read til you've gone down the few steps.
Ring the bell and someone answers the door and you ask for a table. We went at 5:30pm so got in no bother, by 7pm it was almost full. Once full, callers get sent away and rung once a table is free. Inside is like a long narrow living room lit by candles and wee lamps. You're sat in armchairs and given a cocktail menu and a wee bowl of popcorn. Once you've chosen, you pull a chain on the wall and the waitress comes round. Very very nice cocktails, a wee bit pricey at about $15-20 but not ridiculous. As it gets busier, you'll end up getting another couple sat across from you if there are only two of you. A pair of mid 30s guys came in and were offered a choice of shared tables. They looked round the room and said 'we'll have this one, obviously' when they saw two girls sitting together. It was cool being able to chat with new people and I got the impression they were slightly rich and would have probably been happy to buy us drinks all night if we hadn't had plans
Would thoroughly recommend to anyone going to New York.

I'm looking at wedding venues right now and have discovered the Glasgow Science Centre do functions. You can have cocktails, and they are made by staff in lab coats who do typical cocktails but make them look science-y by making them smoke and stuff. Considering my main contributions to wedding planning have been suggesting this, or a brewery, I think Jen will be the main decision maker