LadyOscar

I was going to finally try a Blinker, having obtained raspberry syrup two weeks ago and forgotten to buy a grapefruit, and having obtained a grapefruit last week and forgotten I had it. However, I discovered that the wretched bottle of raspberry syrup had a dent in the cap and the safety button popped up. I should have known that it was a bad sign that I had to climb up on the supermarket shelf and rummage around behind all the bottles of strawberry and boysenberry syrup. So, I'm consoling myself with an Aviation.

The raspberry syrup may not be so hard. I tried a peek on Vons.com (Vons is our local Safeway offspring) and they list the Knotts Berry Farm syrup mentioned by Dr. Cocktail. This weekend I shall have to see if my local Vons carries it. You know, I looked forward to trying a Vesper ever since reading Casino Royale as a kid, but when I actually did I was disappointed. I love a gin martini, but to me the Vesper tasted weirdly harsh and unpleasant, with no hint of the Lillet, either. I used the 3:1:1/2 recipe with Tanqueray gin and Finlandia vodka. (I don't know much about vodka, so I must admit I chose based on the fact that the bottle had cute little reindeer on it.) Might I like the Vesper better with James Bond's choice of Gordon's gin? Plymouth gin? Different vodka? An attractive secret agent sitting across from me? Any advice would be appreciated.

Wow, this place is actually quite near my house, but I've never known it was there. Thanks so much!

In case you haven't run into his page yet, I found DrinkBoy's articles on stocking a new bar to be very helpful. http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/StockingTheBar.html http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/SelectingYourBrands.html http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/SpiritBrands.html

I'm in Pasadena, CA. The U.S. has so many bizarre liquor laws, and they vary wildly from state to state. I can't blame people for not wanting to ship to us.

I wish! It took me forever to even obtain a bottle of Ardbeg 10. The online places I tried were endlessly out of stock. Finally they built a BevMo near me and, wonder of wonders, they had it. I've never seen any of the other Ardbegs even listed in the online stores. Does anyone have a recommendation for an online shop that has a good selection of single malts and that is in or will ship to the U.S.?

I've noticed other people with the same opinion with respect to Laphroaig and Lagavulin, but I must admit that tasted side-by-side I prefer the Laphroaig 10 to Lagavulin 16. I enjoy them both, but to me Lagavulin has a more "medicine-y" (would that be what people call "phenolic"?) taste, while Laphroaig is more smoky. Like ctgm, I also enjoy Ardbeg 10.

Can you reveal the identity of said store? None of the places near me seem to have much rum selection at all.

A pink gin is gin and bitters, apparently preferably Plymouth gin. Here's the recipe from Wired's Cocktail page: http://hotwired.wired.com/cocktail/97/13/index4a.html Edited to add: The vet in question is James Herriot, btw.