bacchant036

been using blueberry over this side for a while, theres a fairly common puree - think funkin do it, which is good for tall drinks, it adds a wonderful richness for berry based drinks and when shaken gives the froth on top of the drink a beautiful 'ash-rose' color. find blueberry mixes well with vanilla as well (surprise surprise), gives it that whole bluberry pie taste. fav drink for you.... black n blue 3-4 blackberries 10-12 blueberries 1/2 lime teaspoon castor sugar muddle ingredients 2 ounces of a berry vodka, or a nice rich golden rum top w crushed ice and stir well

when absinthe was re-introduced into the uk market the reps actually made a song and dance of getting everybody to flame it, and that was for the first absinthe's back on the market, which were all czech, this made me think it was a czech thing, although admittedly having been to prague a couple of times i've never seen it served like that over there (maybe i'm just going to the wrong rock clubs). later when we started getting french absinthes, pernod etc, we got a new wave of absinthe education, the absinthe drip, frappe's and cocktails. i find the best accompaniment to absinthe is a pretty girl, a backgammon set and a hot day, could quite happily wile away a whole summer doing this! oh, or a bourbon sazerac.

while not a massive fan of cuban rums, my cuban barback got his mother to send over a birthday present for me the other week, matusalem 7yr old was apparently released 3-4 months ago, delicious butterscotch caramel heaven, and without that earthy flavour i always expect from cuba...... goslings have also released a goslings 'old rum' over here in the uk with characteristic black wax seal over the top of the bottle, can't remember the age, think it was about 14-15yrs? has a slight 'flatness' to it that you tend to get with aged cognacs and rums on the nose, but with delicious banana cake hanging out in the glass, if you can get you hands on it and like dark rums, don't miss this baby!

"if you don't remember it, it didn't happen" if only life could be so simple.....................

angus, bless his cotton socks, has got some fantastic rums for the members selectiuon at trailer happiness in london, special things like zacapa 25, mount gay centennary, wray n nephews 17 and holy of holies a bottle of pre embargo havana club. where can you get stuff like this? anyone know of a good boutique shop in manhatten or london where i can pick up something a bit special? jerrys in soho(london) isn't bad, anyone know of anywhere else?

not a big fan of the santa teresa 1796, find it has no real length to it, surprisingly though their standard santa teresa gran reserva is dirt cheap and one of my favourite sipping rums at the moment.

a couple of weeks ago we tried making a lavender syrup, it turned out fantastic, worked brilliantly w apple and i was excited and looking forwards to getting some drinks on the list w it. on going back to it 2 weeks later i discovered it had started to ferment, anyone know how i can stop this from happening in the future?

not sure if i'll get any bites but we're looking for an assistant sommelier for our london restaurant, after someone passionate about wine with sales experience, for a atmospheric shiny new restaurant just on picadilly in the west end. www.cocoon-restaurants.com feel free to email me at steve@cocoon-restaurants.com if you have any questions or are interested in the position.

on a slightly different note when i get my hands on a new type of bitters, fernet, amer etc best way to get an idea of the flavour is to add a couple of splashs to soda or 7 up, wasn't until i tried this that i began to understand fernet anyway.....

to all those based in london went to the wolsley on picadilly the other day and low and behold they not only had amer picon behind the bar, but had a picon punch on there menu! not being the kind of person who usually drinks highballs, although have the 'bitters lime and lemonade' installed in my colonial heritage its definitely my favourite amer drink so far. i have a new favourite bar. will be spending some quality bar research there trying to worm out who there supplier is. shame about the recipe change to the almost syrupy version we have now, it you want a little extra dry in you punch try making it with tonic instead of soda (diet is much dryer)

absolutely loving them with miclo violet liqueur, we have it this way on out list at work and it goes down a treat, put substantially less maraschino in though and a dash of some gomme. find the violet often gets lost in the lemon and gin so use about 15mls. i love this drink

yeah there both available ion the Uk through a company called iceberg imports based in london, or if you want you can pick up a bottle from jerrys on old compton rd. the platinum is supposed to be the better of the two, people who've tried it are pretty mixed on which is better. have'nt seen it in many bars, it's not very main stream. i thought it was ok, but i've kind of gone off vodka recently, sorry i'm not more help

gotta agree w robert, best way of using fernet branca is as bitters, it'll liven up a vodka lime and soda, or even a gin martini no end, played a game in the last bar called 'fun w fernet branca' where we all took turns to make a drink w it, problem being that after everyone else tasted it, you had to finish it, not alot credible or worthwile came out of that except use it in moderation! would probably work well in place of amer picon / torani amer, esp in a picon punch. branca menta can't help but enjoy by itself! also good in a sazerac instead of the absinthe. bon chance. s

and besides, was'nt it one of the three wise men who said 'i feel sorry for people who don't drink........when they wake up in the morning thats as good as there going to feel all day' ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

hangover cures. 1) a martini - gin or vodka - for those days when you get the 'slows' from drinking, you know that feeling when your brain does'nt quite work properly, you walk into a room and can't remember why........... 2) a beer - for when you feel a bit queasy, don't think you'll actually be sick but definitely regretting the night before, lager works best, the least flavour the better, a budweiser perhaps? 3) a shandy - and to be fair this is the only time there appropriate, really, ever. - for when your actually throwing up, curled up on the bathroom floor and wishing that someone had stitched your mouth shut the night before. some fool once told me that a hangover is part 'withdrawal symptom' that is you've been feeding your body this stuff which makes it feel great then all of a sudden for no apparent reasoin you decide to go cold turkey. don't know how true this is but do know that one of the worst hangovers i've ever had, ever, was cured by half a shandy, 1/2 hr lying down, half a shandy, another half hour lying down then back working behind the bar feeling fine. however, in balance, also remember reading an article about binge drinking and alcoholism written by a doctor with a questiopnairre attached and one of the questions was.....'do you ever drink to get over the effects of a hangover'. what would he know anyway he's only a doctor

new cachaca about in the uk, sagatiba , they do two varieties, a gold and a 'pure' (silver, clear, unaged, rough etc etc etc) i'd reccomend the gold, almost as good as a good bottle of germana (who seemed to have sorted out there inconsistencies, at last, thankyou) the silver ain't so interesting

i have an unreasonable fear of drinking jack daniels, it bothers me more than absinthe. every bar employee i know with a drinking problem drinks jack and coke

ok so addicted to that damn vintage spirits etc book i find myself forced to drink my way through it, and i've hit a stumbling block. amer picon can anyone point me towards a supply of this in the UK?

having just picked up vintage spirits and forgotten cocktails, a treasure trove of fantastic drinks i've stumbled back across a measurement query of mine. how much juice is in 1/2 a lemon, a lime, or 1/4 of an orange? and what kind of orange for that matter? always find it strange that a cocktail can have a different name depending on say the ratio of cognac to lemon and cointreau (ie ritz sidecar vs sidecar) but be so vague on another aspect of volume? is there a standardised measurement to relate to the above quantities?

on apple juice, i think it's a greatly underrrated mixer, i love the stuff, theres a new (ish) company in the UK called sundance which does a range of about 10 different kinds which were great to play around with, the differences in flavour and style were quite amazing. on the tequila, find the best tequila to infuse is sauza hornitos, it has a almost delicate flavour which works really well with citrus flavours (by far my favourite margarita), and on cardamon - on a never ending search for orange flower water (please if anyone knows where i can get the damn stuff in london please let me know!) through every supermarket in china town and brick lane yesterday i came across cardamon extract (along with some other well strange stuff - pandan, kewra water, snake vodka) which i'll be having a good experiment session sometime soon. ciao

bacardi does what?!!?!?!?!

also nice playing around with all those great special coffee recipes, a favourite of mine is espresso, amaretto and cognac. tastes good with a splash of vanilla in there to. went to zanzibar last year and they make this delicious coffee with cinnamon, cardamon, ginger and nutmeg, that'd probably taste great to shaken with maybe some dark rum..........

great laphroaig myth i heard was that the distillery in islay is much closer to the waterfront than lagavulin, so that when the angels take there share they leave some of that salty seafront air in the casks which helps give it that oily seaweedy flavour..........

must be pointed out that if you include pubs in this (and i can't stand the damn things - unless its family run and in the middle of dartmoor) then yes the average bar in london won't be using fresh ingredients, however think it should be pointed out that almost every new bar to open in the last couple of years has a cocktail list and attempts to use fresh fruit whenever possible - i've been here 7 years now and the change in drinking culture and quality of venues has increased so much i'm amazed when i can go into a asian restaurant in notting hill and order a decent mojito.

oh and as for bacardi..... have a friend who three years ago switched from drinking a mix of everything to bacardi diet cokes, and this was his only dietary change, he's lost 16kg's so far, that to me is pretty substantial! maybe theres something in that bacardi myth.....