gethin

Sounds like you are planning a slimmed down version of the Kis Cocktail machine (www.kiscocktailbar.com) ! Its 2 (or perhaps even 3) years since this was launched at the International Wine and Spirits Fair, where it attracted lots of attention- its certainly entertaining , at least for a short while. Its interesting though that they have still (according to their website) built only 2 of them , and that they are using these both themselves as hire machines - looks like no one else has actually bought one. Perhaps its the price - they were certainly looking at around or upwards the £2,000 mark - but you can easily spend more than that on an espresso machine , and plenty of bars buy those. I suspect that the real reason is that the gimmick wears off quickly and that people might well hire one in for a party or trade show but are unconvinced that they will pull in the punters night after night. The kis machine offers a wider range (it will deal with up to 24 liquid ingredients) and looks pretty glitzy(in a cheap and showy sort of way) , so it may be more suited to this market - but if you can make your machine look eye catching and sell/hireit cheap , you might find a niche market - I can imagine Students Union bars might give it a whirl for instance . (We'd probably be willing to give your prototype a trial run in one of our bars here at LSE, if the practicalities can be sorted ! (EG will it get past an Environmental Health Officer ? Does it require drainage ? will it run off a 13 amp socket, is the footprint small enough for it to sit on the back bar (or if its robust enough,stable enough and sufficiently tamper proof, on the front bar). I can imagine the stocktaker would want it to deal in reasonably sensible fractions of standard measures , and it would need to be comply with weights and measures legislation. I really can't see it catching on with any serious cocktail drinker though. It really needs to be aimed at the youth market so you are probably looking at tequila, white rum and vodka slush puppies of various sorts . I suspect most e-gulleteers dont drink a lot of those kind of things. Gethin

Sloes are completely inedible -its not just the acidity, they are extremely high in tannins . Sucking in a raw sloe causes all the flesh in your mouth to dry out and shrivel up in a most unpleasant manner. You can , in the unlikely event of your wanting to do so, produce the same effect by chewing on a mouthfull of dry (black) tea leaves. In Welsh, we call sloes "erin bach tagu", which translates as "little choking plums". Thats about right. Traditionally they would not be picked until they had been exposed to a frost . Other than sloe gin and sloe jelly , to go with cold meats, they are not much use for anything. I personally far prefer damson gin to sloe gin, the taste is usually more complex. I find sloe gin rather one dimesional. For practically no extra work , you can make a home made patxaran , usually rather more exiting than any sloe gin. (replace the gin and the sugar with anisette and add a few coffee beans and half a vanilla pod to the maceration). gethin

Beard Papa, 143 Oxford Street. Best light lunch in the area ! gethin

i am forced to spend a few days at the Adelphi hotel in liverpool a couple of times each year. my advice would be : 1) don't go to liverpool unless you really have to. 2) if you have to go, take sandwiches There is no where at all reliable in Liverpool itself . (I only wish Fraiche was in Liverpool, not Birkenhead.) I once had a splendid meal in London Carriageworks , but that was 3 years ago. On 2 subsequent visits , the food was comically poor. I usually look at the conference dinner provided at the Adelphi, decide i just can't bear it, head up to Hope St, look at every menu along it's length, decide that the emergency bottle of Bourbon and the Montecristo No 1 back in my hotel room is a better option , go back to the hotel and wait till morning when Ifill up with black pudding and fried eggs. If I really need to eat in the evening I more often than not end up in the Everyman Theatre eating something virtuous , like a lentil and tofu lasagne. Liverpool really is that bad ! Gethin

Possibly of more literary than cocktilian interest , but I came accross this quote from a Torgny Lindgren novel (in the French translation "Paula ou l'eloge de la verite"- i'm not familiar enough with his work to be able to identify its original , presumably Swedish, title: "Là, il m'apprit à préparer le cocktail nommé Für Immer Seelig et qu'Emil Nolde avait un jour inventé. Ce fut la seule oeuvre d'un expressionniste allemand qu'il me montra. Deux parts de bière brune, une part de gin, une part de vermouth doux, une part de pikina, une pincée de sel et quelques gouttes de tabasco. Et je retrouvais ma voix." (Then, he showed me how to make the cocktail called Fur Immer Seelig, which Emile Nolde had one day invented. It was the only work by a German expressionist that he showed me. Two parts dark beer , one part gin,one part sweet vermouth , one part pikina, a pinch of salt and a few drops of tabasco. And I found my voice again.). Is anyone familiar with the novel and able to identify the character speaking ? what had caused him/her to lose her voice ? Was the drink really invented by Nolde ? I assume seelig is a misspelling of selig and the coctkails name carries both the meaning of "peace forever" and "for ever tipsy" . Gethin

Pikina- Aperitif aux Vins de France - was indeed Picon et Cie's Quinquina - I'm pretty sure its long out of production. Pikina (and Amer Picon) advertising stuff (particularly paper fans, which seem to have been a favorite freebie among French gentian and quinquina makers) crop up regularly on the French and the Belgian e-bay sites, so a search on those sites is likely to throw up some images of old bottles that you can compare your find with. Gethin

I think its pretty clear from the postings so far that your best bet is to abandon all thoughts of eating in either England or Scotland ! However , you (and your omniverous husband ) will do very well in Wales , where you will also find the nicest people and the finest scenery (and if you like rain - the best weather). Pembrokeshire , Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion in particular have a good range of bed and breakfasts (many , but not all rather new age/hippy) with a focus on local/organic/vegeterian food, most of which do evening meals as well and all of which will provide vegan options. Upmarket hotels that will provide vegan meals (with a bit of notice) include Seiont Manor (near Caernarvon), Peterston Court (near Brecon) and Portmeirion (which isn't really near anywhere). Vegan welsh specialities are pretty thin on the ground - apart from Bara Brith (spiced fruit bread). You might find laverbread (a type of seaweed) used in various vegan dishes and there are some interesting beers and ciders but that's about it. Your husband should look out for local cheeses, carmarthen ham, Welsh Black beef , welsh lamb, venison and seafood (particularly cockles from Penclawdd, sewin (sea trout) and scallops and mussels from the Menai Straits). Reccomended restaurants where he will get good local produce and you can get more interesting than normal vegan options (again, providing a day or two 's notice) include: The Foxhunter , Nant y Derry The Old Pharmacy, Solva The Crown at Whitebrook The Harbourmaster, Aberaeron Seiont Manor ( near Caerenafon) Dylanwad Da (Dolgellu) The best place to start planning your eating in in Wales is: here : (where you will find links to the above restaurants plus loads of other vegan friendly estanblishments in Wales) Report back on how you get on. gethin

invert sugar should be easily obrainable in any home brewing supplies shop. gethin

Picon Biere is the currently available product - it's 36 proof rather than the original 78 proof and considerably less bitter. Its fine in (rather than with) a glass of beer on a hot summer day , but of limited use in cocktails. A litre bottle in a French supermarket shouldn't set you back more than 10 Euro- so assuming your Y4000 botte is also a litre , it looks to be around 3 times what you would pay in France (and given the punitive excise duties here , not much more than you' d pay for it in the UK). gethin

1- the waiters will hate you for leaving one chair of a two-top fallow, and for not feeling any kind of companionly pressure to avoid the cheapskate options. Couple tables must be a goldmine for restaurants, as they lend themselves to pressure sales of champagne, "two spoon" deserts and licentious forrages into the wine list. But you, with your Guardian crossword and your dog-eared copy of Julian Barnes, must be depriving the poor waiter the back end of a tenner. I honestly could not blame him for sneezing into your soup. ←

Thanks for the suggestions . Luch at Anthony's at Flannels yesterday was pleasant enough, altghough was not really enthused by it: pigs cheek with anise mash was a tiny portion of meat with a teaspoon of (not terribly aniseedy) mash - i thought it somewhat insubstantial even for a starter. the hake with watercress sauce sat on a portion of not very warm mash and was covered in a silly foam. At least it was garnished with rather architectural microleaves , rather than chives , so it avoided looking as if the cat had been in the garden eating grass and then been sick on your lunch , which is the usual effect of a foam and greenery garnish. They had somehow managed to get a lot of watercress taste into the sauce while keeping it an unnaturally pale colour. lemon tart and ginger icecream was garnished with the same japanesey microleaves that had come with the pigs cheek -unnecessary and odd. The pastry was wretched- but the rest of it was fine. I enjoyed Thursdays dinner at Sous Le Nez though : pigeon breast with apple and baby gem lettuce (lettuce somewhere beyond wilted , but not really braised- ) could have done with a lighter hand with the cider vinegar -but the pigeon was very good. Then a teal - very rare and very tender, with slightly undercooked jerusalem artichokes with really good chunks of pancetta, the side order of new potatoes came even more undercooked though. Excellent wine list -unless you were eating alone ! Not a lot available by the glass and the cheapest half bottle of red they actually had available was over £26. I ended up with a bottle of Tanners claret , which was drinkable enough , but it would have been nice to be able to drink more than one wine (advancing years mean that i rarely feel up to drinking 2 bottles with a meal these days). A couple of glasses of very nice marc de bourgogne cheered me up (and took away the taste of what i had thought to be a bit of chocolate with the coffee- it turned out to be some toothpaste flavoured confection). gethin

i will be in leeds for a few days at the end of the week - planning on a lunch at Anthony's and a curry at Chakwal (the second being more for nostalgic than gastronomic reasons ). Any other suggestions (for eating or drinking ). gethin

chestnut negroni 1.5 oz gin 1 generous oz campari 1 generous oz sweet vermouth scant .5 oz creme de chataigne several dashes orange bitters worked out rather well ! the creme de chataigne added a vanilla note without too much sweetness and seemed to bring out a slight aniaseed note in the vermouth (M & R is all i had to hand). Quite pleased with this - i'll be making it again !

There is a reference (and a recipe) on this website- www.caronia2.info/culin01.php The RMS Caronia was the first Cunard liner built specifically for cruising (rather than the transatlantic crossing) and was operated by Cunard from 1949 to 1967. The recipe apparently comes from a 1960's RMS Caronia cocktail list. Ginger Square 1 measure of Ginger Liqueur 1 measure of Brandy Ginger Ale Lemon Zest Pour Ginger Liqueur and Brandy into a 6oz. heavy base glass. Add 4 ice cubes and top-up with Ginger Ale and insert Lemon Zest. gethin

Does anyone know how the Sangsters Old Jamaica Pimebno Dram compares with the W & N one ? I've just found a few bottles of it tucked away on a shelf in a local Afro Caribbean supermarket. I understand Sangsters was taken over by W & N (or that both W & N were taken over by another company (lLascelles ??). Not sure when that happened though. Does anyone know how old these Sangsters bottles are likely to be ? Gethin PS is W& N Jamaica Brandy really, really vile or have i just got a duff bottle ?

Does it really matter? Naming a drink is excruciating, and if you're doing a "riff" on something, it seems to make a lot of sense to somehow pay homage to the original recipe -- the name being a quick and effective vessel. ← If the idea is to pay homage to the original recipe, paying homage to the original name seems to me to be part of it to and naming these riffs after other iconic trains for instance, would perhaps have been more appropriate. But at the end of the day- no it doesn't really matter. Gethin

Naming these riffs on the original 20th Century recipe , the 19th and the 21st Centuries doesn't make a lot of sense though - the original cocktail was named after the train , not the 100 yrs between 1900 and 1999. Gethin

The UK importer of Nardini's Rabarbero pushes the fact that it does not contain cochineal, unlike Campari, and was therfore a Kosher alternative to Campari. This may have possibly some bearing on Campari's decision to abandon the traditional squashed beetle colouring. Gethin

I was actually thinking about this last night as I was drinking an Amber Room- I found the first taste overly sweet and the St Germain too forceful, by the third sip it had all settled down rather well. This is a fairly common experience for me, particularly with drinks that I'm not familiar with me, it takes a few sips before I start enjoying them. Given that the drink had been thoroughly mixed in this instance , this is presumably something to do with my perception of the drink changing during the first few sips rather than the drink itself changing. On Friday I tried a 1707 at Fortnum and Mason, this certainly changed as I drank it, once I drank my way through the chatreuse float it got progressivly less interesting. gethin

. The nul points tend to be Chinese or Indian, with a peculiarly high proportion in Upper Street, Islington. ← Though Maison Bertaux in Soho , Waitrose on Marylebone High St and Starbucks on Queensway all manage to get no stars as well . Must say i've eaten regularly at Maison Bertaux for 35 years with no ill effect , so i don't place much faith in the inspection system. gethin

I was at a trade show in london yesterday and heard rumours that Angostura are working on a pomegranate bitters . Anyone know anything of this ? gethin

I tasted a couple of new gins yesterday (at the Boutique bar show) : G-vine - based on grapes (and distilled by the same people that make Ciroc , the grape based Vodka), its distilled with the normal run of botanicals and then has a maceration of vine flowers added. Very floral, lightweight and to my mind rather more trouble than is justified by the end result. Bulldog Gin - apparently flavoured with Poppy and Dragon's Eye (whatever that may be) it struck me as being not terribly nice - rather a bitter end taste and not much to distinguish it from your average supermarket own brand gin except a slight hint of white pepper. I had an interesting chat with the people at Blackwoods as well- their 2006 vintage is very different to the 2005 and apparently the 2005 available in the States was different to the one available here - the US authorities don't recognise wild sea pink flowers as a food substance so they had to use a substitute - spinach leaves- in the US version. They had hoped to use seaweed in the 2006 but it apparently didn't work out terribly well. The wretched Shetland summer in 2006 meant they grew very little angelica so the final version ended up with lots of coriander shoots (rather the more convential coriander seed) and a lot of lime peel (presumably not locally grown !). The 2006 is certainly lighter, more flowery and more citrussy than the 2005. This summer has been even shorter and wetter than last year so again a poor crop of angelica - they did however get plenty of elderflowers and this will be a major dimension of the 2007. ( They have been looking at lichen too- but probably for even more desperate times). They plan to release a boxed set 2005 -2010 in February 2011 , for those who aren't squirelling away the different vintages for future comparison. gethin

Angostura Orange Bitters have now reached London too ! Gerry's (Old Compton St) have just expanded their range of bitters and now have Angostura OB, Fee Bro's Barrel Aged and the Bitter Truth range (in addition to Fees Lemon , Regans OB and Peychauds which they have been carrying for some months). The Barrel Aged is quite a price though - £10.50 - which at current exchange rates is just over $21. I imagine they are somewhat cheaper in the US. gethin

i've just aquired a bottle of Clayton's Kola Tonic- (now made in Barbados- but apparently first produced in London in 1880). does anyone know how this compares to the Rose's Kola tonic ? Other than the Filmograph -which i plan to try asap- any other thoughts on possible uses ? Gethin

In my own pub, if a customer says "keep the change" , the money goes into the charity bottle (and to whatever local charity we are collecting for at the time). If customers offer bar staff a drink, they either "leave it in the pipe" (that is, the drink gets rung through the till, but not dispensed until later, either after we have closed up or at some other point when they are off duty) , or they stick the cost of the drink in a glass and pocket whatever they have collected at the end of the shift. When I'm offered a drink, I try to politely refuse, but if pressed I'll take for half a Guiness and be seen to drink a few mouthfulls before discretely losing it. If its close to closing time and things are relaxed, I might have a whisky- I'll always take for a house whisky but pour myself something better. gethin