I am fully aware there are many strict rules of etiquette – nay, correctness – regarding high-quality and much-loved alcoholic beverages. Eg, don’t stick a Pepsi Max in a Glenmorangie, don’t whack a Fanta in a Hendricks.
But sometimes it just works. I am drinking a large Peroni Nastro Azzurro with the addition of a small shot of Bottle Green elderflower cordial. Man, that’s refreshing.
Any guilty booze pleasures out there?
Milk. Stout. Nuff said.
Are you Ena Sharples? And you you want your freedom?
Mackeson. Does it even exist anymore? My paternal grandmother used to have a small bottle every day, and one Woodbine.
It still exists, in mysteriously small tins.
Marstons used to do a lovely bottled stout – Oyster Stout – which went really well with seafood. Dunno if they still do now. Seem to have become something of a Rapacious Megacorp of late.
Cropston’s Oatmeal Stout was a fine brew. It did not taste of porridge. I wouldn’t have minded, a pint of porridge often goes down great guns.
Thin gruel – don’t need a spoon…
Has anybody ever heard of thick gruel?
Third division NWOBHM band from Falkirk?
There’s a third division? Crivvens!!
Yup. Pedigree isn’t as good as it was, of course.
It was always inferior to Winalot.
Hophouse lager tastes even better when mixed with a can of Kopparberg rose. Snakebite is much more palatable than ever I thought it would be.
Wow, I’m going to try that this weekend. I bet I’m instantly transported back to a house party in early 1985, “First and Last and Always” by the Sisters of Mercy blasting out and the smell of Boots hairspray in the air…
Laphroaig with pressed apple juice. Trust me.
A very expensive pressed apple juice, I presume.
Any particular variety? Pink Lady?
No. Just No.
That’s what I thought at first.
I’ll retire to bedlam…
…hope you haven’t eaten a fragment of underdone potato…
No, young Moose, just some thin gruel…
…followed by a few stiff ones….
Irish Whiskey and Tizer … nah
Half a pint of Guinness with half a pint of red wine.
Classic summer drink.
Pop goes the weasel!
Never seen it being drunk. Have seen it coming up again though
Bourbon with pomegranate juice … mmm
(NOT pomegranite Juice Drink, the proper stuff – can get a bit expensive though at nearly 5 quid a liter in Ocado)
The usual twist on the classic negroni – essentially an unimprovable drink – is to lose the gin and turn it into a long drink with Prosecco. It’s great. A negroni sbagliato, is its name.
However, the other week I was in the Skylon bar in the Festival Hall – best view for a cocktail in England, and oh my LORD how good to be out on the fancy piss with friends – and the lovely man serving us suggested a mezcal negroni. Holy shit. It was good. Equal parts Campari, red vermouth and very good mezcal. Yes.
He also made me something like a Vesper with rhubarb syrup in it, but by that time I was too splendid to be able to be certain of its constituent parts.
Saying that, I’ll chuck a Pepsi max in any brown liquor you care to name and damn your eyes.
I’ve discovered in the last 9 months or so that I really like cocktails, other than a martini. Negronis are great, as are Bellinis but my fave so far is ‘A Day in the Country’. Gin, Aperol, red Vermouth and peach liqueur.
Bloody love a cocktail. I generally go for bitter or sour but tbh it’s quite hard to find one I won’t gullet very cheerily.
Old fashioneds and boulevardiers are the nuts, too. And on a hot day with not much to do, allow me to recommend you get yourself gently splendid on a large number of good margaritas.
Margarita didn’t hit my spot, I’m afraid. My loss!
We had amazing Margaritas in San Diego in 1999. Huge glasses served with Nachos and salsa. I’m afraid I was very, very drunk.
Okay okay, I’ll buy some Cinzano Rosso, now please will you stop nagging me. Jeez.
(I had a Negroni the other week and it’s an outstanding drink)
Get Carpano Antica vermouth instead and thank me later.
Those in the know (this website I just saw) reckon Cinzano ias best for Negronis and Carpano wossname is better for Manhattans. But thanks, I’ll try both!
Don’t whack a Fanta in a Hendricks?
Not unless the Fanta is me and the Hendricks is Joan from Mad Men.
hurrrrrrrrrr
Sailor Jerry with Tizer? (But which the classic, which the bastard?)
So, Jack Daniels and Coke is the traditional way forward.
Jack Daniels and Dr Pepper is far, far better.
And you people putting anything (including ice) into decent Scotch. Shame!!
But if you drink scotch whisky all night long, you’ll die behind the wheel.
Of course, you have to learn to play the saxophone first…
It’s a morality tale – don’t be operating a motor vehicle while pissed up and parping away on a brass instrument. Not even a cornet.
Bless my cotton socks…
… I’m in the news?
I read Moose’s comment and the video for Reward popped up in my head…
It’s almost Driving in My Car as well. Except I think them nutty boys were just high on life.
JD and Dr P is the drink of choice of Michael Douglas’ character in the Kominsky Method, which if you haven’t watched, you should
Slight digression (this is the afterword after all).
I love whisky, definitely my spirit of choice, but I have never had a whisky based cocktail.
Do any exist?
If anywhere will know it is this place.
Over to you…
Old Fashioned is probably the best known…can use bourbon or a blended scotch. I gather the Kennedy administration and their Hamptons pals liked J&B…
https://www.liquor.com/recipes/bourbon-old-fashioned/
A friend’s wife decided she’d like a whisky sour.
Unfortunately, the barman recommended Talisker, a rather peaty malt, and the result was not very pleasant, as I discovered when she asked If I wanted to finish it.
I suspect a non-peaty malt would have been fine.
The only malts I’m remotely interested in tend to be the odd Macallan or Dalmore. Generally I’m not a single malt fan, though, and those two are way too expensive to be chucking into cocktails IMO.
A peaty whisky, if you absolutely had to make a cocktail of it, would need something very herbal or floral and absolutely nothing citrusy: citrus and smoke = medicinal mud. Maybe chartreuse or bitters, possibly Campari.
Not sure I’d waste any single malt (let alone a peaty one) on a cocktail, when there are so many nice blends available for the job…
Agreed, hence “if you absolutely had to”. It’s not what those whiskies are for.
Old fashioned and boulevardier are both whisky (or more properly whiskey/bourbon) based. They’re amazing. A good whiskey sour and a Manhattan too. (Canadian Club is the best Manhattan whiskey, which is just as well, because it’s not that good for much else. I find Bulleit makes a great whiskey in all the others above.)
If your tastes run sweeter, a Brown Gold or a Brown Derby can be rather nice too. I tend to go for a more bitter, aromatic cocktail, though.
Single malts don’t make good cocktails, but then I don’t find they make a good anything. Not my thing.
Whisky Mac (as if whisky wasn’t Mac enough in the first place). A cheap Scotch and Stones Ginger Wine, just keep experimenting with the mix until you fall over, and every day is Christmas.
It’s ace. Christmas and medicine at the same time – in both cases, being off school. Trouble is you can’t focus on your Topper annual.
Which reminds me of a fella at uni, who had a long evening on whisky and kaolin&morphine, an OTC antidiarrhoeal of the day. Couldn’t poo for a week.
Whisky Mac – my go-to remedy if I had a sore throat but had to sing in some “Paul Rogers” stylee at a gig. Also a great way to use up the bottle of Bell’s at the back of the cupboard…
The best mixer for a malt is a little bit more malt. Water sometimes tho’ I tend to reserve that for cask strength bastards.
Red wine over plenty of ice.
All my “drinking reds” go in the chiller for half an hour before consumption. [Problem with ice is, it dilutes the alcohol.] A splash of ribena often works wonders on a £4.75 job that turns out a little tart.
However, a more special red – to go with a beef fillet or a high-grade sausage, for instance – stands by the hob for a hour or so.
If it’s winter I put my bottle on the radiator. Classy.
Guilty as charged. Me too.
It’s so cold in this house that, in winter, my whisky glass needs warming before use.
To be fair I use the kitchen radiator which is set so low that, apart from bringing my wine to a decent temperature, I’m not sure it serves any other purpose
.
I don’t put ice in my G&Ts. I keep both gin and tonic in the fridge instead. Seems to do the trick, without the watering down that melting ice guarantees. Also forgetting the ice means room for more drink in one’s glass.
Can’t understand why anyone would drink gin. Revolting. Tastes like perfume.
I know exactly what you mean, as I used to sense it in the same way. But finally, this Christmas, family members mixed me a G&T which I genuinely enjoyed. They use the method of @Mike_H, but add further ice. I am a convert.
But I will probably stick to those mixed by said trusted family members. I suspect a pub G&T would still be filed under Fairy Liquid for me.
Most spirits live in my freezer. Better yet.
Not got the space in my freezers.
The modern less-detectable-by-the-authorities version of Poteen, so I’m told, involves making a large batch of wine from any old stuff with a decent sugar content and then placing the fully-fermented brew in shallow trays in a chest freezer. Once the water content has frozen, you can decant the unfrozen alcohol into another container.
Hic!
I tried that many years ago, it was extremely successful.
You people are just pish artishts. I mean ship tartists. I mean.. errr
Feelings….
Arrest me ossifer.