One year ago… The Jolly Inebriate anniversary!
Nov/093
Wow, it’s been three days past the date last year when I first started this blog. Due to a hangover, I wasn’t in much of a mood to celebrate on the day of but this Tuesday finds me in a much more charitable, if not expansive, mood.
To honor the day (and help me digest the lovely breakfast I just made for myself) I put together a little drink that, while admittedly cobbled together from what I had lying around the kitchen, is not too bad and totally in the spirit of The Jolly Inebriate.
THE FORTIFIED LUSH
1 1/2oz London Dry Vermouth
1/4oz L’abbe Francois Cassis
1/4oz Strawberry/rhubarb syrup
1/2oz Angostura Bitters
Soda water
Fill a highball glass with ice and pour in the first four ingredients. Top up with soda and stir.
This cocktail has the chief advantage of being perfect for afternoon drinking when you might not want too much alcohol. The larger-than-usual amount of bitters keeps the sweet stuff in check and plays well with the vermouth as well.
You can substitute most of the ingredients for other brands if you wish and the recipe for the strawberry syrup can be found here.
I can’t show you a picture because I’m currently without a camera (a long, sad story involving a fat man and Lee’s Palace during Halloween) but it’s red and murky. You could probably garnish it with a blackberry on a stick but don’t go out of your way; drinks made before happy hour should be consumed with as little fanfare as possible.
How to plan your party + six other links
Nov/090
Man, I’m feeling rough. Too many parties and not enough time at home. For reasons that don’t make much sense now, I’ve been out every night for the past week-and-half and my stomach (at least I think it’s my stomach, my liver could very well be joining in too) has finally told me to fuck off and give it a rest. Next week, I’m going to try drinking once. We’ll see how that goes.
Although I’m not in the best condition to be writing about booze right now, I’ve got a bunch of links for you and they won’t post themselves! Here we go…
For those of you who have trouble with party math ( x number of guests requires x number of bottles), Sebastien Centner of the Globe and Mail offers a spinning wheel that you can print out and assemble, thereby ensuring you’ll never run out of anything.
Beppi Crosariol, also of the Globe, reviews Nicholas Pashley’s new book covering the history of beer in Canada. Looks like a good read.
Speaking as someone who loves a liberal portion of Angostura bitters in some of his drinks, it’s nice to see Oh Gosh!’s Jay Hepburn offer up some recipes that use an ounce of the stuff.
Leaving aside all the other nasty things over-consumption of alcohol can do to you, a Spanish study claims that even heavy drinkers are less likely to suffer from heart disease than teetotalers. I have to ask, why even bother publicizing this kind of information? Anyone who takes it to heart probably should’t be reading it in the first place.
Still, if you’re going to overindulge, you should be prepared for the next day. Drinkhacker.com reviews a new beverage that claims to stop your hangover in its tracks. I haven’t tried it but personally, I’d stick with Gatorade.
The Underhill Lounge offers up slighty-different take on the Savoy Cocktail Book’s Rose Cocktail and if that’s not enough for you SLOSHED! offers a list of ten autumnal cocktails culled from cocktail bloggers all over.
Lastly, the best seasonal liqueur you could possibly make would be from cranberries and Inn Cuisine has a terrific recipe! Using the liquored cranberries is a damn good bonus too.
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(Image taken from Married To The Sea.)
How to make orgeat syrup + five more links
Apr/094
What the hell is orgeat syrup, you ask? Why it’s made from almonds and if you don’t know why it would be an excellent addition to any cocktail, you clearly haven’t ever eaten a handful of freshly-roasted almonds. Learn how to make it over at Kaiser Penguin. (Sidenote: Trader Tiki mentions a orgeat syrup made with cane sugar and vanilla beans… fuck me.)
The Mixosoleum features one of my favorite spices, cinamon. Learn how to make cinamon syrup, what flavours go well with it and a few choice cocktail recipes.
Over at CHOW, they delve into the creation of bitters. Tired of Angostura or Peychaud’s? I know I am!
Tom of cogito, ergo creo starts a batch of elderberry liqueur and shows you how to do it yourself. With any luck, it’ll be ready just in time for summer.
By the way, don’t use your simple syrup recipe for all of these homemade concoctions! You want to make sugar syrup and Homebrew Underground will show you how.
Last but not least, a new bar opens up in Amsterdam that does away with the bartenders. To my mind, this is like renting a private karaoke room when you can go sing at your local bar. Leaving aside issues of crappy drinks and stupid drunkeness at bottle-service levels, it just sounds so goddamned contrived. Sure, you might have more control but whatever happened to enjoying unplanned, random fun? I’ll take the unknown any day…
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(Image taken from the Design Year Book.)
JAPHET BOWER