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Bitterholics Anonymous
They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, so I’m just going to say it… my name is Jay Hepburn and I am a bitterholic. Today I got hold of the brand new The Bitter Truth Celery bitters, the first celery bitters to be commercially available for many decades. But what exactly do celery bitters taste like?
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I’m so dizzy
Often when I’m in a cocktail bar I’ll find myself unable to decide what to drink. When this happens I usually defer my choice to the bartender, and if I’m in a good bar I’m rarely disappointed. During my last visit to Milk and Honey the bartender came back to me with the Dizzy Sour, an interesting classic twist on the Whiskey Sour.
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Beefeater 24
Big fancy launch parties are all very well and good but ultimately what matters to me about Beefeater’s new gin, 24, is the liquor inside the bottle. With the party over and the product now available in the shops does it live up the hype, or is it simply an exercise of style over substance?
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Coronation Cocktail
I love a good, strong Martini or Manhattan as much as the next lush, but there are occasions where such a strong drink may not be the best course of action. When I find this is the case I often reach for a cocktail based on sherry, a fortified wine that packs plenty of flavour but not so much punch.
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Playing favourites
When people first learn I have a passion for mixology they often ask me what my favourite cocktail is, a question I’m never quite sure how to answer. On certain evenings though, under certain circumstances, I do have a temporary favourite. Tonight that drink is a Manhattan variation that for one day at least, is my favourite cocktail.
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Part of the club
One of the highlights of my trip to Berlin last month was the chance to try so many great new cocktails I hadn’t gotten around to drinking previously. Here I look at the love-child of the Pegu Club and Pendennis Club, a creation by Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro called the Juniper Club Cocktail.
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Forgotten Flavours
Once you start getting in to cocktails, it doesn’t usually take too long before you come across an ingredient you can’t easily get hold of. While making your own ingredients is always an option, there are also some great companies out there bringing classic ingredients back for all to enjoy. Here I look at two liqueurs from Germany company Forgotten Flavours.
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MxMO – Guilty Pleasures
My “guilty pleasure” for this month’s Mixology Monday is a sickly-sweet mixture popular amongst students, hen parties and gentlemen who can’t catch. It’s pretty much the antithesis of the cocktails and the drink culture I usually write about, but sometimes, just sometimes, all that doesn’t really matter…
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Don’t say the V word
For me the very best cocktails are those that take their ingredients and manage to combine them to create something you would never expect. During Bar Convent Berlin I came across a drink that does this magnificently, and what’s more does it with an ingredient you really wouldn’t expect. Sometimes it pays to keep an open mind.
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Jensen’s Old Tom Gin
Another Old Tom gin surfaces, this time from the man behind the excellent Jensen’s Bermondsey gin. Based on a recipe from the 1840s this Old Tom uses absolutely no sugar, instead relying on increased botanicals to add sweetness and flavour as the first Old Toms probably did over 200 years ago.
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MxMO – 19th Century
This month Mixology Monday looks back in time to 19th century cocktails, a topic already very familiar here on Oh Gosh!. After some searching around the classic cocktail books I settled upon The Delicious Sour, a mixture of applejack and peach liqueur taken from “The Only William” Schmidt’s 1892 book The Flowing Bowl.
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Remember the… er…
A look at a drink from Charles H Baker’s Gentleman’s Companion, the Remember the Maine, which I tried last year and then promptly managed to forget. Two separate occasions whilst I was out in the US brought it back to my attention in two different forms, and I now won’t be forgetting either in a hurry.
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Brooklyn
During my trip to the States in July I sampled many a cocktail, but the Brooklyn really stood out amongst the others. A variation on the Manhattan that introduces Amer Picon and Maraschino to make things a little more interesting, I enjoyed it so much that while I only ever had one it has become the cocktail that reminds me most of my tours around the bars of New York.
