Bill's posts with tag: alcohol
|  | I kept it simple - no ketchup, thanks - and in fact this time it is a success. The blueberry juice (it's Sohiong, a local berry) alone is too sweet and sticky for me and I find vodka alone undrinkable. But the two together work. Oh how they work. |
Today I tried to mix myself a Bloody Mary.
How difficult could it be? I had the salt. I had the pepper. I had the vodka.
I realised suddenly that I did not have any tomato juice.
What the hell, I thought, and I mixed in tomato ketchup. And salt. And pepper.
Tip: Never substitute tomato ketchup for tomato juice, boys and girls. Take it from somebody who knows. Who found it out the hard way.
The damn thing was so bitter I had to mix in two spoons of sugar before it was even remotely drinkable. Of course, the sugar almost all settled at the bottom, which meant the more I drank of the mix the less vilely bitter it got - and the more vilely sweet.
All right, you can stop laughing now.
 | Cheers! | Aug 29, '07 12:06 PM
for everyone |
 In the last post I put up a poem by an unknown author called The Ballad of Soporific Absorption. This is complementary to that post...
What with one thing and another, I don't drink much. And when I do drink, it's usually pretty unexceptional stuff - beer, or wine, or a cocktail such as a gimlet. I've invented a couple of cocktails of my own as well: vodka with wine or brandy. Not recommended. Definitely an acquired taste. I'm still acquiring it.
I don't drink enough to get drunk - I am careful not to get that boozed. Falling over into the gutter is against my principles.
The point I stop boozing is where I find that I'm enunciating my words deliberately clearly and putting the glass down with exaggerated care. Then it's time to quit.
And I do get irritated when I see bartenders tossing bottles around. I want a drink, for dog's sake, not a display of juggling skills...
That said, here's a short list of the more out-of the way stuff I've drunk:
Mead. There is a cafe built into the wall of the old fort in Velikii Novgorod, Russia. It's a lovely little place with furniture fashioned out of logs. I wish I'd taken a photo or two of the place; they would have been worth posting here. Anyway, there I had Russian mead...a liquor, for the uninitiated, made out of honey. Like liquid gold going down one's throat. And followed by a kick like a mule. You don't even realise you're intoxicated till you can't feel your feet.
Definitely the best booze I've ever had.
Gorilka. A spicy, amber-coloured, Ukrainian version of vodka. I prefer it to any other spirit drink, but have had very little of it. It's kind of too hot for most people, for some reason.
Flying Fox beer. I had this ...drink...in Lucknow, India, attracted by the name. Advice: don't try it unless you're fond of sour horse urine.
Tequila: Had it in Delhi. I was hoping the bottle would have a caterpillar in it, but of course it didn't (I asked to have a look). Mescal has caterpillars, I found, not tequila. But in any case the exported stuff would likely have the caterpillars removed so as not to gross foreigners out, don't you think? The tequila was good enough.
B52: Now the ingredients of this drink are here. Expensive, but very, very worth it, especially the coffee flavour. I'd have it more often if it wasn't so bloody expensive.
Creme de Menthe: Anyone who's read Agatha Christie with any attention will note Hercule Poirot's passion for this drink. For years I wondered what on earth it tasted like, till I managed to get hold of some recently. It tasted like mint in cold water with a slight dash of alcohol. A waste of money. Another reason to dislike Christie, apart from her absurd plots and cardboard characters.
Creme de Banane: I'm a glutton for punishment. After finishing the Creme de Menthe I saw this on the list and ordered it as well. It tasted like banana flavoured cold water with a dash of alcohol.
So what's next on the list? Over in Cloud Nine, this town's top bar (in more ways than one, it's on the top floor of the town's tallest hotel) they have a cocktail called Screaming Orgasm. I hope that's not a fraud on the public...
If I ever have it, I'll let you know what it tastes like.
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