Subject: Favourite [b]Cock[/b]tail

The Long Island ice tea is a bit of a yobo-come-yuppie drink and Mojito is just a traditional alci-lemonade. What about real drinks? No one here drinks anything without an umbrella in it? You know, some alcoholic beverages were meant to be drank withOUT pop or soda or fizz or grenadine...

A pure double shot of Ardbeg, no ice or soda, in a tulip shaped glass is a supreme experience.
A Koonawara region, ripe Cabernet is perfect tongue coater for a meaty dinner.
A high grade Armagnac and accompanying cigar can make an evening all worth while.

No need for Vodka-Red-Bull/toilet-cleaner taste!
(edited)

but it was about cocktails...

not nice things.

Mine's a beer. Or I fall down after 15 centilitres.

OK. I take it all back... :) Here's another drink, a Cocktail by jaize's request... another of my own signature drinks.

Called Gift-of-the-Gab
Tall glass
3-4 solid ice cubes
One measure of Arak/Ouzo
Crushed ice to the brim
Top with Pineapple juice
*decorate with lime slice

Makes you feel the most clever and cool person around while in fact... opposite results assured!
(edited)

I like Ardbeg 17 yr...really smooth.

I do really love Oban though, still have some of the distillers edition left at home...mmm.

Talisker and Laphroig are a good couple too.

I love G&T and also good rum n coke :O

I like long island iced tea if it is somewhere hot, i tend to like rum cocktails (Jamaican mule, daiquri if i'm feeling particularly feminine) but some of the whisky ones are cool..(sours etc.)

Used to go to a nice place in leeds which did a great raspberry collins...

Here is a good one for Woppa.

New Orleans Dandy:

Ingredients
1 measure light rum
1/2 measure peach brandy
1 dash or orange juice
1 dash of lime juice
Champagne to top up.
Shake the ingredients well with ice and strain into a large wine glass.

Decorate with an orange slice and a cocktail cherry.

I once did a version of the white lady cocktail but with orange juice too

(gin, Cointreau, touch of lemon juice, orange juice (sanguinello + normal) shaken with ice)

I don't need to drink that!

What bar did you work in Rog?

I like cocktails, but i have no idea what a good one consists of.

Generally a jug of whatever is on the menu usually does the trick, which is often Long Island Iced Tea.

If you ever go up to Oban the distillery tour is well recommended. I've been a couple of times when I've gone diving and it's interesting (and tasty). I used to drink a fair bit of whisky with my old housemate who worked for Glenmorangie for a while - he had some nice old portwood finishes. Ardbeg was a firm favourite. Talisker imo; good, but a bit medicinal, not sure I'm so keen on that. Whisky is an expensive hobby tho!

Cousin used to work for Oddbins management and she got us invited to a whisky tasting joby in central London once - there was some chap there from Kentucky hawking "Kentucky Gold" (bourbon, yeah I know) - they don't import it, but I would deffo buy a bottle of that if I saw one anywhere.

I worked in a cocktail bar back in the day and I've still got the menus somewhere with all my notes on. I might dig them out - some of the cream-based cocktails were good, especially the ones that tasted of mint chocolate. When I look it up it'll probably just be creme de menthe, baileys and cream..!
(edited)

I worked at The Mitre on the High street in Oxford. Recently visited there and found the same manager from the time I was there some 12-14 years ago... :)

I prefer whiskies and am an avid collector. Member of the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society in Edinburgh and toured Scotland many times visiting many distilleries. The best tour I did was in Springbank, that's in Campbeltown, Mull of Kintyre and the worst... Dalwhinnie on the A9 which unfortunately is where most tourists happen to go because of the distance from Glasgow. there are many great whiskies like most of the Islay ones to personal favourites like Glen Farclas, Springbank, Highland Park and more. Oban is alright, a bit light for my taste though I like the pine/brine echo it has.

AS far as Bourbon is concerned... the least said the better... bloody Americans! ;-)

Ooo, The Mitre. Not been there to drink myself i don't think, but i know it mainly because there was a brilliant shop quietly tucked around the corner called Acorn.

Sells designer gear that you won't find elsewhere. Expensive but nice, that was until i last visited and realised it no longer exists :o(

Ardbeg was a great tour, the guy was brilliant and gave really big measures to taste and a few differnet ones too...i think he was a little tipsy too ;)

Oban tour, been on that a couple of times and is a good one, very well done.

I do agree, most of the Islay ones are good :) Have had some of the interesting springbank ones (bought in campbletown) but not actually been to the distillery.

My personal favourite is the "Eye of the needle" often incorrectly referred to as "burning ring of fire"

6-8 * bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale,
1 * Dirty kebab filled with rat and covered with chilli sauce,

Mix in the stomach for 4-8 hours while lying in a police cell, leave to percolate through the digestive tract during walk home in the morning, then serve into a crisp white porcelain bowl.

The pink police cell + walk home can be replaced with spending the night in a squat with a bird so riddled with sexually transmitted diseases you wouldn't normally touch with someone else's.
(edited)

@the goat – rofl… well put! Though I must say that in Oxford it is cat rather than rat! Mr. Frisky’s collar adorns one particular kebab van alongside quite a few others, not far from the pub I worked at. :)

@doughnut_jimmy – The Mitre is one of the few remaining original Oxford pubs, dating more than 200 years back, others more… it has been an Inn before. Not many young students come in there and you get more of elderly folk and tourists except on the weekends. It has never been a place to pull or even mildly enjoy yourself. Try the Oxford Brookes-Morrell Hall-bar… that’s a goldmine for tottie (-it’s a kind of uncut, semi-precious mineral)! Ask Detritus!!!

@oxolotl – When I visited Ardbeg last in 1998 I think, it was a day after a huge storm hit the island and at Ardbeg the entire roof was blown of the distillery and they suffered damage worth £480k while the insurance covers only damage exceeding half a million. There was lots of dismay and sadness especially as some 20 casks were shattered and the air was reeking of freshly distilled whiskey. Laphroaig was also a great tour and Ian Henderson, the distillery manager was so pleased I brought a bottle of wine from Israel, he gave me a framed map of the island right there and then. The biggest surprise was in Macallan where at the end of the tour we actually got a 35cl bottle rather than just a dram!
:)

Oh not bad :)

they suffered damage worth £480k while the insurance covers only damage exceeding half a million.

In that situation, I'd go and find a more expensive builder.

Or a big hammer.