Andrew

[GarethB]

Andrew,

Does you little book say what a 'Black Velvet' cocktail is made of, I think it has rum in. A university friend from Trinidad used to do me rum cocktails and called one black velvet.

An Irish friend introduced me to the following;

Tripple Vodka + 1 bottle (Small)Babysham + top up to a pint with Guiness.

These never made me drunk of hungover, but did have the ability to effectivly remove control of my legs from my brain.

One of those drinks that only left you drunk from the waist down

[Andrew MacLean]

Gareth


Champagne and Guiness. I guess you could add vodka if you had some left in the bottle and couldn't think of anything else to do with it.

I have always wondered why anyone would want to put guiness into a glass of Dom, or, for that matter, Dom Perignon into Guiness.

This is an amazing little book of recipes. I have never heard of most of the drinks you need to have in order to start constructing cocktails. did you know that there is a chocolate liqueur?

I might ust take up Chemistry as my hobby!

Andrew

[jayuk]

So does that mean you havent had "sex on the beach" andrew?

[GarethB]

I would advise agains chemistry, you will become as deranged as me

[Andrew MacLean]

Oh well, Gareth, what if I promise only to drink the "experiments" that do not fail?

My wife bought me one of those metal shakers (looks like a penguin, comes in three parts, the base into which you put the ice and the various parts of the experiment, a top for the base that has a narrow "bottle neck", with a guard that allows liquid to pass but not ice, and a cap that allows you to shake the mixture until it explodes!

The cap seems to be a measure so that you can carefully measure the quantities of various different ingredients, and then top up your favourite

She also bought me four of those cocktail glasses that you always see on television. I have found lots of things to do with Scotch, but none of them look nearly as attractive as my favourite recipe:

Take an empty glass
Pour in a good Malt Whisky

the simplest recipes are always the best!

[Andrew MacLean]

Andrew,
Triple Vodka + 1 bottle (Small)Babysham + top up to a pint with Guinness.
These never made me drunk of hungover, but did have the ability to effectively remove control of my legs from my brain.
One of those drinks that only left you drunk from the waist down

Gareth

I was in the United States on business a couple of years ago and stayed at the Pere Marquette Lodge, on the shores of the Mississippi, just where the Illinois river flows into its bigger cousin. In the little bar after a session in which I had captivated the conference with a spirited little paper on "Pastoral Care in the face of a Modern Plague" (catchy title, paper was even more scintillating) one of the other delegates introduced me to Long Island Iced Tea.

One shot each of Vodka, Gin, White Rum, Tequila, and orange liqueur, pour over ice and mix with a single shot of gomme syrup,. Pour over crushed ice and top up with a small quantity of cola,(to make the concoction look like 'iced tea'.

This concoction seemed only to be succeeding in paralyzing my face until I tried to walk. It had done a pretty good job of paralyzing my legs, too. The 'bar-keep' had made the journey to our table bearing quantities of this incendiary several times that night.

The next morning I remember feeling that somebody had moved either my head six inches to the right of where I was standing, or me six inches to the left of where my head was!

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST TRYING THIS AT HOME.

Andrew

[GarethB]

While studying I had a job as a wine waiter at a night club in Romford Essex. One night the cocktail bareman was off sick and I was called ina s a replacement. Well I was still blind in one eye after my second graft and with glasses could only read the third line on the chart as the first graft was still settling so could not read the cheat cards behind the bar.

I just threw the botles in the air, caught what I could and aimed the bottle contents in the general direction of the glasses. When I had finished my 'dance' I would put an umbrella, a cherry and whatever else came to hand in the glass and serve it up to the waiting public!

Most of the time the contents of the bottle only reached the glass after I had soaked the bottle contents up off the bar with a sponge and wrung it out in the glass!

I must have been the worst cocktail barman in the world, but it was such a spectacle people would order cocktails just to watch me make a mess of it. Why should I care, they paid for the filth I made and tipped well. Best night made £80 in tips alone, the worst was £35 which I thought was quite good considering I would only work a couple of hours every other night.

I thought this and my wages was easy money back in 1990.

[jayuk]

LOLOL which club was it in Romford?...

[Andrew MacLean]

Gareth

Do you still 'moonlight' as a cocktail bar man?

I quite like the classic gin martini.
Ice in shaker
Pour in vermouth
Shake
Pour vermouth out, leaving the ice with a slight vermouth coating.
Pour in gin
Shake
Pour immediately, before the ice begins to melt and thus dilute the gin.
Add three olives (not one two or four)
Serve

I'm afraid I never worked as a cocktail bar man, but I do know one in London who makes amazing martinis. He works on Russel Square, probably in the Hotel Russel.

For all that I do enjoy a nicely made Martini, my first choice is still the recipe I suggested above. Caol Ila, or Lord of the Isles are very nice Malts indeed.

Andrew

[GarethB]

Alas the club no longer exists and since I left to do classified work for the DTI prior to my final year it changed hands.

No male bouncers on the door, just some well proportioned ladies dressed in leather and with large whips that you would dare not argue with.

The club I beleive is a long the lines of the Spearmint Rhino clubs the heir to our thrown has been known to frequent.

In todays Nanny state, my cocktail making skills would be fround upon for being to dangerous