Outbound: storm in a julep cup
How big of a deal is three percent? If you’re talking about whiskey, apparently a lot. Last weekend, the news that Maker’s Mark was to be bottled at 42% ABV instead of its current level of 45% ABV brought forth the full range of reaction from the Internet – y’know: disbelief, anger, torches and pitchforks. [...]
Fare thee well, thou first and fairest
Every year, Scots throughout the world set aside January 25th for celebrating the life and work of our national poet, Robert Burns. The man’s influence extends far beyond the borders of this little corner of Northern Europe – where would the literary tradition be without “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men”, or indeed [...]
MxMo LII: Forgotten Cocktails
In which the Company explores the margins of the cocktail traditional, and undertakes an expedition through the informational black market into the depths of the bartender’s prosthetic memory.
The delicate art of the twist
There’s one phrase you can guarantee that you’ll hear at a cocktail competition. It’s the one that starts, “This drink is a twist on…” The concept of modifying an existing recipe and presenting it as a new drink isn’t new – look at the sheer volume of gin/vermouth/bitters recipes in the Savoy Cocktail Book, for [...]
Forty Nine: L’Étranger Cocktail
Let’s talk a little about context. After all, it’s often said that nothing happens in a vacuum – though that’s patently untrue given our little marble of evolved consciousness does circuits in one – and so much of the difficulty of creating recipes is creating those contexts in which your chosen ingredients can shine. I’ve [...]
Fourteen: Scotch Fusion
We’re going to try something a bit new this week: a brief trip into a confused mind. The thought goes something like this: we know that the action of shaking with ice affects the liquid in the shaker in a couple of noticeable ways: it chills the contents, courtesy of the ice it adds dilution [...]
Newsdesk: no, you can’t
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ILndvRyPPQ] There are many noble Scottish traditions – St Andrews Day, the Edinburgh Festival, for example, and it’s important not to forget drinking. Whether it’s three litres of cheap cider in a supermarket carpark or an expensive single malt in an upmarket bar, we’re much better at it north of the border. But the current [...]
Nine: Flame’s Edge
New drinks are weird, intangible things. Sometimes, they can be engineered. Sometimes, they come from little more than an instinct. And sometimes, they just happen. We’ve been hosting cocktail masterclasses at work for a while now. They’ve proven to be popular with birthday and hen parties, possibly because it provides a decent excuse for exposing [...]
Newsdesk: you’d be amazed at what we can do
When it first came to prominence, whisky was thought to be the water of life. It’s been a while since then, but it’s still proving to be transformative. It can be arty, if you’re willing to face a little price rise and a bit of criticism. It can be misspelt and as easily misunderstood. According [...]
Drink it? Can’t even pronounce it.
Anyone else think February’s a little early for naming the World Whisky of the Year for 2009? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8KMlVEIVo0]
Newsdesk: what is best in life?
There is – or should be – a list of things you should never type into Google Image Search and right near the top of it are the words “erectile dysfunction”. There’s probably also a good way to tie this into the following compilation of drink related links but God, my mind is scarred. This [...]