Clik here to view.
Big Gin makes a big impression
While helping to judge the recent Craft Distilling Expo Gin of the Year, it was my great pleasure to meet Ben Capdevielle and Holly Robinson of Captive Spirits Distilling, part of the wave of “craft”,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tequila cocktails with Ocho
Tequila is a bit of an enigma, but its star is certainly on the rise at the moment. It doesn’t seem to have been drunk much outside of Mexico until Americans discovered it in the 1920s during their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Marks & Spencer cocktails-in-a-can
In October I reviewed the KÖLD line of premixed cocktails, the latest in the cavalcade of attempts to offer instant mixology for people who lack the equipment, ingredients or inclination to make their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Maplay - Distilled Maple Syrup Spirit
This is my first and last post of the year. 2014 seems to have slipped away at the IAE south coast branch; not quite as bad as "The Lost Weekend", though. Now, if I was going to write about anything,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Claridge Cocktail
My version of the Claridge CocktailI was talking to a relative before Christmas and she mentioned how her mother-in-law (my wife’s aunt) regularly enjoyed a Claridge cocktail. Naturally my ears pricked...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Don't be afraid of Fernet-Branca
Fernet-Branca is one of those cocktail ingredients from the dawn of time, when there wasn’t too much to choose from. Many younger people may never have heard of it, and those who have often roll their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Armagnac, Gascony's sleeping beauty
I was intrigued to be sent a pack of samples from an outfit called Rueverte, an online spirits retailer based in Germany but clearly aiming for a worldwide reach. As the name suggests, they began as an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Terminus: the absinthe to end all absinthes
Ted with his two new products, Terminus Oxygénée Absinthe and Coeur de JadeThursday was National Absinthe Day in the US, marking the day in 2007 when the ban on absinthe, introduced in 1912, was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A marvel of 1930s cocktail technology
The Rapid patent cocktail mixer from 1933. You can see it in action in the video belowDrifting through my local flea market (sorry, “Antiques & Collectibles Fair”) my eye was caught by a strange...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Four Roses rises
All the bottles in the range feature the four-rose symbol moulded into the glassI met up with James Childs of Spirit Cartel recently to talk about Four Roses bourbon. Spirit Cartel have only fairly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bar tools: is copper proper?
The copper-plated items from Sainsbury's with the ingredients for a White LadyI was marching through the mega-Sainsbury’s supermarket at Beckton, hoovering up Prosecco deals, when my eye was caught by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Some Negroni variants
A Mr President cocktailI like a Negroni (equal parts gin, red vermouth and Campari), and I seem to have this in common with much of the world, as it is on trend these days. (Which is interesting when...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your smooth-talking bar steward…*
A friend of mine, who is an actor specialising in historical roles, rang me up in March and asked if I could help him out. He’d taken a small job for English Heritage but had now been given an audition...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Absinthe, tequila…and cucumber
The experimental Maid in Jalisco. Looking at it, I think I should come up with a cocktail for St Patrick's Day,garnish it in the same way with thin slices of cucumber, and call it a Four-Leafed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The purity test: is your water and ice letting your drinks down?
I received a press release recently for a bottled water called Isbre. It is sourced in Norway from an aquifer under a 5,000-year-old glacier at the end of the Hardanger Flord in Ulvik, where it is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A naming of names
Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for giving me a real brass IAE nameplate, modelled exactly on the graphic device at the top of this page. I finally got round to putting it up today. For some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The purple reign of Parfait Amour
By chance I found myself with three different brands of Parfait Amour in the house recently—Bols, Boudier and Cartron. This liqueur is possibly most used in cocktails for its purple colour, but despite...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A garden of bourbon delights
Mrs H. pointed out that we had mint growing in the garden, something that I admit hadn’t really sunk in before (I am not the green-fingered type). In fact more than once I have gone to buy some herb or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Belsazar: vermouth with a Teutonic twist?
After my pronouncement last year that new vermouths were as rare as hen’s teeth, they seem to be coming thick and fast. Vermouths are primordial cocktail ingredients so, with the Second Golden Age of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More on Moussec (and a Prohibition secret?)
It’s been almost five years since I posted about Moussec, yet it still seems to be attracting interest. I only dimly remember the product when it was available, but some older readers have fond...
View Article