posted by Harvey on May 31
After we wrote about the Stockport Beer Festival two days ago, today we found a testimonial from someone who followed our tip - although not having read it from our post by all accounts. Seems we were right - ask for a pint glass and buy half pints and you will get more beer for your money.
The testimonial also seems to prove our point in our article yesterday about ‘why do we do it?’… We trust Mr Daz enjoyed his hangover, it sounds well earned.
Now, I have my own hangover to consider and so I shall retire to the sofa and consider what cocktail concoctions to write about next week 
posted by Arty on May 30
Why do people drink alcohol?
It’s bad for us, it’s a waste of money, damages our liver, makes us throw up (sometimes anyway, dependent upon volume obviously) and many people turn into loud monsters when they’ve had a few.
Across Europe, many countries do not drink as the Brits do. We compete with each other about how much we can drink, we measure our friends on how long they can last on a night out and even have drinking competitions. We even consider University an education of drinking and have places called ‘beer gardens’. Where did this culture come from?
And yet we love it, and as the weekend approaches yet again, we rejoice and head to the pub for after-work drinkie with work colleagues followed by late drinks with friends and a hangover Sunday. Hurrah…
posted by Harvey on May 29
Today, I am reliably informed, starts the Stockport Beer Festival, full of beer, naturally
For beer lovers, beer festivals are heavenly. Tonight, men (and women) from miles around will gather to savour the taste of ale.
The question is, should you start with the high percentage beers whilst you can enjoy the taste and get drink quicker or should you start with the lower percentage beers and work your way up so you can last longer but not enjoy the taste as much? ‘Tis a tough choice
Top tip for those of you heading that way: apparently you should ask for a pint glass and buy drinks in half pints because you will get more beer for your money. Aha!
posted by JD on May 26
You can buy an all in one shaker but professionals prefer a two cone shaker, where the two pieces overlap when put together and they then use a separate strainer to strain the drink.
If you’re a beginner, a three piece shaker should do.
To use a shaker, add the ice and cocktail ingredients, hold the pieces together and shake briskly. When your shaker gets frosty on the outside, you know its sufficiently chilled.
Serve immediately to avoid any melting ice diluting the drink.
posted by JD on May 24
If you have the right equipment, preparing a cocktail is easy. Here’s a list of what you need and we’ll look at each in detail later:
- Cocktail shaker (of course!)
- Lots of ice
- Strainer
- Lots of ice
- Mixing glass/pitcher
- Lots of ice
- Jigger
- More ice
- Blender
- Did I mention you need lots of ice?
There are plenty of other items you might want to add as you go along, such as different types of glasses for different cocktails, cocktail sticks, straws, stirrers, crushers, long handled spoons, etc but this is the basic list
posted by Arty on May 21
Here is a list of the types of glasses available and which you might wish to add to your home cocktail bar:
- Cocktail/Martini glass - the traditional glass for cocktails and martinis
- Wine glass - traditionally white wine glasses are smaller with a longer stem
- Liqueur glass - small glass for small measures (not really needed in my house!)
- Highball or tall glass - tall, straight sided glass for drinks with lemonade or fruit juice in them
- Goblet - vary in size and shape, used for tall drinks with lots of ice like the Mai Tai cocktail
- Champagne glass - tall fluted glass with tall stem for, funnily enough, champagne
- Tumbler - short tumbler with straight or sloping sides for plain fruit juice, or whiskey based drinks
- Tulip glass - shaped like a tulip, often for champagne drinks
- Brandy snifter - designed to trap for fragrance of brandy in the glass, short glass with a lip at the top
After reading all that, I feel a thirst coming on…
posted by Harvey on May 19
How could I not write about my namesake?
Get the ingredients out:
1 part vodka
1 part Galliano
orange juice
slice of orange
Pour vodka and galliano into a glass. Top up with orange juice. Garnish and serve. Hurrah!
posted by Harvey on May 16
Here are the ingredients for a tequila sunrise:
1 part tequila
4 parts orange juice
2 dashes of Grenadine (the red stuff!)
slice of orange
1 cherry (if you like that sort of thing)
ice cubes
Put ice in a glass - normally a highball one, but hey, who’s fussy? - pour in the tequila, pour in the orange juice, add the grenadine and garnish as you wish.
Pour them in carefully to achieve the sunset effect - then stir before you drink or you’ll get pure tequila…
posted by JD on May 15
Here’s one you might not have heard of. Nice name, not my cup of tea, but those who like it seem to like it a lot and that’s good enough for me.
Ingredients:
1 part light run
1 part melon liqueur
1 part vodka
cracked and cubed ice (or any ice, who cares?)
lemonade
garnish - watermelon / cherry
Combine rum, liqueur, vodka and cracked ice in shaked. Shake. Pour into glass (goblets seem to be the things for this one). Add cubed ice and top up with lemonade. Garnish and serve. Ta da!
posted by Arty on May 12
More for cocktails, here is a list of the most popular flavour toppings:
Nutmeg - idealy for creamy or milky drinks. Grate the nutmeg using a fine grater and sprinkle carefully. Don’t grate over the drink or it may not be even and you’ll end up with too much. Needs to be freshly grated to keep the flavour
Cinnamon - serve as whole sticks with mulled wine or egg nog and it can also be used as a stirrer. Or you can grate it and sprinkle over the top
Coffee - ideal with coffee flavoured drinks (funnily enough!) You could use instant coffee but ideally grate a fresh coffee bean or two in a grinder
Chocolate - saving the best til last! Grate using a coarse grater or serve chocolate sticks with sweet, thick drinks that can support them. Or use twirls of chocolate on top of whipped cream. To make a twirl of chocolate, pull the blade of a sharp knife or vegetable peeler across a block of slightly warmed chocolate and the chocolate will curl. Nice!
Oh, I wish I was sat outside with a nice cocktail now…