Looking forward to the Duty Free - amongst other things!

This is likely to be the last you hear from me for a couple of weeks. I got married at the end of August, but of course I fully intend to tell you all about it later, so keep an eye out for it.

After the wedding of course, comes the honeymoon. My wife and I will be spending ten days driving around the beautiful island of Ibiza. Aside from all the usual things people look forward to about their honeymoons, I am also particular excited about hitting the booze shops and the duty free – though of course I’m aware that ‘duty free’ doesn’t really exist within the European Union anymore.

I have learned from 101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die – a book Brenda bought me that I’ll provide a full report on in due course – that Duty Free isn’t just a place to pick up slightly cheaper litre bottles of standard supermarket fare. Sure, I’ve seen the presentation boxes of Johnny Walker Blue Label selling for hundreds of pounds, but what I didn’t realise was that there are some whiskies that are most commonly found, or only available in Duty Free. With that in mind, I have been saving a small fund for buying a special bottle of whisky on my return. I’ve saved £50, and I think I’ll be prepared to add a further £30 to that if necessary. That should buy something pretty special.

I know £50 doesn’t sound like a lot for a working guy to save, but be reasonable! Yes, I could afford to spend £100 on a bottle of whisky if I wanted, but you have to maintain some perspective – that would probably the first step towards the end of my marriage. It’s only 70cl of whisky, and if it’s good, I would drink it in a month or less. I don’t know how people justify spending large sums on single bottles of booze, but I can’t reconcile those sums with what you’re actually getting and with the expenses and responsibilities you have in every day life. £100 can buy lots of other things. Therefore my solution is to slowly save a fund that isn’t ever intended to buy anything else. Then, eventually I can buy a special (expensive) bottle of booze, guilt-free.

Some Duty Free shops are obviously better than others, and I can’t recall what the one at Ibiza airport is like, but I’m looking forward to having a good root around. It will be the first time I’ve gone Duty Free shopping with a budget to spend – usually it’s the end of the holiday and you might have a few euros left, but nothing’s as cheap as you’d like it to be.

My primary target is to be the Highland Park 21 years old. It is exclusive to Duty Free, is described in the book as the best of all the Highland Park expressions ( I did enjoy the 12 year old), and is an impressive 47.5% ABV - if you can get the right one. Supposedly it was produced at 40% for a bit, but should be available at the full 47.5% again by now.

If they don’t have the full strength version, I’ve got back ups. There’s the Dewar’s 12 Year Old and Cutty Sark, which aren’t exclusive to Duty Free, but apparently aren’t so easy to find in shops in the UK. If there’s nothing on my shortlist available, I’ll just take a chance. I’m sure I’ll be able to find something to get excited about. Just don’t drop it.

Outside of Duty Free, there’s the prospect of picking up some nice Spanish stuff. You never really know what of the local booze is going to be available in Duty Free, so I’m thinking of hitting the shops around the island and getting perhaps something for drinking during the holiday, and some things to bring back. It would be nice to get another bottle of Licor 43 or Cardinal Mendoza brandy, or maybe something else entirely.

Being a fan of grappa, I’d be interested in picking up some orujo, which is similar, I’ve read. Then there’s the Hierbas Ibicencas, which is an aniseedy drink that comes with twigs in the bottle. Brenda brought  a bottle of that back for me last time she went, and I wouldn’t mind getting another one.

Outside of booze, it might be time to get another football shirt, too. I’m just not sure my budget will stretch that far - £50 on booze or £50 on a football shirt? I’m starting to lean towards the booze.

Of course, booze is only a small part of the honeymoon experience. I’m very much looking forward to spending all my time with Brenda, lazing on beaches, eating in restaurants and doing all the things newlyweds do - whatever they are…

Sooo… I’ll see you on my return, hopefully with a nice tan and plenty of stories. Try not to miss me too much.

Has anyone ever invented a cocktail?

Having made quite a few different cocktails over the last couple of years, I had started to wonder how people came to create them – proper ones, nice ones like you get in cocktail books, not the ones where people just bung whatever they’ve got into a glass.

The first obstacle seemed to be possession of enough alcohol that one could wilfully waste it by throwing it into random concoctions that could well turn out to be undrinkable. It stands to reason then, that most cocktails are probably invented in bars, by people with access to alcohol they don’t have to pay for.

Luckily for me, for the last few months possession of enough alcohol has not been a problem. I have some bottles that I don’t want to waste, but there’s plenty there that’s available for experimentation. I just needed a place to start.

I decided to ask my friends whether any of them had invented a cocktail. One or two had (I’ll give you the recipes at the bottom of the article), including one my friends Paul and Victoria invented called the Gateaux Blaster (along with a number of variations that I’m not going to get into here – you can post your variations in the comments if you like, Paul). The flavours are similar to those of a black forest gateau in liquid form, so they neatly led to the memorable name. Their inspiration came from trying a Lumumba (chocolate milk, brandy and banana liqueur), and thinking it needed improvement. Some cocktails do need improvement, don’t they?

That’s a picture of the Gateaux Blaster.

The name of my friend Kathleen’s creation, The Blue Diamond came from the colour of the concoction and the shape it takes on in a martini glass. She has promised to submit a short piece about the creation of that one at some point, so keep an eye out for that.

So, I thought if I was going to write a blog about booze, then I was going to have to take advantage of my privileged alcohol collection and make my own cocktail too. I figured the best way to go about it would be to come up with a theme, and then to make a plan. Hopefully I could decide on flavours based on that theme, and the name would stem from that – because it has to have a cool name.

I’m from Yorkshire, so naturally the first theme that popped into my head was a Yorkshire cocktail. A bit of internet research showed that this wasn’t a particularly original idea, given that there was already a Yorkshire Cocktail Competition, but still, it was a starting point. The only problem was that it was February, and a vital ingredient wasn’t yet in season.

So I didn’t invent that one straight away.

Instead I accidentally invented a different cocktail. Back in July last year, I returned from a holiday in Spain with most of a bottle of Cuarenta Y Tres, or Licor 43. It’s a bizarre yellow liqueur, made from 43 different herbs and spices, with an alcohol content of 31% - so quite strong for a liqueur.  You can read a little more about it in my Booze Tourism - Spain post. 

I found it too sweet to drink neat or over ice, but it made a perfect mixer. Adding it to a glass of lemonade or cola resulted in a satisfying twist to the flavour. It almost made cola taste like that vanilla Coke that you could get for a while and that I accidentally bought two bottles of once because it was 2 for the price of 1. Don’t let that put you off; it’s much better. It soon became a go-to for when I wanted a long alcoholic drink, but didn’t want a beer or cider.

So it came to pass that one Saturday I returned from 9 holes of golf played in cold, blustery Stockport, needing a bit of alcoholic refreshment that I hit upon the idea for my cocktail. 

Above is a picture of it, and here’s the recipe:

2 measures Licor 43

2 measures dark rum

1 measure Lime juice

Cola to top up

Method:

Pour the licor 43, rum and lime juice into a glass (doesn’t matter which type, I like the one pictured), over ice. Top up with cola; stir vigorously.

For the rum, I’ve been using Lamb’s Navy Rum, which was on a special offer at Tesco recently. I like it neat or over ice, and it has quite a different taste to some of the other dark rums that are at the lower end of the price spectrum. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is yet, but it’s a little – shall we say – rough. And I like that. If you’re going to call it navy rum, you need the flavour to evoke images of a hard life on the seas, with pirates and scurvy and all that. Use any dark rum, though. It all makes for interesting variations.

Now, I haven’t gone the whole hog yet. I haven’t specified what glass this drink should be served in (the ones I use at home for whisky are suitable, though I know whisky enthusiasts will tell you this is the completely wrong kind of glass for whisky), but I have come up with a name: the Straw Donkey. Refer to my earlier booze tourism post for a clue as to why.

Unfortunately, I am almost out of Licor 43. I estimate there is enough left in the bottle to make one more cocktail, so that’ll be it until I can get hold of another bottle. There won’t be another Spanish golf holiday for me this year due to wedding plans and monetary austerity, but maybe I can persuade Chris and John to fetch another bottle of Licor 43 back for me…

Hopefully I’ll go on to invent many more cocktails, and if I do, I’ll be sure to put them up here for you. In the meantime, here are the recipes to a couple of cocktails my friends created. If you’ve ever invented one, please post it in the comments.

Gateaux Blaster – brandy, kirsch and chocolate milk, quantities (and method) unspecified

The Blue Diamond - a martini style cocktail consisting of equal measures vodka, melon liqueur, blue curacao and raspberry sour liqueur. It also has a splash of 'pure mineral water' (sparkling if you feel fancy). 

Simple Drinks

Now, I know that last week I promised to bring you a report on the Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival, and to give you my definitive opinion on combinations of beer and chocolate, but I’m afraid Brenda hasn’t been able to send me the photos from the event yet, so rather than make you do without, I’m just postponing it for a bit. Instead, here’s part one of an entirely new feature on simple alcoholic drinks. Enjoy.

Part 1

Until recently I harboured a strong preference for keeping my alcohol and soft drinks separate – unless I was making a full blown cocktail. I like the flavour of my strong liquors, and I hadn’t previously seen the merit in adulterating them with soft drinks. Similarly, if I was simply thirsty, a soft drink would do on its own.

However, sometimes you might want a long, refreshing alcoholic drink or you might have a bottle of something that isn’t nice enough to drink on its own. Or you might be feeling lazy, and not have the patience to fanny about making a cocktail – sometimes cocktails are like having to cook every time you want a drink. Drinking shouldn’t be like cooking - though it doesn’t hurt if it is an accompaniment to cooking.

The solution is a drink comprised of two ingredients that you can just throw together without too much care or accuracy. I’ve been experimenting a little in this field recently, and I’d like to tell you about some simple combinations. Some of these are standard drinks that I’ve heard of before, and some are ones that (as far as I know) I’ve invented. Give them a try and let me know what you think. If you’ve pioneered any simple drinks of your own, I’d love to hear about them.

Grapefruit juice and brandy – I’ve been making this with 103 Brandy de Jerez. Brenda brought it back from Ibiza a good few years ago, and it’s been sitting atop our kitchen cupboard ever since. Occasionally it has made it into my hip flask for nights out (I think I took a little to Malaysia, actually) but despite liking brandy, I’ve always found the aftertaste of this one a little too bitter.

I decided to pair it up with grapefruit juice because I’m often left with more than half a carton after I’ve had a cocktail night. There aren’t as many cocktails made with grapefruit juice as you might think, and it isn’t the most drinkable juice around – though it is essential for the excellent Havana Zombie (according to some recipes, but not to others). For whatever reason, this marriage works a treat. The brandy takes the sour edge off of the grapefruit juice very nicely. Quantities aren’t that important. I tend to fill a glass with the juice (over ice), but leave enough room for a couple of measures of brandy.

Whisky Mac (whisky and ginger wine) – I actually got this recipe from a bottle of Church’s Green Ginger Wine that was left at my house after a party. It says ‘original recipe’ on the bottle, implying that it’s traditional, but it also says ‘bottled for Aldi stores’ so what ‘original recipe’ means, I don’t know. Anything can be an original recipe, can’t it?

I’d never had any thoughts of drinking it until someone mentioned you could drink it with whisky. When I got the bottle down from the cupboard, I found the recipe right there – you just add a splash of the ginger wine to your whisky. I’ve decided I’m not actually that keen on this one, but I’m including it anyway in case you might be. I had to throw most of a glass of this away recently as I realised if I was only going to have one drink that evening, I didn’t want to waste it on this one.

Licor 43 and coke – I’ve spoken of this one before – most notably in the Spanish booze tourism feature - and it’s actually one of my favourite simple mixes. Licor 43 is a little too sweet for my palate, but it adds a nice twist to cola.

Amaretto and coke – a nice drink in the mould of the Licor 43 and coke that I already mentioned. The almond tones provide a nice backdrop for the cola. Or perhaps it’s the coke that provides a nice backdrop for the amaretto. On the strength of this, I’m surprised coke haven’t already invented the almond coke. Pictured is the bottle of Armila that I’ve been using.

Vodka and Tonic – clearly a very famous drink, but not one I could say I’d tried until recently. I decided to invest in a cheap bottle of Indian Tonic Water from Tesco just for the purpose of trying it with Gin and with Vodka. I’m happy to report that it’s delicious. I prefer it with vodka at the moment, and have mostly been using the Russian Standard that I put in my hip flask a couple of weeks ago, and took out with me, but never actually drank. It’s very sharp and refreshing, and you can taste the vodka even if you only use one measure with a lot of tonic. Try it over ice.

So that concludes part 1. I’ll be back at some undetermined point in the future to give you some more simple drinks, so come back regularly. All right, cool.

Booze Tourism Part 2 - Spain

So it's time for part 2 of my guide to Booze Tourism, where I relate tales of buying interesting booze souvenirs from foreign lands instead of the usual gift shop tat. This time I'll be looking at Spain, where in the past you might have bought a sombrero, a Barcelona shirt or a straw donkey.

Here we go...

In July of last year I was able to spend a week in San Javier, Spain playing golf and drinking with two friends (John and Chris), and this time I’d had chance to do a little booze research before heading out. I am already the relative you buy whisky for at Christmas, but on this holiday I became the person who brings the interesting booze to the party – in my own mind, at least.

As my targets I’d identified Cardinal Mendoza Solera Grand Reserva brandy (based on recommendations from www.thewhiskyexchange.com) and Licor 43 (or Cuarenta Y Tres). I actually found both the first time we went to the proper supermarket, and bought them immediately. I say ‘immediately’, it actually took an age for the stock boy to fetch the actual bottle of brandy to the checkout – it was one of those where you pick up an empty box, and the bottle is added later. I offered to let the people queuing behind us go first, but the staff didn’t seem to be able to deal with such maverick improvisation.

Now, I don’t actually know anything about the brandy, but it sure was nice. This blog isn’t about all the tiny details relating to a bottle of booze though, so if that’s what you’re looking for I’m sorry to disappoint you, though I am happy to point you in the direction of someone that can fulfil your requirements. On this occasion, a cursory internet search hasn’t yielded any information I’d consider interesting enough to tell you about so… yeah… sorry about that.

Between the three of us we drank the whole bottle comfortably before I needed to start thinking about how to pack my clothes and golf clubs without exceeding the weight limit again. We’d booked our flights assuming that if we selected the ‘golf clubs’ option we’d have no weight limit as long as everything was in the same bag. It turned out when we arrived at the airport that we were still only allowed 20kg – the same as everyone else. What had we paid extra for? No one at Monarch seemed to know. I was looking at paying £70 extra (£10 per kg), but by wearing a few extra layers and bunging some stuff in my hand luggage I managed to get it down to £20. Of course, the first thing they did when I returned to the check-in desk was weigh my hand luggage. It was an acceptable weight; just.

I made a careful plan for the way back, came in under weight, and though John was over, the staff at the Spanish end didn’t care anyway.

Back to the liquor though; Cardinal Mendoza Solera Gran Reserva is dark and sweet, and though I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it at first, any doubts were soon allayed and it made a pleasant companion for my afternoon shower and chilling on the balcony. Here’s a moody picture of the view from our balcony. That could have been at sunrise or senset. Not sure which. Lovely.

On one of the days I drove down to Granada to see Pablo – my first time driving on the er… wrong side of the road. It sure was fun when the SatNav sent me down a slip road before telling me to ‘turn around… when possible” and then gave up altogether on entry into Granada itself. The whole town was under renovation, and the roads didn’t make any sense.

Pablo, the most cheerful guy in the world, had stayed with Brenda and I for a month as a foreign language student, and I’d figured I’d better make an effort to visit while I was a mere 3 hour drive away. When I happened to mention that I’d bought some brandy, he said that brandy is for old people. I see. I’m not sure why brandy doesn’t have a cooler reputation – it’s stronger than beer, so logically it should be more revered among the young. Young people have a respect for you if you like whisky (or so I tell myself), so you’d think that respect would extend to brandy. Perhaps the flavour of brandy is easier to like, so it doesn’t give you the hardcore edge that whisky, vodka and tequila do. If you drink vodka or tequila neat, people think you’re a nutcase.

As for the Licor 43 – a liqueur so named because it is made from a secret combination of 43 herbs and spices – I had read that it’s nice over ice, or teamed with milk, lemonade or cola. Chris and I tried it over ice first (John wasn’t so interested) and Chris noticed it has an unusual appearance. I’ve tried to show it in a picture for you, but I’m not sure you can see. It’s like the melting ice and the liqueur are unable to mix, so they snuggle up against each other like germs in a petri dish.

The flavour’s a weird one, I don’t think I can describe it. It’s very sweet, and I don’t know if I’m tasting vanilla there – everything seems to taste of vanilla if you read reviews of spirits. I took more than half a bottle back home with me, and I can confirm, it adds an interesting twist if mixed with lemonade or cola (not so keen with milk)– so far it’s probably my favourite single item for making a soft drink slightly less soft since, unlike rum or whisky, I’d rather not drink it on its own, and at 31% alcohol it provides a happy medium between your full strength spirits and your half-strength liqueurs.

You can find suggestions for cocktails to make with Licor 43 on the website (http://www.licor43.com/) – or you could last time I looked [I had a look last night, and couldn’t really find anything useful].  I tried one of the simpler ones, but the best use I’ve found for this so far is the very first cocktail I have ever invented… and I’ll be posting about that at another time.

I was close to not getting a post up at all this week, but I’ve finally made it. I can’t say I have any special booze-related plans for the weekend, though I do have an idea for another cocktail that I’m going to try to put together tonight, and there’s something else I’ve been planning to do with The Devils Breath (see earlier post) for a while.. We’ll see how those go in a later post. Have a great weekend and a happy mother’s day, and I’ll probably be back next week.

Laters!