What are you drinking right now?

[oettinger]

Appetizer beers and vodka

[Dear Booze]

Started the night with Crown & Soda. Switched to Captain & Coke at about 6 PM. Switched to Guinness at 9:30. Now switching back to Crown & Soda. Got an early morning, so I better get busy.

[Palinka (RIP)]

It is early morning, here; so vodka shots with liquid demerol.

[Bur]

Coffee, but in less than 10 hours glorious charge towards oblivion will begin. Given other people involved in this even have around 2 days of getting sloshed under their belt already I will have to put on my a-game to catch up.

[Patchez]

Coffee. I have to stay awake to pick up some last minute items for the opener of Trout Season on Saturday morning. Then a 12 hour shift starting a 6 pm. From works parking lot directly to my cabin then the stream, with some flasked up rye 'shine, and bliss, baby.

[Lush City]

Quite a day of posts. Let me wrap this up PDT. Buffalo Trace shots and Longboard Lager chasers... Surf's up down me gullet me pirate mateys Har har ha...

[mistah willies]

Trace.


Damn fine choice.


Been doing the gin and tonic thing. About ready to check out another way to enjoy gin. Maybe not with juice, but something classier.

[Palinka (RIP)]

...About ready to check out another way to enjoy gin. Maybe not with juice, but something classier.

Sounds like it's time for you to start easy, with a "Gimlet" - gin, stirred in ice until it's nice and cold, then strained into fresh lime juice. The classy way to have "gin'n'juice". Check out the opening pages of "The Long Goodbye" by the inestimable Raymond Chandler, for an alternative recipe, and to read just how fucking cool a "Gimlet" truly is!

Once you have mastered the "Gimlet", it will be time to go for the undisputed King of the Cocktails, the "Martini" or it's slightly less well knowm variant, the "Gibson".

There are a great many varieties of recipes for the "Martini", both within and without these forums. So, I shall not add to them by writing another, here. The "Gibson", is, in fact, made exactly the same way as a "Martini" (use your own, favourite recipe) but instead of placing a twisting of zest or olives (I favour green "queen" olives that have been stuffed with anchovies - do try them, they really add an extra kick to whichever Martini recipe you have used to prepare your cocktail), small "silverskin" pickled onions are used.
However, being a bone-deep non-conformist, I have always like to add to my Martini, two green, anchovy stuffed, "queen" olives, with a single "silverskin" pickled onion between them. Do try it, then experiment and find your own perfect recipe but don't forget to get a cocktail shaker, with an in-built strainer (there is a great deal of argument about stirring vs. shaking - try both and see which best suitsyour palate); proper Martini glasses (see fig.a.), for this drink, the correct glass is essential; the correct ingredients (London Gin is dry, Plymouth Gin is not and Bombay Gin has various herbal infusions within its make-up), I favour a Scottish Gin (see fig.b.). A similar variety of choices will face you when you are selecting a vermouth; I favour the dry version made by Noilly Prat; last, but most certainly a very long way away from least, your lemons or limes or your olives and onions - do not skimp on these, it will spoil your enjoyment - for the lemons and/or limes, go to a proper fruiter and seek advice (you will require firm lemons, for zesting or soft, succulent and very ripe limes for juicing), likewise with the olives and pickled onions, go to a proper delicatessen (not a sandwich shop that masquerades as one) get some ordinary, pimento stuffed olives (for taste comparison), some of those wonderful anchovy stuffed olives (as I mentioned earlier), and proper pickled "silverskin" onions - accept no substitute for these, they must be silverskins and no smaller than a dime, a Euro ten cent coin, a British penny and no larger than a nickel, a one Euro coin, British one pound coin.
Now take your goodies home and try a few different recipes and combination of twists of zest, olives and silverskins until you find the one that best suits your palate, make a note of it, and then mix yourself a pitcher of it, find a good place to sit, arrange your entertainment of choice (TV, radio, CD, DVD, book, magazine, newspaper, own thoughts etc.) and relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour.


Fig.a)


Fig.b)



Fig.c)

[mistah willies]

Out-fucking-standing, good Doctor, and advice which will be heeded when the time has come.


You've deduced my strategy, well done. You see, it was indeed during and following a certain game of chess that lovely Miss Gin was lost to me, due to the effect of over-imbibing. That's like the body's sort of learned aversion to a food that makes one ill, correct? Learning with one lesson, so to speak.

With that came about thirty years or so of never kissing her again. I've always been more of a shooter, less so an explorer of the infinite varieties of combinations, concoctions, and confections that avail the curious Drunkard.

Of course, there are some mixed drinks that are on my go to list, be they ones that taste like chocolate cake, (Jameson's and Baileys dunked in a half glass of Guinness and downed) and the high caloric dessert known as the pina colada, to name a few. But for draaanking, mainly straight liquor, for there are flavors that originate from their creation that one must enjoy naked. Well, the liquid that is. Or both the drinker and the drink, if that is how one floats their goat.

But the almighty Martini remained out of reach. Because I was a young punk bastard who had enough scratch to buy only cheap booze, and never enough for fixings, and due to that fucking chess game,

well,

I have never tasted a Martini.

Ever.


So, due to Sir Patchez's brave and brazen announcement that he was going to delve into the forbidden land of drinks lost from early on, his description of his intention of reclaiming the taste for gin inspired me to give it a go as well.


My strategy, which you, good Doctor immediately uncovered and advised upon, was to first become re-acquainted with gin and hopefully the door would open a crack.

All these thirty years, I've watched folks in their tuxedos and fine gowns from outside of a window, in the rain, clutching my bottle of rum and then trudging off back to under-the-bridge.

I will walk around the fire, gradually coming in closer to the warmth, and then one day, soon, I will dance next to it.


So thank you to the Hursuit Man, and to you, Dr. P, both of you for your inspiration and guidance.

Thirty years is a very long time to wait for a dance with lovely miss Gin.

Too damn long.

[nic the chick]

dirty beefeater martini with bleu cheese sutffed olives.

[Lush City]

Sapphire martinis with various pilsner beer chasers. Ran out of cocktail olives but found quartered artichoke hearts in a can. Saved the day. Just be sure to rinse them because they are packed in funky preservatives. This is the most appetizing drink to get you ready before dinner.

[EuroSlave]

Cleanskin Pinot Gris with a toasted cheese

[oettinger]

It`s too damn warm outside, doesn`t fit my usual bloody mary. Ice cold g and t. Got a shitload of frozen redcurrant from my mother, might mix them with cold vodka and syrup in the blender, cooler heads prevailed and stuff

[The Goat]

broker's martini with a bleu cheese stuffed olive

[Smatter Noguts]

Coffee. I have to stay awake to pick up some last minute items for the opener of Trout Season on Saturday morning. Then a 12 hour shift starting a 6 pm. From works parking lot directly to my cabin then the stream, with some flasked up rye 'shine, and bliss, baby.

THIS!

Unfortunatly I have to wait for the last Saturday in April to do the exact same thing.

I hope the weather worked and the keystone streams were wonderful.