“It’s finally time. After long months walking in the park and pounding coffees in the street you can have a small number of pals over as long as they stay in the garden. Will you have a few drinks when then come by? For the first time in months? Just a couple…? Yes, you absolutely will. Here are some of the best things to serve while you to remember how to have a conversation with more than two people.”
Read on at the Spectator.
Read More“The gin and tonic is a beautiful thing. Refreshing, anti-malarial, and fixable by even the least confident home bartenders. However, malaria rates are at an all-time low in the UK and over-reliance on old favourites is a sure-fire route to monotony and disenchantment. There’s a whole wide world of ways to knock back gin so why not give the tonic water a rest and try something different when 5pm rolls around?”
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Read More“St Patrick’s Day is coming. Which means people all over the world will be repeating that thing they’ve heard about the pints being better in Dublin, claiming that they’ve read Portrait of the Artist, and championing Irish family connections through some obscure branch of the family tree.”
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Read More“As we’re all doing Valentine’s Day at home this year it’s well worth breaking out the cocktail shaker to make the occasion feel special. This selection of drinks, each more romantic than the last, should do the job nicely.”
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Read More“January 2021 looks set to be a little duller than your average. And that's before many of us take on the traditional new year’s detox. Luckily, the drinks world has upped its game significantly on the low-and-no alcohol front of late, so cutting back doesn’t mean giving up on fun. Here are some of the best options for a dry – or perhaps just a little less wet – January.”
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Read More“More than 200 venues across the capital will take part, offering events and £6 signature serves to wristband holders. During this difficult time for the hospitality industry it’s basically the duty of cocktailists everywhere to turn out and do our part so with that in mind here are the most unmissable workshops, tastings, and pop-ups to enjoy this October.”
Read the full article at Spectator Life
Read More“Last year’s rumblings that Britain had reached peak gin have been completely confounded by recent events. Though it’ll take time for accurate figures to emerge, it looks like we threw down G&Ts in record numbers this year – not to mention making our own Martinis, Negronis and Gimlets as everyone became their own bartenders during lockdown. Now that life is returning to the city and bars are reopening, it’s high time we handed cocktail duties back to the professionals.”
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Read More“In 1890, New Yorker and composer Rudolph Aronson built a beautiful garden on the roof of the Casino Theatre. He hoped to emulate the urban gardens he’d fallen for while travelling in Europe and provide open air spaces for socialising and performance. Being that prohibition was still decades away it was roughly no minutes before patrons decided the whole thing would be better with cocktails and the rooftop bar was born.”
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Read More“Not just a return to form for Guy Richie but one of the best whisky drinking films in years. The framing device for the action sees Hugh Grant’s slimy hack sneaking into criminal enforcer Charlie Hunnam’s house to engage in a bit of light blackmail in the form of narration. In doing so, Grant pilfers a bottle of whisky from Hunnam’s drinks cabinet – a 40-year-old Glenfarclasdistilled in 1976, to be precise. If you happen to have a bottle of that lying around then, well, have fun with that. To drink along with the Gentlemen the rest of us can make do with the benchmark Glenfarclas 15yo; an excellent dram in its own right.”
Read the whole article at Spectator Life
Read MoreIt might seem frivolous to break out the shaker in the current circumstances but we shouldn’t underestimate the morale boost that comes with a well-timed cocktail. This is why people all over the world are hosting virtual happy hours with friends and family to prove that lockdown doesn’t have to mean isolation.
Read More“Talk to people outside Ireland about Irish whiskey and they’ll probably tell you it’s all about light, easy, triple distilled spirits. Prop up the bar at Dingle on Dublin’s Nassau street for a few hours and you’ll learn just how broad and varied Irish whiskey is. The sheer number of styles on offer speaks to the richness of Irish distilling culture that’s so often overlooked.”
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Read More“James Bond’s most impressive superpower is not his prowess as a spy or his skills of seduction, it’s his ability to always get exactly what he wants at the bar. In the 1954 novel Live and Let Die, while on a train to meet his CIA opposite number Felix Leiter, he orders a round of Old Fashioneds. Not only does the buffet car make them for him, but they even have his preferred brand of Bourbon, Old Grandad. You try pulling that sort of thing on the LNER from Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverly. ‘Sorry Solitaire, they wouldn’t do us a cocktail but I’ve got a tin of strong lager and a cheese and pickle sandwich on the meal deal.”
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Read More“Gin sales in the UK are expected to pass 100 million bottles by mid-2020 as the nation remains mad on juniper and citrus. The gin shelf has become so crowded that it can be difficult to spot the real gems among the bandwagoners and the marketing fluff. But even in this brave new world with hundreds of brands to choose from there are quality producers still innovating, refining, and rethinking this centuries old spirit.”
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Read More‘The Great British night out has changed. Londoners thirsty for novelty are looking to a new wave of venues that offer competition with their cocktails. Think beyond the local pub with its pre-smoking-ban dartboard and decimated Scrabble. These bars with games are there to get our adrenaline flowing and even tug on our nostalgic heartstrings. They’re also perfect for getting the conversation flowing between you and Susan from HR on your office outing and airing friendly rivalries in what starts out as a healthy way…’
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Read More“A new wave of bars, distilleries, brands, and drinkers are cementing this as the botanical spirit capital of the world. Here are the London spots every gin lover should visit.
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