The Cocktails Must Flow

This is the Pink Gin cocktail using Plymouth Gin, not one of the fruit-flavoured pink gins which many gin distilleries now sell.

Pink gin is widely thought to have been created by members of the Royal Navy. Plymouth gin is a ‘sweet’ gin, as opposed to London gin which is ‘dry’, and was added to Angostura bitters to make the consumption of Angostura bitters more enjoyable[3] as they were used as a treatment for sea sickness in 1824 by Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert.

The Royal Navy then brought the idea for the drink to bars in England,[5] where this method of serving was first noted on the mainland. By the 1870s, gin was becoming increasingly popular and many of the finer establishments in England were serving pink gins.

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The John Collins is a classic cocktail dating back to the 1800s. It is believed to have originated with a headwaiter of that name who worked at Limmer’s Old House in Conduit Street in Mayfair, which was a popular London hotel and coffee house around 1790–1817.

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The English Garden cocktail is the perfect cocktail with which to celebrate the English garden and that most English of days; St George’s Day.

There seems to be may variations of cocktails called English Garden; this is our take.

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The Sneaky Pete is another variation of the White Russian using the spicy rye whiskey which works well alongside the coffee liqueur.

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The Mudslide is a variation of the White Russian which works well as a dessert cocktail.

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The Oxford English Dictionary refers to the first mention of White Russian in the sense of a cocktail as appearing in California’s Oakland Tribune on November 21, 1965. It was placed in the newspaper as an insert: “White Russian. 1 oz. each Southern, vodka, cream”, with “Southern” referring to Coffee Southern, a short-lived brand of coffee liqueur by Southern Comfort.

The white Russian saw a surge in popularity after the 1998 release of the film The Big Lebowski. Throughout the movie, it appears as the beverage of choice for the protagonist, Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski. On a number of occasions he refers to the drink as a “Caucasian”.

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The Black Russian cocktail first appeared in 1949 and is ascribed to Gustave Tops, a Belgian barman, who created it at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels in honor of Perle Mesta, then United States Ambassador to Luxembourg. The cocktail owes its name to the use of vodka, a typical Russian spirit, and the blackness of the coffee liqueur.

The Black Russian is a cocktail of vodka and coffee liqueur. It contains 50 ml vodka and 20 ml coffee liqueur, per IBA specified ingredients.

The drink is made by pouring the vodka and coffee liqueur over ice cubes or cracked ice in an old-fashioned glass and stirring. The Black Russian is often garnished with a lemon slice and a Luxardo maraschino cherry on a stick.

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To help you join in with the upcoming #StGeorgesDayDrinks on the 23^rd April, we’ve compiled the ingredient list in two formats:

• Separate ingredient lists for the four cocktails we’ll be making, but without quantities or the cocktail names.
• Combined the ingredients into an alphabetical list so as to not “give the game away”.

We’ve hidden the two lists behind toggles so you can choose which list you want to use; this is a new method and we’d appreciate feedback on how well you think it works.

There can be quite a few spirits used each time we do a Friday night cocktails, but the same spirits are generally used over and over again. Strong spirits like whiskey, gin, vodka and so on will last months to a year or two once opened (how long will depend on how often the bottle is opened.

Fortified wines such as dry and sweet vermouth, port and Dubonnet will keep for a few weeks before deteriorating. If stored in the fridge, dry vermouth will be good for about four weeks, sweet vermouth and Dubonnet for two months and port for up to three months.

To help you join in with the upcoming #FridayNightCocktails on the 22^nd April, we’ve compiled the ingredient list in two formats:

• Separate ingredient lists for the four cocktails we’ll be making, but without quantities or the cocktail names.
• Combined the ingredients into an alphabetical list so as to not “give the game away”.

We’ve hidden the two lists behind toggles so you can choose which list you want to use; this is a new method and we’d appreciate feedback on how well you think it works.

A burst of good weather has us thinking of some tall cocktails, but the forecast for the 22^nd isn’t so good, so we’ve gone for some more wintry cocktails.

There can be quite a few spirits used each time we do a Friday night cocktails, but the same spirits are generally used over and over again. Strong spirits like whiskey, gin, vodka and so on will last months to a year or two once opened (how long will depend on how often the bottle is opened.

Fortified wines such as dry and sweet vermouth, port and Dubonnet will keep for a few weeks before deteriorating. If stored in the fridge, dry vermouth will be good for about four weeks, sweet vermouth and Dubonnet for two months and port for up to three months.

St George’s Day, England’s Patron Saints Day, is on the 23^rd April (the religious celebration date moves around as, for the Church of England, when St. George’s Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter, the St George’s Day celebration is moved to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter).

We’ll be doing a few English cocktails to celebrate the day.

This is in addition to the #FridayNightCocktails on Friday 22^nd.