Hey, London! Let’s Have a Drink!: The 100 Pubs Project

So, what originally was going to be getting 100 people to buy me a drink in London changed to finding 100 people to just go out for a drink with. Then that changed as well to its current incarnation of 100 drinking establishments. Basically, it’s the 100 Pubs Project.

Pubs for me seem to embody much of my experiences here in London. Although not necessarily unique to the Big Smoke, pubs are quite integral in the social fabric of many Londoners (with some exceptions). When tourists come to the city, many of them feel like they have to go to an authentic pub to have that proper pub experience.

Part of the reason for this project is for me to find out about more places in London. Currently I live in Holloway, work in Islington, dork out in Bloomsbury, muck around in Hackney Downs and that’s it. Although there are fabulous pubs in these places I’ve mentioned, I would like to get out of my normal haunts and check out some other grand places I’ve seen on buses that look interesting, places that friends may recommend and take me out to, or other areas that may be famous or infamous for some reason or another.

Depending on the pounds in my pocket, I plan on going to the set-upon pub or other drinking establishment, sampling a pint or half-pint in the establishment, maybe some food if food is served, and sitting around.  Might even bring some of the mountains of reading I’m required to do for my courses at SOAS.  I’ve invited, well, anyone in London interested in sitting around with me at the pub of the moment, though I imagine a lot of these adventures will be embarked upon alone.

An excursion into the pubs of London will dovetail quite nicely with my academic interest in drinking habits of people, especially those which are part of a cultural construct. The pub, which is quite notable in British culture, is the best setting for this, along with bars for a glimpse of what the young (and those who like to think young) are doing. I’m also interested in the status/class textures woven into some of these drinking establishments. Are pubs a more egalitarian place? Are we all the same in the eyes of the bartender? Is it important to note that Biddles in Hackney doesn’t take credit or debit cards? So, yes, I’m going out to pubs and bars for research. No, really.

Want to come along? Expect the first of the hundred to be noted soon. Though not today, because I’m planning on going to the BFI tonight for Shanghai Express.  ”Planning” being the operative word, but maybe I can duck into a pub beforehand.

Do your alcohol justice

I love IZZE sodas, because, well, they’re not really soda, but “pure fruit juice & sparkling water,” so sayeth the bottle of Sparkling Apple flavour I have on my computer desk.  This evening at the store, I was tempted to get the blueberry flavour, having had it before, but I stopped and thought for a moment.

“Hmm… what would go best with gin?”

Out of all the flavours my local Whole Foods had on hand, which wasn’t the exhaustive list featured on IZZE’s site, the apple won out, although the grapefruit probably wouldn’t be that bad, either.  I’m testing out my theory right now, and it is magical.  A shot-ish of dandy Hendrick’s gin over ice, and about a little more than half of the apple IZZE creates a wonderfully clean beverage in which the natural apple flavour compliments, rather than overpowers, the gorgeous taste of the gin.  Considering my Sweet Sting concoction, IZZE should completely hire me to come up with and promote their product’s usage as a mixer.

IZZE executives, I will work for more IZZE.  And booze.

Another fantastic mixer that’s actually intended as a mixer is the Mojito mix from Stirrings.  Now, full disclosure: I was sent a bottle of it for free from Stirrings due to my improbable status as a “maven” on ThisNext, a website that centers around product recommendation, although much of it is more product lust than actual “I used this and it works/sucks” recs.

Now, because this was a mojito mix, I was a bit skeptical.  I had my very first mojito at Vertigo, a posh restaurant on the 50-odd storey rooftop of a hotel in Bangkok, and it has been the pinnacle of what I expect a mojito to be: drinkable, tasty, minty, limey and alcoholic.  Mojitos I’ve had since have been either meager stabs at mojitoness, or woeful interpretations of what a mojito is.  You need fresh lime!  You need fresh mint!  You need an adequate amount of simple syrup, don’t just dump sugar in the glass!  

Now, Stirrings’ Mojito is *not* this combination of freshness and effort.  It is a bottled mix, after all.  But honestly, if you’re not in the mood to muddle your own damn mint and boil your own simple sugar, this is the next best thing, especially when it seems that you can’t get a decent mojito in the town you live in.  It’s tasty and refreshing, with no chemical faux-mojito flavour because the ingredients are all-natural.  Since at the time of testing I lacked a shaker, I simply poured the rum (10 Cane, courtesy of Hao, although I did chip in) over ice, then added the mixer, and topped it off with LaCroix sparkling water rather than traditional club soda.  I stirred, and sipped, and it was wonderful.

For about ten bucks a pop, these bottles last for a number of drinks, and create a tasty alcoholic (or non, if you want to go virgin) beverage.  My bottle is about half-empty in the fridge, and it’s an incredibly refreshing way to combat the Florida heat and humidity, although lately we’ve actually been having our own version of fall begin; highs in the upper 80s, and lows in the low 70s down to the mid-60s!  Again, since the mix itself is non-alcoholic, you can easily mix it  with club soda or some sparkling water for a nice beverage.

The thing I like both about Stirrings’ mixers and IZZE is that their ingredients are all-natural.  There’s no high fructose corn syrup, no chemically-produced flavours to get in the way of you and your alcohol.  Hence the title of this post, “Do your alcohol justice,” as natural ingredients don’t bastardise the drinking experience, but rather enhance it and make it even more enjoyable.  Since I try to avoid high fructose corn syrup in food that I buy, why not in my drink mixers?

My new friend: Hendrick’s Gin

I recently made a new and interesting friend, and during the course of various conversation, he had told me, upon the revelation of my preference for gin, about Hendrick’s Gin, 

I had the opportunity to have a gin & tonic with Hendrick’s Gin at Matador on Pine Street a couple Fridays ago, and it was wonderful–until I realised I couldn’t possibly drink any more lest things would turn horrible, considering I had about three and a half drinks prior to my lovely gin & tonic.  I wound up passing off to my friend Shani while my friend Jack ran and got me french fries from some sports bar nearby.

The morning after was pretty painful, to say the least.  But the gin was not to blame.

After a long recovery from that Friday night (Friday the 13th, no less), I went into Total Wine over on Colonial and Primrose to pick up a bottle of rum for Stardust, as it’s an ingredient I use in some of my cupcake-making (shhh!).  Out of curiosity, I popped over to the nearby gin aisle and, lo and behold, right next to my usual choice of Bombay Sapphire was a black bottle, sitting resplendent with a diamond label: Hendrick’s Gin.  At $22, I figured it was well-worth the cost, considering a small Bombay Sapphire Dry Gin was priced at $19.

I had a little of Hendrick’s Gin last night, coupled simply with club soda, and it was divine.  The bottle is interesting not only for its design, but also because what you assume would be a screw-top is actually a cork, which makes a satisfying sound upon opening.  What makes Hendrick’s so special is the additional ingredients used to infuse the alcohol: rose petal and cucumber.  The combination is ingenious, as the product shows.  The liquid itself, due to the rose-petal infusion, looks ever-so-slightly pink.  Plus, Hendrick’s is a product of Scotland, which makes it cooler somehow.

So, should you be an individual who enjoys the taste of a good gin, I would like to suggest having a sip of an excellent brand from Scotland: Hendrick’s.  Just don’t decide to give it a whirl after you’ve already had three or four drinks.

More about Hendrick’s on the web:

• The Bottle Gang: The Myth of the Scottish Picnic
• Tanqueray vs. Hendrick’s Gin posting on Chowhound
• Liquor Snob: Hendrick’s Gin Review

When is a glass of wine not a glass of wine?

I was poking around BBC News and came across this article: Doctors slam ’supersized’ drinks.  Per the title, I had thought the article dealt with the enormous soda cups, where a “small” is a miniature bucket, like the one I bought last week at the cinema–it was huge!  I couldn’t finish it all!

Actually, the article didn’t deal with soda, but rather the increasing trend of pubs and bars in the UK of offering larger glasses as the standard size for wine, and adding more liquor into mixed drinks than previously.  In the article, it explains “[t]he 125ml wine glass used to be the standard size but now just 16% of pubs and bars say it is their normal size.  Some 73% say 175ml is the new “standard” and 250ml the large.”

On one hand, you have the industry leaders professing they’re merely offering “value,” but the article states that 250 ml is equivalent to a third of a bottle of wine, which is a large amount in one sitting on its own for me, being the One Drink Wonder.  Couple that with two or three more glasses, and you have someone drinking at least a whole bottle on their own in only a few (huge) glasses and may not even realise it, counting glasses rather than the liquid amount.

Greg Mulholland, a Liberal Democrat, is proposing a bill in the House of Commons to standardise the 125 ml as “a glass,” and to make all restaurants, bars and pubs carry the size.  In this situation, I think that the restaurants can go ahead and offer the larger sizes for their customers should they so choose, provided the customers are well-informed.  In this earlier article on the wine glasses, I like the proposal that a reader by the name of Eddie in Edinburgh proposed:

I don’t like the idea of force, or compulsion. It might be a better idea to change the labelling, so instead of 250ml, it says Approx 3 Units – assuming a reasonable norm of about 12% by volume. I’ve noticed increasingly that more alcoholic beverages purchased in shops are doing this, maybe we could extend it to all drinks in pubs – how many units are in that pint you just quaffed…

Upon reading the rest of the reader comments, it was interesting to see a good many people support the legislation, whereas many others opposed it, likening the action to be that of a “Nanny State,” and telling people to “grow up” and the government to “stop dictating us.”

I can’t help but draw similarities to the wine consumption sizing issue to that of the sizing issues we have in the United States with food.  It’s well-known that portions have gotten larger in many restaurants, especially those national and regional chains, and there have been dietitians who have pointed out that the more on the plate, the more we eat.  It may also be true for alcohol for people; I know it’s true for me when I’m unable to measure the amount of, say, beer I’m drinking because rather than the standard bottles, I’m drinking from a large 1.5 litre bottle of La Chouffe.

Although I’m unsure if a blanket decree is in order for Britain’s wine glasses, I think it would be helpful, as suggested, to indicate the amount of units a patron would be drinking, and also to provide smaller glasses for those interested in merely whetting their whistle.

A Sweet Sting

I had previously written about different beer recipes in Casey’s Concoction and Other Fun with Beer, and was intrigued by the “bee sting,” which is a mixture of dark beer and orange juice.

So, sometime after work last week, I had a little time to kill before I watched a film with the Florida Film Festival, so I scooted by Stardust and asked Alli for a half glass of ACME Pale Ale, and a Clementine Izze. For those of you unfamiliar with Izze, it’s a “sparkling juice” beverage, much like carbonated soda, but juice and really tasty. I poured half of the bottle of Clementine Izze into my half-filled glass of ACME Pale Ale, and the result was delicious! It was a light and wonderful afternoon drink that ensured I wouldn’t be incapacitated to drive later, since I only had one (or only half a beer), and it was thoroughly refreshing. Since I’m a lightweight with alcohol, I wanted to have a bit of a beer, but not enough for me to feel unable to drive to the cinema later. This drink was ideal for that.

I’ve dubbed it the “sweet sting,” and it’s sure to be a Summer ‘08 hit for me, especially since summer in Florida has already begun to seep into our fleeting springtime days. If you’d like to recreate the drink, I would suggest any type of pale ale, heifeweizen or Czech pilsner as the beer. Izze can be purchased at Whole Foods and also at some Publixes, or you can have a go at it at Stardust like I did. If you can’t find Clementine Izze, be creative, and let me know what you come up with!