Seriously, I'm confused. One week, hangovers are basically incurable. The next week, of course they're not. This week, they might be, but only using an exciting new supermolecule designed for removing specific toxins from the bloodstream. Decide, people! I've only come across two effective methods of dealing with hangovers: 1) sleep for three days, or 2) keep drinking.
It seems that I thought it would be a good idea to post a new cocktail recipe every week through 2009, which is what happens when you leave me in a room with a bottle of 10 Cane. So, without any further ado, I present the first of the fifty-two. 2009 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, a man who would, over 37 short years, come to embody Scottish literature. Moving between rural Ayrshire and Edinburgh high society, Burns became a major celebrity - his intemperate ways helped him to premature aging and an early grave which is about as rock'n'roll as you can get before Rolls Royces and swimming pools were invented.
Every year, Scots celebrate January 25th the same way - with a dinner for Burns Night. There are toasts to the poet's immortal memory, the Selkirk Grace, even an address to a haggis. In addition to the traditional celebration, the Scottish Government has launched Homecoming 2009, a series of events aimed at attracting people with Scottish ancestry to visit the country. The fun kicks off on Burns night and, over the course of the year, will cover events like the Edinburgh International Festival, the Heineken Cup Final and the Royal Highland Show. One thing that isn't included in the calendar is, of course, anything cocktail-related.
See that? Smooth.
There are a decent clutch of contenders for a Burns night cocktail. You could go for a Rob Roy, or a Whisky Mac or Rusty Nail could be in with a shout. Then again, there's always the Bobby Burns, detailed in the Savoy Cocktail Book, a blend of Scotch, sweet vermouth and Benedictine. It's a good starting place and a great drink, so I haven't made any huge changes to it. The major change is that I decided to use Drambuie instead of Benedictine, mainly because it's Scottish and it fits the idea of the drink. There's a bonus given that as a whisky-based liqueur, it blends well with pretty much any Scotch as well as bringing a bunch of interesting floral and spicy flavours. On top of that, I decided to push the boat out and use a single malt for the whisky. I had wanted to use Auchentoshan - a Lowland malt - purely because it's made closer to where Burns grew up than most others, but it's also triple-distilled and unpeated and didn't come through against the Drambuie. In the end, I went for a 12 year-old Bowmore, kinda smoky and a bit peaty, but nowhere near as full on as some other Islay malts. Finally, I lobbed in a couple of dashes of Fee Brothers Peach Bitters. It's not a hugely exciting recipe, but it is a tasty drink and at least it's a start.
Only fifty-one to go...
Homecoming Cocktail
40ml blended Scotch Whisky (I used Johnnie Walker Black Label)
15ml Drambuie
25ml sweet vermouth (Martini Rosso)
2 dashes Peach Bitters
Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled Rocks glass. Garnish with an orange zest twist. It doesn't have to be as mental as the one in the photo.
Gin is not dead. Hope I didn't spoil the plot or anything, but I had some last night and it was quite tasty. Very herby. And junipery. In fact, you could argue that, with the recent births of a number of high quality US gins and the global relaunch of Bols Genever, that gin has never been in better health.
But I'm not one for arguing, and anyway, of course it has. Patrick Dillon's book is concerned with the period of time known as the Gin Craze, the mania that accompanied London's fixation with cheap spirits in the 18th Century. In 1743, the stills of the capital produced 2.2 gallons of the stuff for every man, woman and child in the city, which still wasn't enough for Judith Defour, who left her child naked in a field while selling her clothes in order to buy more gin. Such excess couldn't be tolerated and Dillon tells of the attempts to bring Madam Geneva to heel.
Of course, not all of those attempts were intended as a moral cleanser. The First Gin Act of 1729 is weighed against Robert Walpole's search for "enough cash to buy off a king" while the Act that actually worked was not one of prohibition, but one that would allow the Government to incrementally raise the revenue it gained from spirit production. Dillon provides a useful chronicle of how societies deal with new drugs: first there is wild consumption set against staunch moral outrage, followed by prohibition and widespread lawlessness, and finally, the intervention of central government once a potential revenue stream is identified. This is how drugs move from illicit through illegal into acceptability.
Dillon gives his tales of debauchery and heavy-handed sermonising a wonderful sense of place in the growing metropolis. Even with its splintered boroughs and conflicting laws, London itself almost seems a character in a cast that includes Daniel Defoe, Dick Turpin and the lawman Thomas De Veil amongst a milieu of prime ministers, kings and ambitious clergymen.
The Much Lamented Death of Madam Geneva is a fantastic book, accessible yet packed with detail. For anyone interested in the history of spirits, it shows how the industry has moved from Hogarth's Gin Lane to something looking a lot nearer Beer Street.
Gin: The Much Lamented Death of Madam Geneva (Amazon.co.uk) The Much Lamented Death of Madam Geneva (Andrew Lownie Literary Agency)
A little later than usual, perhaps, but it's 2009 - a brave new world of almost exactly the same stuff as in 2008. Excited?
(Edinburgh 2009 New Year Fireworks by Scala64. happy new year 2009 from lulugaia's Flickr photostream, displayed under a Creative Commons licence.)
There's a growing number of notable mixologists who aren't professional bartenders. While I'm lucky enough to have access to a well-stocked, well-equipped cocktail bar at work, that isn't necessarily an option for the enthusiast. Handily, the internet has answers to the questions you haven't even asked yet.