No port left!
What is better than a chocolate cake? Chocolate cake with acoholic icing. This was one of two delicious birthday treats made by my mother and for this one she steeped stawberries in port and blended them up with icing sugar to make a gorgeously sloppy, sweet, fruity-boozy topping. Fresh...
The steaks were high
I make a mean steak. So when a friend suggested that he could outdo me I did the only polite thing and invited him around to cook for me. I provided the wine. As you can see from the photo he did fine job on presentation, and let me...
Liqueur de Myrte
Running low on my staple nightcaps, it was with a mixture of hope and trepidation that I withdrew a bottle of Liqueur de Myrte from the freezer. I need not have worried; the drink is delicious and does not deserve its relative obscurity. I picked up this bottle in...
A soju sojourn
On a recent trip to Koba, an excellent Korean restaurant in Bloomsbury, I tried an alcohol that had previously never passed my lips. Soju is a clear alcohol of around 20% ABV made, on this occasion, from sweet potatoes. At first sight and taste, one could think it to...
Mojito madness
The mojito has become something of a cliché in the cocktail world. Its condemnation is the epitome of petty snobbishness, stemming principally from its popularity as opposed to the quality of the concoction. Although not a favourite of mine, it is worth drinking just to parry this jejune opinion...
The Mint Julep
In these summer days there is little better than a Julep to cool off with in the afternoon. The classic is a Mint Julep, a drink with serious heritage would be the obvious choice and one I decided to go for on this occasion. Although it is recommended to...
When in Hungary…
It was impossible to spend a week in Budapest without at least sampling some of the local alcoholic eccentricities, which is what led to a number of encounters with the unique spirit, Unicum. Although Unicum can be drank as an apéritif, on this occasion I drunk it as a...
The perfect Martini
The martini is both one of the easiest and hardest cocktails to make. Gin or Vodka, lemon peel or olive, shaken or stirred; it is all rather easy. In fact, these questions turn out to be even easier than at first glance, as you should never shake a martini...