We have officially given George Clooney far, far too much money. Society in general, but also my wife and I in particular. I bought the silver stuff for my former landlords as a ‘thanks for 5 years gift’ (they were awesome), and they raved about it. So naturally I did the insane thing and bought the much more expensive version in the smokey bottle because it looks cool. It’s really, really easy to drink… Except that the smokey bottle isn’t just decorative - the dang tequila is smoked as well, and doesn’t go with most cocktails that I like to make. I put it in hot chocolate or just take it neat.
Christmas came, and I was insane again and bought the non-smoked version. It’s exactly what I wanted in the first place - goes great with fresh fruit, but you can just drink it no problem. The price sucks, though. Unlikely to get it again unless cheaper tequilas are all undrinkable.
Have I got bad news for you! Based on my extensive testing* tequila is entirely unpalatable. Only thing worse is cheaper vodka apparently made from milk whey.
* comprising two of my friends cheap-as-sin bottles, as a student. Your pallet hopefully varies.
More seriously, I didn’t know smoked tequila was a thing. I’ll have to keep an eye out in the future.
And contributing to the topic, I tried good burbon for the first time last night. Four Roses and eagle rare (I think?). Pretty good, very sweet compared to my preference. Four roses was my pick with layers of spices. Eagle Rare was like drinking chocolate truffles but with less truffle and more corn syrup.
After last night’s announcement of the schools closing, I’m drinking… Everything!
My lime tree has been producing a glut of limes that my sister and I don’t have enough friends to give them all away to. So we have been forced to drink margaritas on a fairly tight rotation. I have been making them using my rum-based cumquat liqueur for the triple sec.
This evening, just to make sure, I made the second batch using the standard Cointreau. We had to had another round with cumquat rum to be certain, but my sister and I are agreed that margaritas are more to our taste when made with Brett’s Cumquat Rum. Cointreau carries too much, and overwhelms the tequila.
Margarita: 5 parts tequila, 2 parts Brett’s cumquat rum, 2 parts fresh lime juice. Shake with ice until very cold, strain into two glasses rimmed with salt.
We all must make sacrifices; truly yours is a great one.
White port spritzers with mint.
IPA.
Hazy “Barnstaple Castle” IPA
40 year old Graham’s port
Nice. Love port.
White port as a long drink is refreshing and pleasant.
Drank it on the Douro in Porto, outside the cellars, so it takes me back.
Interesting. I’ve only ever had it straight. Wht do you mix it with? Soda?
Mineral water, soda water would work.
Ice, sprig of mint.
1 port to 2 water.
that sounds delicious… so you make the syrup yourself?
we had an online whisky tasting last night. a friend picked up the whisky for us and brought it over. my partner was on the zoom meeting… i just had 4 half drams (4 full drams would have been way too much these days…) and played DSP. sadly whisky #5 was ruined. the organizer said when he opened the bottle it smelled really bad already. I tasted a sip and it was horrible. my favorite was the first actually (left most). none of these were peated in any way.
DSP? Wassat then?
Dyson Sphere Program… computer game about logistics and bit of exploration
My friends and I have found Bunnahabhain (aka “the bunny” for folks in the southern US) to be quite reliable.
For a friend’s bachelor party I picked up a 40 year old Bunnahabhain (1968) and it was the best whisky I have ever had. Was worth every penny.
Yes, that’s easy enough, and my sister and I have somehow accumulated more saffron than we will ever use otherwise. (She puts it in paell on the rare occasions she makes that; I never use it.)
This is a trial run for dinner on Saturday, in which the main course will be spatchcocks Everest, saag, and naan. I’m working on something to serve with bhaji as an entrée, and I’m also thinking of saffron & cardamom syrup instead of lime & ginger with the lemon-myrtle bavarois I will make for dessert.
Happy birthday- me next month for the half century!
The sludge of a dropped HobNob in my coffee… 