oooooo i want that No3 gin! 3 ingredients and strong juniper! that sounds awesome!

as for the martini itself why dilute gin with vodka? man. this james bond liked to water everything down.

i think a simple gin + bitters with that #3 would the what i’d drink. in a cheaper place lol.

Always baffles me in movies or tv shows where it shows people just chugging a scotch like it's water.

I'd actually rather rim Donald Trump than drink scotch

that’s done under the influence of cocaine

seriously???

y wife, a ohnny Walker Black afficionado, HATES IT when actors in film and TV down three fingers of scotch like it is iced tea. she screams that it pulls her from the enjoyment of the scene in question.

Yeah, I know. I like that guy too, so I wouldn’t want to fuck with his shit, but he’s cool. His character reminds me of me, only if my teen acid phase had never ended.

were you also a huffer? :D

No, no. Just dropped a lot of acid for a while in my late teens and early ‘20s. I’m acrually nothing like Charlie, except we’re both very small people.

For example, I have no background in Bird law, so...

You don't really taste the vodka. It does taste slightly different though. Not better than their regular gin Martini but still a lot better than you might imagine. And that barman/bar is amazing. You instantly feel like you're in a black and white movie - albeit at iMAX prices.

^ I'd try that. Maybe. I drank a lot in high school and threw up A LOT and often, and now the smell of most liquors set me off. But that sounds tasty.

oh yeah, those old-school hotels rule! so you’ve been there eh? cool. a good hotel bar will 1000 times beat a fuckin starbucks to hang out and think.

and yeah vodka will only soften the gin taste (since gin is just flavored vodka), and as a gin lover i thought this was anathema but... i read that kina lillet was flavored with quinine (quinine is the main flavor/pharmaceutical in tonic water) and so maybe that was to bring balace to the mix? i’ve never tried kina lillet though so i can’t know. maybe some day!

my favorite gin-amaro cocktail though is the negroni: gin, campari and vermouth, i think in equal parts it was? on ice, with orange. o man o man... so tasty it’s dangerous. DANGEROUS. i liked campari better when was colored with beetlejuice though, but i’ll drink the new vegan version anyway.

A simple Campari and grapefruit is a great summer drink but fewer and fewer pubs stock Campari. It seems pretty out of fashion now.

Yeah I've been to that bar a few times. One time I was there, Helen Mirren swept in, sat beside me and ordered a Vesper. I resisted proposing marriage ... just!

i’d get so tongue-tied i’d choke on it & die on the spot

Haha you were totally gawking at her weren't you.

the scent of helen mirren made me forget this:


funny thing, amaros and italian aperitivos in general have been in the american food/drink blogs A LOT in recent times, but i’m a believer from way back when.

must be a brexit thing there or something? no idea.

here campari is internet-famous i guess, but the other amaros are the real hipster drink. what are their names... lemme see. oh yeah carpano antica, cynar, amaro nonino, etc.

///

ok apparently campari aperol etc are not amaros proper, as they’re not made with hard liquor. sorry about that. but they’re all bitter.

i dont know the technical definition but they’re all teh same idea though, made with bitter & aromatic herbs, whether it’s grain alcohol or fortified wine (vermouth), and with a range of sweetness and bitterness depending on who does what. hundreds of herbs and plants.

all this talk of aperitivo is making me hungry

eta: listen to this podcast and salivate

https://www.splendidtable.org/story/...bout-aperitivo

those ladies are swooning with yearning, which is hilarious

I did think about asking if she fancied re-enacting the bathroom scene from The Cook The Thief with me but, being a gentleman, I just gave her bum a little pinch and waited for the police to arrive.

but did she give you her number in the end?

Not unless her number's 999

oh right! thats your emergency code.

that would have been my case too due to heart attack.


but anyway been nerding out on the lillet info. looks like if you drank than up to 1986 it was the original recipe. now it’s not the same:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillet

gonna look for a bottle next time i go liquor-hunting. and that no. 3 as well.

eta: looks like the 3 is for the address, gin has 6 ingredients. it’s okay, i forgive the old man, who is a true poet and therefore invents facts

http://www.no3gin.com

—

but not for sale in my state! looks like a drive to arizona. lololol.

If I went into a supermarket in the UK and asked for a Lillet, I don't expect they'd be sending me to the drinks aisle ...

That gin is literally produced on the same street that the bar is on, so there may be a connection between the two.

Incidentally, the same barman shows how he makes a Negroni with the No.3, here ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWo4jQMnYHI