Quinquinas. These under-appreciated, herbal, bitter wine-based drinks might seem a little dowdy, but they pack a lot of flavour. Oh, and they are downright delicious when mixed, like in this Dubonnet Cocktail.
Tag: Gin
Definitely a book for the gin buff, rather than just a pleasure read and let’s face it, Gin has a juicy past, with lots of little gems to help spice up your bar banter. Gin has been a drink of kings infused with crushed pearls and a drink of the poor flavored with turpentine and sulfuric acid.
Go through a door emblazoned with vinyl records and down into the basement of 73 York Street and you’ll find a record store and this cracking bar. Records line the wall, red covers the banquettes and the team behind the bar are some of the rockingest bartenders around.
Not long ago a couple of cracking gins appeared on the market; lo and behold they were Australian. The West Winds gins caught the fancy of juniper-prone bartenders across the country (their stand at Bar Week Drinks Fest was as full on as the botanicals in the Cutlass gin they make), so we caught up with rabble-rouser-in-chief, Jeremy Spencer, to find out more about what they do.
OK. Let’s get this straight from the beginning. Genever is not gin. Though gin was definitely based on the Dutch genever, genever has more in common with moonshine than it does gin.
Isfjord Premium Arctic Gin & Vodka, the new super premium beverage spirits distilled with the super soft and pure iceberg water from the Ice Cap of Greenland, has now travelled across the globe to be enjoyed by Australians…
Did the Victorian social habits of botanically infused spirits and a penchant for the game of cricket ever mix?
Gin is famed for the 18th century craze that showcased London as a bit of a mad-pot town, filled with damned souls sodden on Old Tom from the bathtub. True as it might be the late Victorian era (1850s onwards) also had a bit of a penchant for gin,
I’ve always been a fan of a good story and of a good gin drink too. The Florodora (often spelt misspelt in bar books as the ‘Floradora’) is a great marriage of both these wonderful things and so is not to be passed up in these pages. Here’s how the story goes…
There are few Champagne cocktails that have enjoyed the success that this little number has; a gin infused libation named after the French 75-mm field gun. This quick-firing field artillery piece is recognised as being the first technological weapons advancement of the 20th century with its long recoil mechanism which kept the gun’s trail and wheels perfectly still during the firing sequence meaning it need not be re-aimed after each shot. The French 75 could deliver fifteen rounds per minute on its target up to a range of approximately 8,500 meters.
In glamorous London style, Ben Davidson and the Signe team, headed on a bar crawling jaunt (while sipping tea) around the country. Check out this clip which showcases all the highlights from The Beefeater 24 Challenge:
Having taken care of James Burrough’s 1820 recipe for Beefeater London Dry Gin for so many years, in 2008 Desmond created his own masterpiece the new Beefeater 24. We put him under the spotlight for six quick questions before he comes to Sydney in September for the BarShow…