With its classic, striking label and near omnipresence in pop culture and commercial art for over a century, a bottle of Lillet looks familiar to almost everyone. James Bond even called for it by name! But outside of this familiarity, the liquid inside is a mystery to many people..
My first association with sherry was as a boy reading the Harry Potter books, in which the crazed, clairvoyant, and apparently alcoholic teacher, Professor Trelawney, is constantly described as smelling strongly of cooking sherry. Although I had no clue what sherry was, this association with the “crazy, spinster aunt” type stuck. I proceeded to live my life quite happily for some years before being untimely sucked into the world of cocktails, where I found myself avoiding recipes that called for all varieties of this mysterious sherry, never quite being sure of what it was or where I would start with it, not to mention the probably deep seated fear that I may eventually become a spinster myself if I tried it.
Bitter is decidedly not vanilla. And while my cocktail may not be your cocktail, I think we all have it in us to be just a little bit seduced by the mixing rule of Bitter, Sweet and Spirited. Here, in the US, bitter has often been given a bad reputation - that flavor that you really shouldn’t be tasting. But if it is wrong - why does so much of the world enjoy bitter flavors so freely, openly and passionately?
We’re diving deep into gin and highlighting all the fantastic aspects and uses of gin (yes, a good Gin & Tonic is fantastic - but there is also so much more!). Today we begin with this post talking about some classic gin styles: Genever, Old Tom, London Dry and Plymouth.
The Martini defines cocktail. The cocktail emoji on your phone is clearly a Martini. The neon lights outside dive bars almost always depict Martinis, in a conical glass with an olive on a toothpick. A cocktail this classic deserves a serious look.