Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Cheap booze update

Spotted in a store on Cricklewood Lane: Scotsmac discounted to just £2.80. Let's hope the Daily Mail doesn't find out.

For those unfamiliar with this remarkable drink, it is a mixture of vintage British wine and Scots whisky. I only know of one person two people who have tried it and I gather it failed to meet their rather low expectations*.

Taste test? Come off it.

* Updated after Quink's foolish interruption in the comments outed himself as having sampled it.

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21 Comments:

Blogger Quink said...

It was a few years ago now. Since then its quality may have got higher, and I know my expectations are much lower...

8:46 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Any drink which intrinsically mixes grape and grain (black velvet, dry martini, Pimms royale) is usually both interesting and highly damaging. Thank you for bringing another to my attention, although having at various (very low) times sampled other by-products of cheap English wine I think I'll pass.

As for Buckfast a great friend of mine who is in the army was lent to a Scots Battalion for six months and discovered that almost all of his men drank Buckfast. Apparently the Maj-Gen or some such had written to the abbot of Buckfast Abbey asking if they could bottle the stuff in plastic bottles to take ready made weapons from the hands of the consumer. The abbot responded that the wine was intended purely as a tonic and that he could not imagine anyone could or would get drunk on it. Now there's denial...

9:41 am  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

Ew. It sounds even more unpleasant than Thunderbird.

But Mortdecai has got me thinking about cocktails now - my favourite grape/grain combo being the French 75 - Champagne and gin. Devastating.

Puss

10:40 am  
Blogger buff and blue said...

Don't forget Death in the Afternoon (invented by Hemmingway, possibly named after his classic account of bullfighting). It's a shot of absinth poured over ice to which you add a bottle of champagne.

Interesting and gives you the drama, intensity and danger of the bullring. Olé.

12:11 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Of the many indignities of paid employment I would say not being able to drink champagne cocktails in the afternoon must rank highly.

I'm told that Pimms royale is a good drink for seducers (and by inference a bad one for the victims of seduction). I wouldn't know as I'm better at drinks mixing than the dark art of attracting sexual opponents.

12:43 pm  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

So the moral of the story is to avoid men who offer to mix you a drink?

And why is the Pimms Royale supposed to get one on one's back - has it got rohypnol in it?

Puss

5:03 pm  
Blogger buff and blue said...

Hmm, I did raise an eyebrow at the use of the word "victim" there.

It does seem the right sort of drink* one might serve, to a few, shall we call them?, willing victims.("Oh, I couldn't possibly etc").

I would however avoid anyone who offers to mix you an absinth and home-made vodka combination, the results will not be good and you will end up on your back one way or another.

*Pimm's is itself a mixture of grain and grape. One day I'll stick up my recipe for the home-made version.

1:00 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Homemade Pimms, Bill? Superb. It has been getting progressively weaker for a while now (one finds oneself putting a slug of gin in the glass first).

(Pimms royale substitutes champagne for lemonade but tastes every bit as innocuous as normal Pimms (which in itself is one of those drinks which I find never tastes of alcohol). It is the summer drink of lunatics and lost weekends).

In more youthful days I used to mix drinks for an older American friend as his circle of eccentric drinkers. He always reckoned a perfectly mixed cocktail is one in which you taste everything but the alcohol. No mean feat to achieve that in a Margarita.

My tongue was firmly in cheek with victim - seduction is a subject which is fascinating and in my experience has always been a two player game, all the more entertaining when both parties are equals.

Puss, I never avoid anyone who offers to mix me a drink, which is probably revealing.

9:30 am  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

Mortdecai
Neither do I, which is probably just as revealing...

Puss

1:13 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Come to think of it I am almost always the one offering to mix the drinks. I am either stereotyping myself in the role of symposiarch or revealing yet more flaws.

And I must apologise for the excessive use of brackets in previous posts.

3:22 pm  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

Mortdecai
Are you flirting with me?

Puss

5:01 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Puss, from experience often I'm thought to be flirting even when I think I'm not. Therefore I am, especially on this dreary Friday afternoon, no sounds judge of such things.

I would say flirting is one of life's true delights, whether accepting or mixing drinks, but how I got to be making that observation on a post about a whisky/wine blend for the truly desperate is beyond me.

I wish someone would mix me a drink, today is creeping by at a very depressing pace.

5:20 pm  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

Mortdecai
Well, thanks for clearing that up. I am happy to provide a modicum of diversion in such dessicated times...

Flirting is indeed fun - I just hope Bill isn't piqued by this hi-jacking of his important sociological research.

Puss

5:48 pm  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

Oh, and I mix a mean gin and tonic - would that do?

Puss

5:52 pm  
Blogger buff and blue said...

As the host of this soirée I positively encourage banter, badinage and flirtation. It's especially welcome among people who know how to mix their drinks properly.

Just think of me as something between Gatsby and Jeeves. As such, I shall mix the drinks.

12:59 am  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

So you have the finest shirts and the finest hangover cure?

Bravo, Bill.

Puss

8:42 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill, I trust you will not have shirts with scrolls on them - I can only imagine Jeeves raising a disdainful eyebrow at Gatsby's wardrobe. Mr Redford's Galtsby was much better, using Turnbull and Asser as a shorthand for extravagant English shirting without the coral and scrolls.

Sorry. Much too literal at this end, and thank you, Bill, for being such an excellent host.

Puss - a gin and tonic would be most welcome, but I don't know whether to ask you or Bill to mix it... and if the latter perhaps the host should choose our drinks?

10:15 am  
Blogger buff and blue said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

2:56 pm  
Blogger buff and blue said...

I'm delighted to keep the drinks flowing. G&T - Tanqueray and Fever Tree is just the thing for a cold, but sunlit afternoon. An inner glow to match our wind-stung cheeks.

It'll sharpen our appetites for tomorrow's festivities.

2:59 pm  
Blogger Glamourpuss said...

Ooh, poncey tonic water - what fun! Would it be vulgar of me to admit I'm more of a Bombay Sapphire girl? And lime, please, not lemon.

Forgive my ignorance, but what festivities?

Puss

4:20 pm  
Blogger buff and blue said...

Puss, I meant the next Trollied Tuesday.

http://foolishinterruption.blogspot.com/2008/03/trollied-tuesday-against-grain.html

12:15 am  

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