So I'm off to the land of vodka tomorrow, and fully intend to indulge. It's the only spirit I can stomach really. I'm not keen on the flavoured ones (blackcurrant, pepper, lemon - excuse me, where's your lavatory?), but ordinary vodka is fine. We had some lovely ones in Russia, ice cold and neat, just chucked back in one go. (Not keen on the silly ads for it you always get here and which have been surreally non-sensical for years. Who are they aiming at, I wonder? It's hardly a luxury item though it's always portrayed that way).
So anyway, as far as other spirits are concerned though, you can keep them. Gin - is this fashionable again? Are party girls asking for gin & it or gin & French these days? It's got a very evocative smell. It's Boxing Day at Auntie Kathleen's, in the kitchen where Uncle Tony's mixing drink after drink, and Uncle Frank is knocking back the g&ts like they're going out of fashion, while Auntie Joy cuts a rug to Tie A Yellow Ribbon with her fancy piece next door. It's a smell of blazers and fag smoke and lemons and middle aged people. It's gin poured into coke cans before the sixth form Christmas party and then thrown up behind the sports hall. It's having to be put to bed. It's waking up dead. The thought of it makes me want to heave.
Same goes for tequila. I can't even smell it. I once threw up a perfect spaghetti bolognese after a stag day spent drinking tequila at a cricket match. I don't like cricket and now I don't like tequila.
Rum is too difficult, whisky is okay if you're full of a cold and don't let it linger at the back of the throat. I think I prefer whiskey. Bacardi is just ghastly. Malibu I've not had since I was sick after one too many Eighties blue cocktails outside Cinderella Rockafella's (IIRC) in Guildford. Any of those Beziques, Medoris, anything from the entire De Kuyper range and advocaat is the devil's work. As a student my girlfriend worked in a pub at the time they launched Taboo and Mirage (1985). She had to push it on the customers, which included me. Never again.
I've been sick a lot. I have a pathological fear of it too, and I now know my limits. I've not been sick from alcohol since downing banana vodkas at the Channel Five fifth birthday party. All I remember is taking off my shoes once at home and waking up in my pants at 4am. I was sick at work later that day. See! Flavoured vodkas are evil.
So it's nice, plain, unfussy vodka for me. But I'll take it easy.
Chin-chin!
9 comments:
Bacardi is my spirit of choice, but it's a rare occurrence these days. I used to move on to it during student nights out when my stomach made it quite clear that it would reject any further lager or Guinness.
I could still enjoy a Bacardi and Coke now if necessary but I tend to know my limits these days.
No other spirit passes my lips except, like you, when the whisky comes out when suffering a bad cold. The relief a shot of Teachers supplies is only temporary anyway.
I can't imagine you ever being nauseous through liquor. You've always struck me as such a sensible chap on the social side of things...
Well I am now, as I say. I know my limits like you. When I feel it taking a hold, I'm off.
I used to be the very devil for Tequila, Vodka and Gin, but now I never touch any of it, bottles sit gathering dust in the pantry.
White wine, with occasional forays into red, are about it for me nowadays. I think I'm probably bored with alchohol to be honest. Coffee, on the other hand, has far more of a grip on me...
I hope Warsaw treats you well.
I do like a nice southern comfort (straight) or Jack & Coke to round off an evening but that's about in in spiritual terms.
But one pint of Aspall's Cyder will happliy last me all night these days.
As for tequila, lets just say that if MrsB hadn't been tempted by it at a party we might not be together now 15 years later and leave it there!
I didn't drink spirits for years and years (apart from a ritual Jim Beam and Coke, which always marks the start of a holiday), but rediscovered vodka a couple of years ago. I tend to stick to the unflavoured stuff, served very very cold, but can be tempted by an occasional vanilla vodka with fresh apple or pear juice - tastes like a liquid crumble. I once made merry with some of the peppered stuff on a train between Leningrad and Moscow, so get an occasional Proustian rush from a sip of that.
Dark spirits are the devil's work - virtually guaranteed to produce a nasty, bad-tempered drunkenness in anyone.
Hope you have a great time in Warsaw, and eat loads of big hearty meat stews.
I've been off spirits for a few months now - and really don't miss them.
I had a Gin buzz earlier in the year (Plymouth was the winner for me)
Tequila: I only like the gold stuff, not the rancid silver/shots type - and Mescal is great!
The spirits that really agree with me are:
Vodka: I'll stretch to a Stolly Vanilla flavour or honey one.
Jamesons: lovely stuff can go on this all night
Cockspur Rum: no headaches or hangovers with this either
Have a good trip FC and a bring back a menu to use on your bistro listings
I never drank vodka until some work'mates' spiked my Guinness with it in the early 90s. I haven't touched it since, especially as I was sick over my parents' brand new carpet. The carpet's still there, incidentally. I should take a picture of it quick before the new owners move in.
I have indulged in all manner of other spirits. A student friend of mine once decided to 'go across the optics' as I believe he thought that's what students were supposed to do. He decided he didn't like half of what he bought back from the bar so I found myself finishing off Camparis, gins, Malibus, Martinis.
The worst drink I ever had? Advocaat and Tia Maria. In the same glass. A bit like drinking Cadbury's Caramel. I was on a first date. I was sick on my parents' carpet that night too.
Nice glass of Jamesons on the rocks for me, the old sophisticate that I am.
As my stupid moniker suggests, I drink everything.
Except Pernod. That stuff is disgusting.
Have a good time!
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