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The Institute for Alcoholic Experimentation
instituteforalcoholicexperimentation.blogspot.com
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Observations from the New Sheridan Club's disreputable Martini Lab
#1192587 in All

Bringing back the Good Old Days of vodka

Ive noticed a recent trend with Russian vodkas to evoke some sort of old-school official sanction. At the Distil trade fair the other day I came across Kremlin Award which, the laconic Russian girl t...

5 days ago

Cocktail in a Can—Finally a tasty ready-to-drink cocktail?

Everytime I write about premixes I mention how I’m curious about them and am always keen to find a hidden gem among a generally mediocre market-place.Todays feature will look at the Authentic Cocktai...

24 may 12

Turbo Aged Gin (well Vodka)

I was given a small olive-wood egg cup at the weekend and I thought that it would make an amusing drinking vessel. So I due set about removing any flavour from the inside by leaving some vo...

10 may 12

Pimms in a Pudding?

Whilst wandering down the aisles of my local supermarché, I spied a littlebox containing "2 Spring into Summer Berry Puds with Pimms". Given my love ofFruit Cup and the fact that the desserts...

08 may 12

A cocktail for the Titanic

Tomorrow is the one hundredth anniversary of the tragic loss of RMS Titanic.* Given that we had a Candlelight Club event scheduled for 13th and 14th April it made sense to mark this in some way. Tita...

13 apr 12

World Whisky Day—A Cocktail

Today is the very first World Whisky Day, a celebration created, not by a card company in order to sell Whisky Day greetings cards, but by a Scot, Blair Bowman, to enable people to become more intere...

27 mar 12

A cocktail for St Patricks Day

I dont know if anyone still sends St Patricks Day cards…In case you hadn’t noticed, it is St Patrick’s Day. As saints’ days go this one is always greeted with an especially bibulous enthusiasm—and no...

17 mar 12

Pash-ion for Vodka #12 - Absolut Orient Apple

Since its global release in 1979 (Absolut Vodka was actually founded in 1879) Absolut Vodka have already released over a dozen flavour variants of their original produ ct. As part ...

14 mar 12

Welcome to the Big Smoke

At an event at Shaker & Co. a couple of months ago I got a chance to try the new smoked vodka from Master of Malt. MoM are on something of a roll at the moment when it comes to putting out odd bl...

10 mar 12

Harry Craddocks Leap Year Cocktail

Its not that often that a drink has a definitive origin, let alone a birthday, but the Leap Year Cocktail does—as this was created by Harry Craddock on 29th February 1928.Leap Year Coc...

29 feb 12

A leap into the unknown

Tomorrow is 29th February, a rare phenomenon that winks into being only in a leap year, once every four years—and is the only day, traditionally, when a woman can ask a man to marry her. (Clearly the...

28 feb 12

Pash-ion For Vodka #11 - Smirnoff No:24 Citrus Twist (Orange, Lime & Grapefruit)

Ive previously written about Smirnoffs flavoured range, in particular the Black n Blue Vodka. This is another variant based on recipe no. 24 and is flavoured with orange, lime and grapefrui...

21 feb 12

What to drink with chocolate?

With Valentine’s Day upon us there will be consignments of Champagne and chocolate changing hands hopefully across the land. But from a gastronomic point of view, Champagne and chocolate tend to make...

14 feb 12

Rum Cocktails To Go

At a recent Soireé in Parliament Square, I received a tip from a notable rum expert. The tip was regarding the best premix that they had tried, Bacardis Mojito. I noticed they were on sale for about ...

05 feb 12

Dont cry for me: Argentine cocktails, anyone?

Tato with a clericot that he has just made meI don’t normally do bar reviews as such, but an invitation to a new watering hole in South Kensington piqued my curiosity recently—the Gaucho restaurant c...

30 jan 12

Pash-ion For Vodka #10 - Smirnoff No:16 Black N Blue (Russian Berry Flavours)

I was recently rooting in the back of the vaults at the institute when I found a box labelled "Pimms". In fact it contained a variety of unusual vodkas including this one by Smirnoff.Smirnoff...

28 jan 12

Cocktails to defeat your New Years Resolutions

The third week in January is apparently the most depressing of the year (and the Monday of the last full week is the most depressing day*), so it seemed appropriate that we theme the Candlelight Club...

27 jan 12

A Cocktail to Relish

Im quite fond of the delicacies of the Englishman and one of these is Gentlemans Relish. For us at the Institute, Breakfast/Elevenses/Supper is not complete without a little bit of Patum Pe...

19 jan 12

An Old Fashioned Badger

Our man in Wisconsin (the Badger State), USA, recently alerted me to this article in the New York Times Magazine. In it the reporter talks about how this classic cocktail in made in his home state.It...

19 jan 12

The Trouble with Vermouth II

Its a new year but one problem still plagues us here at the institute, the issue of oxidizing vermout h. This is the thorn in the side of every Martini drinker and a...

11 jan 12

Price of Angostura Bitters set to skyrocket?

The oversized label apparently happened by accident with a faulty batch. When no one corrected the mistake in the next batch the bottling plant ended up using the dodgy batch, and it quickly bec...

10 jan 12

Drinking you under the periodic table

I was contacted by the www.bestcollegesonline.com, the people who created this ingeniousPeriodic Table for college students—remember, kids, drink responsibly!Click on the image to see it larger....

10 jan 12

Just the thing for an ancient mariner

Mrs H. found these tumblers as a Christmas present for her father, who spent his career at sea, first as a merchant seaman then as a pilot. The advice “do not load above this level” is probably wise,...

09 jan 12

A cocktail for Christmas

Only a few days left till Christmas now, but still time for me to wish a hearty “God rest you!” to all you merry gentlemen and gentlewomen and to share a few tots of Christmas spirit.I’m pleased to s...

19 dec 11

Gold, frankincense—and stir!

Gold, Frankincense and Byrrh: Stare into the drink and you can see the flakes of gold from the GoldschlägerAt the end of last month a bunch of us gathered at the newly opened Shaker & Co (formerl...

15 dec 11

Christmas book competition: the results!

To win a copy of Victoria Moore’s new book How to Drink at Christmas, I asked you simply to tell me what your favourite Christmas drink was, in whatever manner you chose. After much deliberation, bri...

13 dec 11

Down on the farm... A Cocktail from McDonalds

We like, nay, we are obligated, to experiment here at the institute and inspiration can come from all sorts of places. For the festive period this fast-food chain, founded in...

09 dec 11

Win a copy of How to Drink at Christmas

To help your Yuleide quaffing go with ease, confidence and panâche, I have five copies of How to Drink at Christmas by Telegraph drinks columnist Victoria Moore to give away.A spin-off from her succe...

07 dec 11

Update form the Lab #9 - Armadillo Liqueur

A few weeks back, I made a Terrys Chocolate Orange Liq ueur, which was inspired by the fact that one once existed. After she had tried some, Miss Sally suggested that a Dime* (Daim) Bar base...

15 nov 11

Unleash the bitterness inside you

Following on from my review of part of the range of “single varietal” bitters from Master of Malt, you may like to know that the London Cocktail Society are having a tutored tasting of this range on ...

11 nov 11

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