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flavoured vodkas żubrówka makes me think of freshly mown grass which is what you d expect from something flavoured with grass it s distinctive but not overpowering and does work well in cocktails but i really like it best on its own very cold and drunk straight down pickles in the side are a good thing too i have a bit of a thing for the barbour border coat waxing it might be a pain but the poachers pockets will comfortably accommodate 4 bottles of wine the outer pockets are proper book size and you can more or less pack the thing for a weekend away posted by desperate reader at 3 15 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday december 12 2019 the christmas egg and a silver fizz christmas is a time for two things in book terms murder mysteries and ghost stories that is at least my point of view i should probably disclose that it s my birthday tomorrow and i m currently full of vodka martinis and champagne i m trying not to go off on a rant and to pay some attention to typos but no promises golden age crime is my preference at all times i m not keen on anything to brutal and after decades of agatha christie adaptations for christmas it just feels right for the season the british library crime classics series are perfect for this their tales of the weird series will oblige for something uncanny too there are plenty of good anthologies of short stories with a festive theme and this years title the christmas egg has bolsheviks and faberge eggs which sounds like a gift in itself it s worth saying that the quality of the bl crime classics short story anthologies is particularly high i ve read a few others notably the ones from profile books and whilst they re good martin edwards selections are certainly in my opinion better a full length mystery is more a matter of personal taste but i ve never been disappointed and again these are brilliant stocking fillers or secret santa type gifts the drink is a silver fizz fizzes get a whole chapter in the savoy cocktail book and are pleasantly refreshing you need the juice of half a lemon a dessert spoonful of powdered sugar or a little less depending on taste and a large measure of gin the white of an egg is an optional extra it adds to the drama appearance and texture of the drink but taste wise makes little difference if you don t fancy it have an allergy shake well over ice and strain into a collins glass then top up with soda water it s the soda water that makes it a fizz but this is also really good without the soda but with the egg and make sure to use the freshest eggs you can as a close relation to a white lady or clover club posted by desperate reader at 9 21 pm 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday december 11 2019 stephen rutt s wintering and italicus liqueur wintering is the book i m currently reading and it is every bit as good as the seafarers was definitely one of the best books of my reading year i love the way that rutt makes birding and reasonably technical information feel really accessible to someone like me interested but lacking in anything more than general knowledge wintering is about a season with geese and that s another thing i love about this book i live in a city centre geese are one of the few birds i can reliably see on the river outside my flat and one of the very few birds i hear as they fly overhead in autumn a lot of nature writing can feel exclusive but this doesn t more than anything though rutt is just really good at what he does and an absolute pleasure to read both his books would make wonderful presents the only link between italicus a bergamot flavoured liqueur and wintering is a vague idea in my own mind about migration in this case to the south via the medium of drink as far as i can gather italicus has been around on the market for about 2 years and is slowly appearing in more shops and bars it is a particularly attractive looking bottle which is a bonus if it s meant for a gift it s also part of the amaro family so a kind of cousin to vermouth and according to their website the number one trending aperitivo of 2019 there s an origin story that says it s based on a recipe from the 1850 s i also heard that the original recipe needed a lot of tweaking but that s sort of besides the point the key think here is that it s a really good drink the citrusy bergamot flavour is interesting without being outlandish other floral notes blend well it s kind of a liquid version of elizabeth von arnim s the enchanted april it was sweeter than i expected and has more than enough punch to hold its own in all sorts of cocktails there are plenty of recipes for those around including one where you drink it like a toddy with a spoon of honey and a dash of orange bitters garnished with a cinnamon stick and clove studded lemon it would definitely be an interesting addition for any home bar posted by desperate reader at 8 02 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday december 10 2019 the penguin book of christmas stories with orange bitters books make great presents for people who have more or less everything they need and like books anthologies of short stories are one of my favourite things and if i didn t already have it i d have been particularly delighted to open this on christmas day it s a satisfyingly varied collection with a few favourites in it enough writers i know i like to get excited by from hans christian anderson to angela carter and plenty of things which are new to me there s nothing more i could want for under 20 over 20 i m after some new pillows which nobody is likely to buy me for christmas they d be a devil to wrap a good collection of short stories is perfect for christmas reading they re easier to fit around the various commitments responsibilities and emotions that plague the season and a safer bet if you re not entirely sure of someone s literary taste bitters are a remarkably useful thing to have around and a very good grown up stocking filler a lot of classic cocktails will call for either angostura or orange bitters angostura bitters are easy to buy most big supermarkets will carry them orange bitters are inexplicably harder to find on the high street unless you have a good independent locally they re very easy to find online though and a great thing to have in the kitchen they re good for more than just drinks an interesting bottle of bitters fee brothers will give an idea of the variety out there but they re by no means the only brand to explore is a great house or hostess gift too and a very useful thing to pack if you re off to some idyllic rented house in the country they take up very little space and go a long way some companies make travel packs which are brilliant for this posted by desperate reader at 10 03 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday december 9 2019 the weatherhouse and whisky nan shepherd can t really be described as a neglected forgotten or underrated writer her image is on the bank of scotland s five pound note there s a newly inaugurated literary prize named after her and the living mountain is rightly considered both a scottish and nature writing classic that s been championed far and wide despite that i m not sure how widely known her novels are when i read the weatherhouse earlier this year and tried searching out other reviews for it there really weren t many which is a shame because it s a remarkable novel that would be worth reading just for the description of the aberdeenshire countryside alone as it is there s much more to it than that the drama also starts to unfold over a christmas season and there s always something satisfying about the seasons inside and out of a book matching up if you like virago modern classics this book is basically exactly your cup of tea the book is set during the first world war and whisky features both as a signifier of more prosperous pre war hospitality and is the catalyst for near disaster it s aberdeenshire setting is also a rich one in terms of whisky heritage head west from aberdeen and you re soon into speyside and nan s beloved cairngorms this gives you a serious concentration of distilleries aberlour balvenie glen rothes glenfiddich or macallan are the ones i d recommend as being both easy to find on the high street or in supermarkets and excellent quality but that s not even all my favourites from the area i have a really soft spot for douglas laing s blended malts more here scallywag is the speyside timorous beastie is made up of highland malts both have excellent all round appeal nothing to peaty i m also a fan of the famous grouse which has macallan in its blend the naked grouse is an absolute bargain in terms of what you get for your money blends like grouse are what most people would have trusted in back in the day closer to aberdeen royal lochnagar is another favourite whisky it s all soft smoke gingerbread spice and demerara sugar delicious and ardmore is particularly good for the money as well as being easy to find when i was first discovering whisky for myself 20 years ago blends were very much out of favour and single malt was a lot cheaper than it is now currently if i m looking for something interesting different my first choice would be the premium blends and blended malts between 20 40 there s still a bit of snobbishness around them but seriously ditch it posted by desperate reader at 11 34 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday december 8 2019 diana holman hunt slightly foxed with champagne i ve been reading diana holman hunt s memoir my grandmothers and i by way of research and bought my slightly foxed paperback edition cheaply secondhand it looks like there s been a bit of a rush on it since the only copies i see listed now are quite pricey which means if you want it you might as well go for a handsome slightly foxed hardback they gift wrap too diana was the granddaughter of the pre raphaelite painter bought up on stories of the great man and his friends my grandmothers and i very specifically recounts episodes from her life from the age of 5 to 17 as she s passed between the two matriarchs her father is in india her mother never mentioned we can only guess dead most of the time diana lives with her mothers parents grandmother freeman but there are visits to gran h h who lives a life of miserly eccentricity in a house that s more or less a shrine to her dead husband what makes this book fun is the mix of anecdotes about life with grand and the sense that diana is getting her revenge or at least the last word on her family who seem to have richly deserved it if you like elizabeth von arnim at her more acerbic nancy mitford or evelyn waugh who was her cousin then this book will definitely appeal slightly foxed are also more generally a good place to look for presents for book lovers a subscription to their quarterly journal has been my christmas present of choice to me for a good decade now the books they produce are lovely to handle and conveniently pocket sized i recommend the podcast too champagne features a couple of times in my grandmothers and i first with a rare appearance from her father when she s 15 and after grands funeral both times she gets horribly drunk very quickly as drinks go it perfectly evokes the spirit of the book moët et chandon is name checked so this seems like a good time to talk about the best way to buy champagne if you have a good wine merchant take their advice on what they have they should know where the best balance between quality and price is to be found otherwise supermarket own label champagne is generally a good buy and a safer bet than an unknown name with a heavy discount that said much of the appeal of champagne is in the associated glamour that comes with the grand marques if you can it s worth buying these by the case when you see something at a good price and keeping it there are a few reasons for this case discounts are one another is that a lot of champagne like moët is very young when it hits retailers shelves and you can taste it in the acidity six months to a year somewhere cool with an even temperature and reasonably dark in my case the back of a wardrobe will allow it to mellow a bit if you have a slightly better arrangement than the back of a wardrobe then a non vintage champagne will happily develop for 5 years or more before you really need to think about drinking it do not keep it in a fridge for any length of time it goes flat other advantages of keeping a bit of champagne on hand is that you always have an excellent emergency present something for a celebration or a well earns treat for yourself half bottles are brilliant for 1 or 2 people crémant de bourgogne is an excellent budget alternative and so are some of the new world fizzes that use traditional grapes and methods plenty of which are made by the big champagne houses posted by desperate reader at 11 58 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday december 7 2019 surfacing by kathleen jamie and hepple s douglas fir vodka a new kathleen jamie book is something to get excited about and surfacing hasn t disappointed me it s also another beautifully produced object my reading book buying life started around the very end of the 1970 s with the famous five it still sometimes surprises me as much as it delights me how much more beautiful books have become in the last decade or so if you don t already know jamie s essay collections surfacing is the third in a loose trilogy that also includes sightlines and findings she writes about nature family archeology history travels and more with knife sharp insight i think of findings the 1st in the trilogy as my favourite but it s been 7 years since i read the earlier books and i m wondering if i re read them now if i d still feel the same they are all absolutely worth seeking out i read about hepple s douglas fir vodka in jack bevan s vermouth book and immediately wanted to try it because i m an absolute sucker for the kind of thing there was a terrible experience with some holly eau de vie which should have taught me a lesson but didn t it s available online for around 35 for a 50cl bottle which makes it an expensive vodka especially if you have to add delivery costs on top of that but unlike the holly eau de vie it s good so i don t regret the cost i ve seen it suggested as a gin alternative and certainly the douglas fir flavour has something in common with gin s piney juniper notes but i think it s to subtle to treat in the same way the back label declares that hepple s renowned triple technique is able to capture the cold breath of the forest and honestly it feels like it does just that it s a beautifully smooth vodka with a distinctive pine wood or for wood nose and an almost menthol freshness about it i...