Dienstag, 28. Juni 2011

Gin & Water!

"Most gin in this country is drunk with tonic and ice and lemon. And, if you want to take trouble, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. After many years of exposure, I find this a rather unworthy, mawkish drink, best left to women, youngsters and whisky distillers. Its history is suspect: in the days of the Empire, you were supposed to drink quinine water, the ancestor of tonic, to keep away fever. Someone noticed that the vile stuff went down a little better if you splashed gin into it. What an idea!

One large gin and tonic is acceptable as a thirst quencher.[…]
For further, serious drinking I recommend gin and water- and ice and lemon. This combination is favoured by the understandably popular George Gale. My advice: make sure you don’t overdo the water. Gin and water is an all-round improvement on gin and tonic: cheaper, less fattening and less filling as well as being not sweet or gassy. Gin is a real and interesting drink, carefully prepared with those botanicals and all, and it deserves to be sampled with its flavour unimpaired…"
(Kingsley Amis, Everyday Drinking, p.104 f.)

I find this completely acceptable also with mineral water, too. We in Austria have some excellent mineral waters by the way...and they also have a certain cachet since they are not widely known.

8 Kommentare:

La Sombra Sofisticada hat gesagt…

Yes, Gin is more interesting than most people give it credit for.

Cyprian Korzeniowski hat gesagt…

What mineral waters do you recommend?

White Horse hat gesagt…

Couldn't agree more! I found your blog from La Sombra, look forward to reading more of your posts.

v. Braun. hat gesagt…

LSS: I have only just begun my journey into gin, myself...

CK: For example, Römerquelle, Vöslauer, Gasteiner...

Laguna Beach Fogey hat gesagt…

Thank you for this excellent suggestion. Lately I've found myself putting sparkling mineral water in my G&Ts. Perhaps over time I will dispence with the 'T' entirely.

v. Braun. hat gesagt…

White Horse: thanks for looking by! :)

LBF: I have done this and liked it this way for years, and it was nice to see my views supported in that text! Other good variations on the lemon-, ice- and water-combo are also either with Havanna Club 3 anos or the normal V/X Appleton Estate Rum. I put lots of water in these and they all make refreshing summertime drinks.

Ford hat gesagt…

Pouring it now friend. Much thanks for the suggestion as I, too, have grown weary of that dastardly tonic.

v. Braun. hat gesagt…

Cheers!