Oh ok, it’s a little bit more serious than that. Hi, and welcome to my blog. Here’s the down and dirty: in years past, I was a horrible drinker. It was usually quantity over quality, and the quantity was pretty boring. The horrible poser with a Banana Republic shirt trying to sound cool by buying a craft beer and using terms like “hoppy” — yeah, I was that guy.
But a few months ago I was saved from a pedestrian drinking life. Like all things, salvation came at a bar — the DC/NOVA region is home to a fortunate concentration of wonderful cocktail bars (I’ll be offering drunkish Yelp reviews of those in subsequent entries). One thing led to another, and I started actually reading about how these magic elixirs were made. Five months ago, I bought a shaker, and then lemons, bar guide(s), and then gin…and I haven’t looked back.
Since then I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting — it’s been a ton of fun! The craft cocktail movement is such an imaginative little world, and even someone like me on the outer, outer periphery can enjoy it. So I envision this blog being two things 1) a record of my meandering search for the best homemade cocktail and 2) a celebration of my new hobby. Should be a good time.
My first review is for “The Fitzgerald” which I’m going to guess is named after F. Scott, because he drank a lot. I found this recipe after some exhausting research into historic cocktails, i.e. I googled “gin” with the ingredients I had on hand. The recipe is nice and simple:
2 oz gin
.75 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
.75 oz simple syrup
2 dashes angostura bitters
See, you can do that! I used my homemade ingredients (I’m a purist) and Beefeater Gin, because I like those red uniforms on the bottle. I don’t know what angostura bitters are, but people seem to use them a lot, and I can buy them at Giant. This is what it’s supposed to look like (let’s pretend mine looked as elegant):
Verdict: 3.5 out of 4. Gin is really growing on me — it’s smooth and not whiskey. It shines in this wonderful but oh so simple drink, which took me to an early summer outdoor party. The lemon juice provides a great stinging tease as you swallow, and a taste I can only credit to the mysterious bitters finishes it off. I hope that made sense — whatever, I loved it and could drink five more, which is a sure sign of its quality. Thanks F. Scott!