What Are You Drinking? V. Pretty Gay, Turns Out.

[JedTheHumanoid]

Haha... I got addicted to it during my time in the middle east... Thirst quenching and gets the job done.

When it comes to spirits inherently feminine is the way forward. I can't drink any 'man's drink' (unlike my wife).

And yes Knock, those were the days... Beer for breakfast, a bottle of gin for lunch and opium for dinner...

 

[knock]

I really like gin, it can be very refreshing.

 

[Sammy G]

Great painting, Gin Lane and Beer Street! If a little gruesome.

Gin really is a sinister drink though. Too right it's rank.

I really like gin, it can be very refreshing.

Pfffffffffffffffffftttttttt... and 'tsk' too.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

gin is just flavoured vodka. I dont understand why gin is known to make people depressed, so depressed they start weeping on nights out, i have seen it happen, but vodka doesnt have the same repuation. Very strange indeed.

 

[Sammy G]

I've seen a few gin drinkers reduced to tears, but then again they were with me at the time.

I think the idea of gin making you unhappy is a myth which has been passed down through generations ever since it became known as 'mother's ruin', and nothing else.

Though the way I see it is that you'd have to be pretty depressed already in order to willingly imbibe gin!

 

[JedTheHumanoid]

Calling it 'flavoured vodka' is sacrilegious!

It makes me happy. Only happy.

 

[Sammy G]

I think gin's mainly a suvvern thing (am I right, Jed?), though Knock perhaps gives the lie to that, being Scottish and all.

If a man were to order a G&T in a pub around these parts there'd be hell to pay.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

Calling it 'flavoured vodka' is sacrilegious!

its true though, i think there is a gin berry IIRC and other 'secret ingredients' the distillers were not willing to divulge. It was featured on some TV program.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

If a man were to order a G&T in a pub around these parts there'd be hell to pay.

or a glass of wine, (i had this conversation with my parents, my mother couldnt understand why a lad could not order a glass of wine on a night out with other lads as he'd never live it down) or a babysham, like in the adverts lol, the whole pub would freeze, and then some cool geezer would finally say "yeah i'll have a babysham too". I think ive been watching too much TV.

I did recently order a mug of tea in a pub for the first time. Mind you it was 4pm and thats mug of tea time for me. The beers commenced after said nice mug of tea had been consumed

 

[knock]

I think gin's mainly a suvvern thing (am I right, Jed?), though Knock perhaps gives the lie to that, being Scottish and all.

If a man were to order a G&T in a pub around these parts there'd be hell to pay.

It's not a pub drink up here, no, although I have ordered it in a pub a couple of times. It's not something you hear often at the bar I'll buy a bottle of gin and a few bottles of tonic in the summer though.

 

[Sammy G]

The 'gin berry' is the juniper berry, MDB. That's about the only standardised ingredient.

The alcohol which the berries (and other botanicals) are added to is usually produced from agricultural by-products, specifically grain which is of too low a quality to use for any other purpose.

At the beginning of the 20th century, turpentine was still a widely-used ingredient. Mmmmmm...

It's not a pub drink up here, no, although I have ordered it in a pub a couple of times. It's not something you hear often at the bar I'll buy a bottle of gin and a few bottles of tonic in the summer though.

Couldn't imagine gin being a pub drink in Scotland, somehow! :D

 

[JedTheHumanoid]

its true though, i think there is a gin berry IIRC and other 'secret ingredients' the distillers were not willing to divulge. It was featured on some TV program.

I'm straying into 'ponce' territory but the 'botanicals' form part of the distillation process so it is very different to flavoured vodka which just has the flavouring slung in at the end...

Sammy G - I'm from as southern a town as you can get without falling into the channel so you are probably right.

Plus I'm inherently drawn to anything which might irritate people who suffer from a surfeit of testosterone.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

well im most annoyed at that TV program (i think it was The One Show) for giving out duff information then, they must have just over simplified things, which wouldnt be the first time for a brief TV feature.

Their info about the timings of the eras of the ice ages and woolly mammoths etc has also been at odds with the more reliable David Attenborough, i think I'll start taking that shows features with a grain of salt. Im very disappointed in the BBC, that is slipping into ITV territory now.

 

[knock]

The One Show... i think I'll start taking that shows features with a grain of salt

No no the one show is journalism of the highest order

 

[Sammy G]

well im most annoyed at that TV program (i think it was The One Show) for giving out duff information then, they must have just over simplified things, which wouldnt be the first time for a brief TV feature.

There are gins which are made just as you suggest, though they tend to occupy the lower echelons of the market.

Standard and higher priced gins are made the way Jed describes.

 

[JedTheHumanoid]

In London if you order a gin the barman is likely to either congratulate or ridicule you for your choice. And then relieve you of an obscene amount of money...

I plan to take a trip here at some point...

Yes I am a ponce.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

do you go to wine bars and order wine at them Jed ?

I once accidentally stumbled into an extremely posh wine bar full of people that looked like high end execs and solicitors and lawyers and stuff, being a scruffy pothead student at the time, i did a sharp about turn. Looking back now im amazed the doorman even let me in.

I guess doormen have to have a lot of good judgement, i could have been the son of someone very important, or a drug dealer for someone very important, or just a scruffy looking high flyer.

I was none of these things, Id just gone into the wrong bar. 8)

 

[Sammy G]

In London if you order a gin the barman is likely to either congratulate or ridicule you for your choice. And then relieve you of an obscene amount of money...

I plan to take a trip here at some point...

Yes I am a ponce.

Well if you're going to do gin, you may as well go the extra mile. :D

 

[JedTheHumanoid]

do you go to wine bars and order wine at them Jed ?

I once accidentally stumbled into an extremely posh wine bar full of people that looked like high end execs and solicitors and lawyers and stuff, being a scruffy pothead student at the time, i did a sharp about turn. Looking back now im amazed the doorman even let me in.

No - you get shit overpriced wine at wine bars mainly... Plus they are generally full of cunts. Especially in London...

Plus that is no fun.

In my youth we used to get suitably fucked up and then find the roughest pubs we could (in Reading at the time - not hard) and order the girliest drinks they had. That always added a little bit of frisson to a night out.

I do drink a lot of wine though - my best mate is in the wine trade so gets me good stuff at reasonable prices. In my 30s I can appear respectable or fucked up depending on the time of day or week.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

In my youth we used to get suitably fucked up and then find the roughest pubs we could (in Reading at the time - not hard) and order the girliest drinks they had. That always added a little bit of frisson to a night out.

Like a glass of white wine ?

I used to simillar things though it was my hometwon and everyone knew me so i could get away with it largely, but i used to put Madonna tracks on the jukebox in a bikers/stoners/druggies pub to embarrass my friends. I got a perverse pleasure out of that.