Food History

I’ve finished my drinks testing, so this is the last report about me as an intending drunk. Several other people have finished theirs, too, and everything ahs been assigned. This means there won’t be an unlimited number of posts about moderns tasting early 20th century mixed drinks, which ought to make a few of you happy. I didn’t realise how much blogspace the reporting would occupy and how colourful it would all be. I’ll miss the emails with their exclamations and wry comments, so I’m a bit relieved we’re not quite there yet. In fact, I’m only being reassuring because not all of you are drinkers and maybe want to read about other things.

My last two drinks were really straightforward. One was brandy-based and warm and friendly. The other was rum-based and not.

The first had a really unpromising list of ingredients, so the taste was a nice surprise. The last had a list of ingredients that made me think “Pirates!” and it turned out such a dark black drink that I instantly wanted to rename it and turn it into a Goth-drink for the convention. This perfect pirate-gothic drink, alas, tasted like liquid molasses. My thought was that some people will give it a try, but very few will actually enjoy it. By the end, I was enjoying it, but that’s because we’re talking about a great deal of rum. By the end I would have enjoyed almost anything. It was pirate-potent. I have no hangover, but I was too tired to get out of bed at a regular time, so maybe it’s a good thing that this drink was unloveable. Our convention would have been … curious.

Rachel’s last drink was also not a success. She summed it up in one word “Yuck.” She added some interesting thoughts, though:

“I was so looking forward to this one, it seemed like such an interesting combination. It even has a good name, with a matching greeny-orange colour and murky like a swamp. But it’s sooo bad. In fact I didn’t quite trust in my own cocktail mixing skills the first time, so I made it again several nights later. Still bad.

The first mouthful is medicinal, but unlike a lot of drinks that start out that way, this one does not improve. Which got me thinking about the whole medicinal-tasting drinks thing and which came first and all. So I looked it up and Benadryl (diphenhydramine) was invented in 1943. So perhaps the taste was preferred and adapted to the pharmaceutical industry? Unlikely, but it’s not a review without a preposterous theory.”

I’ll do another post for Mary’s – don’t want to get things too crowded. Besides, you have your preposterous theory and it needs space to stew. I bet that space is greeny-orange in colour.