Food History

We’re having a rather bitter winter and it’s slowing me right down. It’s just as well that I have drink reports to warm the cockles of my heart. They warm the tester in a much more immediate way, I should think.

Today’s tests are from Cath, who you can find at The Canberra Cook. She apologised very nicely for having fewer notes than some other testers, but, truly, there are so many ways of reporting these things and her notes were perfectly fine. I assured her of this over lunch, where we met for the first time. The longer I blog, the smaller the world becomes.

The first recipe took some deciphering, since it didn’t include measurements. Cath interpreted the recipe a bit differently to me, but her measurements produced a fine drink and we have no idea what mine would have produced, so we’ll use hers.

What Cath actually said about it was:

“This one was really pretty good - a semi-sweet martini in style, but with some darker caramel citrus notes from the martini rosso. It’s a pale amber colour, and a maraschino cherry is the perfect garnish. I liked it, but fans of the ultra-dry martini will not. Also, our visiting mixologist was aghast at the idea of shaking gin. Martinis must be stirred, not shaken! We deferred to her righteous indignation and stirred this one.

I actually liked this enough to have a second one another day.”

I liked the idea that we have caused a mixologist to fall into righteous indignation. We need to find more mixologists to create a pool of increasing wrath. This is not a useful activity, but it is another warming thought on a very icy night.

On to Cath’ second test. She found this one terrifying because of the sheer quantities of spirits. Two people each drank a quarter of the original recipe. It turned out just as well they didn’t bother with a full-size trial.

“The result? Well, it looked pretty in strawberry pink. But blah - it’s unpleasant. Not undrinkable and vile, it’s not that dramatically bad. Just blah. The ingredients battle rather than merge.” Though I think my favourite bit was “It’s an empty start, very sweet middle, and a slight bourbon finish. We tipped the remainder down the sink after making the notes.”

The third was possibly the most useful. Cath says:

“This is a bit safer! It’s reminiscent of the modern mojito. It’s complicated enough to be interesting; and not very sweet, which is a big plus for this pair of tasters, but may not suit everyone. It’s very refreshing - not too alcoholic, plenty of ice, just the thing for a hot summer afternoon . This recipe would be a keeper if we normally kept the variety of juices on hand. Sweet drink fans might like to add a dash of simple syrup.”

Of the last, Cath says “Dead simple, this one.” She also said, though, that it was “just OK, I guess, sort of, if you like ginger ale. But I still much prefer a G&T.”

And that’s it for today. Unless I get more results in, tomorrow I’m back to those cookbooks which still need to be reported on and still need to be put away. One day I’ll return to regular posts. Maybe. It depends on how cold it is and how quickly my winter stash of chocolate runs out.