So is been an age since I last sent this out and for that I am sorry
but to be honest I have spent much of the time drinking – it is my job after all! But now I am back with a vengeance…all ship shape and ready to go. And this month’s newsletter has a suitably Nautical theme…it is after all 200 years ago this month that Nelson skilfully defeated the French at Trafalgar… result! But just to show there are no hard feelings I have peppered this email with some of Jules’ lovely liquids…
So The Notting Hill Rum Club has had a busy old time too with fantastic tastings and masterclasses from Clement Rums and Tiki God Simon Coppack and some fine rums from Mauritius
after a recent visit by Tiki God Henry Besant. We are holding off for a tasting this coming Monday (2nd October) and are proud to say that in November we may well be graced by Don Jose Navarro, Havana Club’s Primer Maestro Ronero, coming to the UK for the first time ever with some exciting news from the brand. This will be a strict Members and Guests only so all your virtual members please get yourself down to Trailer and Sign Up…
http://www.therumclub.com/how_does_the_rum_club_work.phtml
For this coming Monday we have a few treats for you to sample and play with.
Firstly I was asked recently if there was a Trafalgar Cocktail. Now I know that maybe the Trafalgar Hotel has one but ignoring that I searched the Classic Books and asked the right people (Dr. Cocktail, Drinkboy, The Minister of Rum etc) and no-one knew of one. Thus I have decided we should invent one… so her are the rules for the Trafalgar Cocktail.
It can only use English or French rums or other spirits
Using Pusser’s would be nice.
It can only be 75ml of alcohol total
It can only use a max of one ‘bespoke’ ingredient. Otherwise it must use standard bar products.
The recipe must be written down on a beverage napkin and must be measured and made by the bartenders.
All recipes must be accompanied by a Toast, also written down. (see below)
Virtual members can enter by email to Julien@trailerh.com
Recipes may be used either by Trailer or The Notting Hill Rum Club in some way to promote Rum.
A prize of a very cool nature will be awarded
Every entry nominally costs the price of the drink.
The drink will be judged by the Members.
This should not be considered a serious thing but a Rum Club thing…
And if that flops then Julien has managed to get his hands on a Ceramic Decanter of the 15 year Old Pusser’s that he will be flogging and raving about. Rum Head and all round nice guy Paul Mant has managed to get us some Havana Club San Cristobal too that should look fine on the Members’ Shelves. Nice one Paul…
I remembered while I was thinking about Nelson that he had a custom of having a different Toast for every night of the week in his Officers’ Mess. I was searching for it and found this article I wrote about Toasting and thought I would just drop the piece in as it has some nice Toasts in it for you to try…I found a good toast is a ‘meme’ and very effective and making people think you are civilized and witty…
Nicely Toasted
“I drink to your health when I am with you,
I drink to you health when I’m alone,
I drink to your health so often
I’m beginning to worry about my own”
Thos people who know me will know that I have a great passion for drinks, drinking, drinkers and bartending. I freely admit that I like the whole ritual of drinking and bartending: often I think that cocktails are so interesting because they can be more about the process by which they are made than by the actual ingredients themselves. Also those people who have met me know that I am a slightly ‘pukka’ person with my British tailoring, handkerchiefs etc. Thus hopefully this months topic will be no big surprise. I am attempting to resurrect the ancient ritual of The Toast.
A toast is defined as “ to call to an admired person (normally a woman) or object”. How ever a better description is that a toast is a basic form of human expression that can be used for any emotion from love to rage. They can be sentimental, cheesy, cynical, defiant, comic, poetic, long ,short or even one word. What they do very well is mark a drink or drinking occasion. It makes a drink more personalised as well as the experience of drinking it. Some have said that when one toasts something truly special then the glasses should be broken afterwards to ensure they are never toasted with again!
My interest in toasts however is not to drive up your glassware costs but to help make drinks and drinking more enjoyable to the drinker. A good/funny toast or remark when serving a drink or drink order can surely only help make it more memorable. The toast, tho’ coming after the order can definitely be an upselling tool or good service practice.
No-one is entirely sure who the first toast was for but the custom of drinking to health permeated the ancient world with mentions in the Odyssey, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Shakespeare. The habit of clinking glasses is said to have come from the need to make bell-like sounds to ward off evil spirits when drinking – devils being banished by bells . Mostly the act of toasting occurred at organised dinners and the like with imbibers drinking to gods, then rulers then friends/guests and then even absent friends! Toasting became less pragmatic and more social in the 17th century: as one unnamed Englishman said “to drink at table… without drinking to the health of someone special, would be considered drinking on the sly, and as an act of incivility”.
Toasting became even more pervasive in the 18th century when they solidified their formal aspects (Nelson himself decreed that every day in his officers’ wardroom would have a different toast – Monday “our ships at sea”, Tuesday “our men”, Wed “ourselves”, Thurs “a bloody war or a sickly season”, Fri. “a willing foe and a sea room”, Sat “sweethearts and wives” and finally “absent friends”. But also with this the Toast was used as an opportunity to show some wit and banter: “these were not an excuse for speeches but for wit and wine” as one expert toaster put it.
More toasts of course led to excessive drinking and in many places the practice was banned or outlawed. Louis XIV forbade the offering of toasts at his court and Massachusetts put into place a law banning the “abominable… and useless ceremony” of drinking to another’s health. One of the major concerns with the Temperance Movement (founded 1517) was to abolish the custom of toasting whish they saw leading to debauchery. Others saw it differently with a toast being described as “ a quality as pleasant as a handshake, as warm as a kiss” by an unnamed Victorian.
Some toasts are well known to all – especially what is seen as “National” such as “cheers” in the UK and US, Santé in France, Skål in Danish etc. We all surely know “here’s look at you kid” from Casablanca. Even “here’s mud in your eye” is well known but interestingly it is a shortened version of a longer “ here’s mud in your eye while I look over your lovely sweetheart”… makes more sense now doesn’t it. Many great Toasts of course have already been said and I shall end this article with a selection that I use and find that they work. How do I mean work? Well if you drop them in at the right time they will make the customer feel more like a guest. They will feel more human and the experience more personal. You might want to choose a shorter one for 9.30pm on a Friday but I hope you will find that they make people smile and make you more money. Cheers!
“only the young die good”
“here’s to you… no matter how old you are you don’t look it”
“here’s champagne for our real friends and real pain to our sham friends”
“joy to the world and especially to you”
“may your sex life be as good as your credit”
In English beer/with English cheer/to the right little/tight little island”
“eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet”
“may the hinges of friendship never rust and the wings of love never lose a feather”
“blue skies and green lights”
“may the most you wish for be the least you get”
“may we be happy and our enemies know it”
“may our house be too small to hold all our friends”
“here’s to your health! You make Age curious, Time furious and all of us envious”
“here’s to my car and your car and may they never meet”
“may you be hung drawn and quartered… yes – hung with diamonds, drawn in a coach and for and quartered in the best houses in the land”
and finally when you have served a “nasty” drink or been served one by a bartender:
“may we never drink worse than this”
This month’s must have Rum drink is this beauty from Jamie Stephenson… that master mixologist from Manchester. Jamie is a great ‘flavour’ bartender with a touch of the showman about him in his work. I was trying to find a suitably impressive recipe recently and asked him about this that I had heard of. He sent me this missive that sums the drink and him up wonderfully.
"The drink to which you refer is called Victoria's Secret, The idea is that it comprises two distinctly different layers which are consumed simultaneously to get the full effect of the drink.
The original recipe calls for nettle cordial. I wanted the bottom layer to have an Olde English (hence Victorian) feel to it. And it works well with the Sloe Gin. Thorncroft nettle cordial is like a rich Ribena if you haven't tasted it (it's available in Sainsbury's) it is made with nettle and blackcurrant leaves and the blackcurrant actually dominates so a cassis would be an appropriate replacement if replicability is a factor. The cranberry juice is a little bit of artistic license at this point as there is nothing traditionally English about that but fits in well with the colour scheme.
The top layer is meant to be traditional Caribbean flavours. I used Bacardi with some mango and passion fruit purees, a splash of orange juice and a squeeze of lime.
Prepare each part of the drink in a separate shaker, Pour the red layer over cubed ice into a tall Catalina/Sling style glass.
Get two long straws (preferably clear) and tie them together with a canalled strip of orange peel. Cut one straw down to about one third of its original length.
Put the straws into the glass and slowly pour in the yellow layer.
Garnish with a slice of orange and redcurrants
Recipe
Bottom Layer
25ml Sloe Gin
15ml Nettle Cordial
20ml Cranberry Juice
Shake and pour in first
Top Layer
25ml Bacardi Carta Blanca
1 Bsp Mango Puree
1 Bsp Passion Fruit Puree
1 Squeeze Lime
20ml Orange Juice
Shake well and pour slowly over the first layer
This drink sounds really faffy but we used to sell loads of them at Harvey Nichols and it doesn't take that long once you've gotten used to the order of dong things.
The drink tastes better with both layers at the same time but one of the striking things about it is the contrast in colours normally, layered drinks are consumed layer at a time, pousse cafe stylee or you have to stir it. If you use the two different length straws, for a short time you can preserve the layers and get full benefit of the drink. If you use clear straws, you can even have one straw turn red and the other yellow. It's amazing what impresses folks these days!"
Nice one Jamie… now if we all start pushing these then we can make it a Popular Cocktail which would be very cool…
Our Man in San Fran, the Spirits Sangoma Jacques Bezuidenhout recently sent me this little gold nugget:
“Have you heard of Oronoco Rum yet. It is Diageo's new Rum I think. They did
a launch here a few weeks ago. It is first press Brazilian cane. Then they
blend in some aged Venezuelan Rum and it is aged further in Brazilian
casks.Not alot of colour on the Rum at all. Very rich in flavour. Eric
Johnson may be coming to London in the next Month or so. If you haven't
tried it yet I will send him over with a couple of bottles. Also let us know
if there is anything else we can send over for Trailer.”
I have since sampled the only bottle in the UK with Rum Fan Andy Gaunt from RBG. It is a lovely drop but at present only available in San Francisco at present… but a Rum Run has been arranged so that I can see Jacques and Charles Vexenat too…
And a big well done to Cheeky Tiki and his recent London Luau… and well done also to Appleton Rums for supporting him… tho there was no shortage of offers if the truth be told, showing the Power of Tiki and Jamie’s charm and passion…there are plans for more to come so keep up with it at http://www.thelondonluau.co.uk and be cool daddy-o.
So at the next meet on Monday 2nd October we shall have a Trafalgar Cocktail ‘competition’ for all members, Real or Virtual; the chance to buy or sample some 15 year old Pussers and maybe some San Cristobal… fingers crossed; plus maybe Tom Mountjoy who has the wonderful honour of running the World’s Most Northerly Tiki Bar in Bergen… the Tonga Bar…
Still, better go now… I hope this found you well, hale and in fine fettle and that we shall see you at the Notting Hill Rum Club, based at Trailer Happiness in London but with members all around the world… lets not forget that fo'rum eh?
Irie
aw
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