London Cocktail Week

Today saw the start of the very first London Cocktail week. And it’s a pretty exciting first too. Up until now there hasn’t been an industry event in the UK to compare with cocktail conferences hosted in America (such as Tales of the Cocktail) and hopes are high that this will be a worthy contender. Big kudos to Simon Difford for getting this off the ground.

Have Martini, will travel

Travel Martini Kit

 

 I’d decided last-minute to visit friends in Bristol and, having been rather extravagant lately, National Express’ advertising beguiled me into travelling by coach. So cheap, so fast… seemingly. 

Once the spell of a £5 deal had worn off, I was painfully aware that embarking on a 2.5 hour coach ride at 6pm on a Friday night was not going to constitute a TFIF moment.  Emergency measures were required to make this ordeal endurable.

An Old Fashioned girl

Old Fashioned cocktail

Let me say this clearly – I am an Old Fashioned type of girl. Not, to my regret, in an Eartha Kitt way but because of my loyalty to this oldest and most delicious of cocktails.

Who’s in the Clover Club?

A Clover Club cocktail

The Clover Club is one of a pantheon of classic cocktails currently enjoying a revival in London bars, and rightly so. It’s a gentle balance of sweet and tart mellowed by egg white.

Cinco de Mayo

Ingredients for Cinco de Mayo cocktail

In England we don’t tend to take much notice of the more obscure national holidays of other countries. St Patrick’s Day, Bastille day, Fourth of July and Halloween were pretty much all we recognised until very recently.

Which is a massive shame as not only are such holidays an opportunity to find out about other cultures but a great excuse to party. And that brings me to today’s excuse – Cinco de Mayo. This day commemorated the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla but is now more a general celebration in the U.S. of Mexican heritage and pride.