Hey guys I am now the proud bar, and bar related writer for Australian Maxim magazine. It’s out now if you wanna have a read. However due to word constrictions it’s slightly edited. Here is this months full, and un-edited version.
If you are reading this, you most probably enjoy a wee tipple every now and then. In the same way my eyes casually glance past the Women’s Health bits on when to get my next paps smear in Cosmo, non-drinkers will automatically flick through Maxim and not stop to read a bartenders ramblings on life ‘Behind the stick’’. Their loss I say.
This is a month of firsts. My first column In Maxim Australia is coinciding with my recent 1st place in the World Class Australian Bartender of The Year. What does that mean? Well it means I get a very large, and very phallic trophy. More importantly though, a trip to India in July, to represent our country on a global scale, against another 34 countries bartenders. You will hear all about it in another column, another time.
Let’s keep with the theme of firsts though today, and talk about the first booze ever made. Now when I talk booze, I’m talking about spirits. Not beer, not wine. That’s for old men with moustaches to talk about. I’m talking good old-fashioned distilled, hard liquor. Ironically it was the Arabs around 3500BC, depending on which book you, read that distilled the first wine. This stuff, which was later banned for consumption by Islam, was instead used for perfume and medicine. In fact the term ‘medicine’ is quite a loose one considering some time later pints of pure Alcohol (or al-khol as it was known), macerated in coriander seed and cassia bark were widely used as a ‘cure’ for food poisoning. I’ll take Winston Churchill’s side on this one and venture to say; “I’m sure Whisky will not probably not cure my cold, but it is damn fun trying”.
The first Cocktail on the other hand will probably not cure you of anything. The Cocktail in fact, is quite a modern invention considering how long humans have been making booze. It’s widely claimed, and also disputed that the first written reference to a Cocktail was around 1806, or even slightly before that. None the less a safe guess-timate would be early 19th Century. The drink in question is one known as a ‘Bittered Sling’. Spirit, Bitters, Water, Sugar, Lemon. Sound tempting? Not really.
This months ‘homework’ for all you boozy-enthusiasts is to either try at home or get your local barkeep to whip you up one on my adaptations on this pioneering drink. I’m keeping with the same theory that the drink should have a ‘Bitters’ (for those that don’t know, Angostura is the most popular world brand, and a staple in the Aussie classic, the Lemon, Lime & Bitters). I’m changing up the fruit garnish, the sweetener and also the water, to a soda water for fizz.
Don’t get me wrong there is a time and a place for a beer with the boys on a Sunday afternoon, but let’s not get two-dimensional with our drinking habits. Life’s too short to drink the same drink all the time. Much in the same way you wouldn’t eat the same meal every day. You would get sick of that wouldn’t you? Wait a second; I have a cure for that…
TP
“The BETTER-ed Sling”
45ml Rum (Ron Zacapa 23 Year Old pref.)
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
Tsp Honey
60ml Soda Water
Stir all ingredients except soda. Add lots of ice, two thick slices of orange, and top with soda water.
drinktheshitoutofit
TP
