What are you drinking tonight?

[NurseDave]

Very nice nose with notes of grass. Slight sea salt opening taste that ends with notes of smoke.

That’s an advanced rum

 

[Strop Dragging]

So I am a cocktail lover and a serious Scotch nerd…but when my cancer spread to my liver, my surgeon was very insistent that I should not be drinking. I have since, for the time being anyway, dealt with the spread that went to my liver…but because of things I have read about inflammation and cancer, and the major causes of inflammation in the body, I have, at least for now, (for a year now), quit drinking. This has been a major shift in my life. I had long since stopped being a “go out and get plastered” person…but social drinks with friends and particularly the ritual of mixing cocktails and collecting Scotch has been a difficult thing to let go of.


So…the world of mocktails is now something I’m diving into…and there is a lot of rough to get through to find a diamond…

This is a company called St Agrestis, who make I believe 3 different variations of a Negroni - a regular, a white and an Amaro style. Pictured above is the Amaro style I had for my birthday day before last, and bellow that a pic of the white.

So far on my non-alcoholic journey, it is the best version of a pre-made mocktail I’ve found. My issue with many mocktails is that they are overly sweet - this was also an issue I had with cocktails, too. I like it bitter and spirit forward. The St Agrestis has a lovely bitterness that really replicates the Campari found in a Negroni…and I think, so far anyway, that faux gin is sort of at the head of the race ahead of other spirits. Probably because it is not trying to copy the flavours associated with the aging process of brown liquors, it’s easier to make. I hope someone, this company perhaps, figures out a good bourbon at least, so they could make a fake Boulivardier, which is more my jam than a Negroni, although I’m not complaining.

I don’t know if I’m actually going to live the rest of my life not drinking, or if somewhere on my cancer journey I will make some compromises - perhaps a dram every few months or something. My wife and I have a nice collection of single malts, and I don’t think I should go forever without at least tasting the glory of the Laphroaig 18 again…but for now, the search for tasty alternatives continues….

 

[Strop Dragging]

Oh, I forgot to mention that as well as pouring myself one of those fake Negronis... I also made my wife a cocktail of bourbon (Woodford Reserve) and Benedictine, (with a dash of Angostura bitters), which seems to be called both a Monte Carlo and a Silent Night on the internet. (With some sweet vermouth added to the mix, which we were out of, it is a Preakness.) I remember liking that concoction - we kinda got into Benedictine as an interesting vermouth variation. In any case, she enjoyed it.

 

[EMG06]

 

[Fenster]

Red Ale from last night.

 

[NurseDave]

@EMG06 is like the super rich folks that don't wear a pair of socks more than once except he doesn't drink the same rum more than once.