Drinkies don’t come simpler than this: 2oz of Bourbon, 2oz Ginger Ale, long twist of lemon peel, loads of ice. Simple to drink as well.

Petit-Ponche, Ti-Ponche, ‘tit Ponche, whatever … This is more of a chemistry set than a cocktail. The one constant is 2oz rum. Less if you want to consume a smaller amount of alcohol but everything is relative to the rum. Even that’s not accurate because all you do is arrange the ingredients on a table, […]

We have been self-isolating since the week of 15 March, today being Friday 13 November. We have nothing to complain about. We work from home anyway, we have a garden and Pant Dreiniog, a reclaimed quarry site, is a few hundred yards away. We can do a nice gentle circuit of a quarter-to-a-half mile when […]

One of the few sweet cocktails I like is the Old Fashioned, which is basically just bourbon with sweetened, orange flavoured melt-water. This is a cocktail that is “built”. A teaspoon of sugar is put in a glass followed by a couple of strips of orange peel (just the zest), a few shakes of bitters […]

The Guardian just simplified my life. Most Saturdays I read their weekly cocktail only to be frustrated by the number of (to me) obscure and expensive ingredients. But this week they did what they call a “clean margarita” from Shop Cuvee in London which deducts the Triple Sec from the standard ingredients. This helps because […]

Sometimes, like now when the weather turns colder, an extra little boost is needed. The only heated alcoholic drink I like is a proper Hot Whisky (the worst of all is Mulled Wine – yuck!). You need a robust tumbler that is not going to crack with the thermal shock of boiling water and a […]

The Negroni is probably my favourite cocktail. I don’t like sweet drinks and there doesn’t seem to be much point to a cocktail unless it’s strong. The Negroni is bitter and strong and has the virtue of being simple – just three main ingredients, Campari, Gin, and Vermouth (plus a good shake of Angostura). I […]

Well, after all the trial runs and prepping, this week Vladbread went live (or at least undead). Rick & Maggie (Mair’s Bakehouse) suggested their cheesey short-crust pastry for the Skull & Crossbones because the unleavened dough was too tough. The pastry was really nice but a bit too fragile. Had to keep cleaning the skull’s […]

Avast Behind! What a motley crew! Adjustments continue as Halloween approaches This is more or less what I’m after. This time I made the skull & crossbones from a pâte morte (unleavened dough) and baked them in advance. Too hard – might try shortcrust pastry next time. Also made a few tiddlers at 80g. The […]

With Halloween fast approaching, in the quest for a way of weaponising my prototype Vladbread so that it actually looks a bit scary, I pulled out my trusty skull and crossbones biscuit cutter. This week’s customer flatbread is Courgette & Parmesan so I hijacked a spare and cut out the shape from a bit of […]