On Homemade Cocktails

Hey ~bartender, pour me some gin, on the rocks and with some lime.

Some time ago, while I was still in early ~20s I happened to land on a lowly paid, albeit very lax job, about 5 years went by, leaving some joys, some scars, well, the usual.

At some point, I started remoting and at the same time frequenting a local bar, I kind of got mesmerized by classy atmosphere and the way he made drinks, however I was always grumpy looking at receipt later. Financed were tight, so I thought why I can learn to make my favorite drinks myself, sure this will take some time and some equipment needs to be bought, but otherwise it should give me more control over what I want and how big/drunk I want 'em drink.

Well, it was fun, learning is fun, shaking stuff, filtering, it's a mixture of dance and alchemy I'd say. Then I got tired of it. Why bother making layers if you mix it in your month anyway? Why bother with texture if the taste is OK?

You can guess where this went: Why bother when just mixing some cheap rum with coke is perfectly fine?

The culprit? When you do all this stuff just alone in you own apartment, whatever magic there was dissipates. At least that was case for me.

To day I stopped caring about cocktails and turned my head to people around, pubs are here for that exact reason, well, unless perhaps the day is poopy and you don't want to get wasted alone.

tea

Yeah, that's the trick. Walking into the pub/bar/brewery solo and striking up or strking out. You gotta do it though. A reliable drinking pal is nice, but not always in the cards. I was okay going in with pals but never got the hang of going alone.

I also like to mess around with concoctions. I usually have someone else who might like the drink in mind when I learn a new mix. I can then "mix" the drink into the next hang out with them. There are so many old drinks that can be brought back for this. A great example:

https://www.liquor.com/recipes/boulevardier/

which is a 1920s variation on a Manhattan.

violetsoup

I don't imbibe these days, but when I did, I recall one summer's day in which my papa made me my first gin and tonic. I'm not even sure if that could be considered a cocktail, but I remember enjoying the taste. I am sure there are non-alcoholic version about these days, but I'd rather stick with orange-ade!

orna_de_brume

I wish I was more social. The idea of just walking alone in some random pub and start talking to people is just insane to me lol. But I guess that's one way to make friends. Also, since I am a woman, I worry that some people might get my intentions wrong while going there on my own.