Today's cocktail: Churchill

Today's ingredients: scotch, sweet vermouth, Cointreau, lime juice

Today's vocabulary: hashtag, #simplysip

No, not about the pink thing :p A buddy of mine has a visceral aversion to the whole concept of hashtags. He's not much for new media in general, which is fine--he spends most of his waking hours coming up with new business ideas and trying to save the planet working in a less-than-he-could-be-making government utilities department job. He's passionate about that pursuit; he just doesn't like hashtags. It's become sort of a running joke that he's more than happy to play along with.

I spent a whole post talking about why I wouldn't be doing reviews on this website, and I maintain that position. That doesn't mean that reviews might not leak out in other media. I've also talked about how my favorite spirit store's purveyor (RIP Sunday sales) always asks for my feedback on the bottles I buy, which I happily provide in snapshot format in one or two tweets (I'll assume you know what those are). Whenever I do that, I think about how I could work that into this website without, ya know, working it into this website, and after some road-trip discussion with the wife, we've come up with a plan:

#simplysip

Now, whenever I try something in general that I want to share, or when I have some feedback on a bottle I recently bought, there will be an avenue to offer those comments without taking up a whole post (like this one). Those of you who follow on Twitter will see these first; they'll also show up in the sidebar Twitter stream to the right. We're still working on the workflow for getting this content pushed to our other social media outlets, but this will be a thing, not only to give more subjective opinions on spirits but also to provide more content between blog posts, which have admittedly thinned out as I've been working a ton lately (that's about to lighten up as well--it's a good thing--so hopefully more writing/tweeting/sipping).

If you would like me to try something specific or talk about an ingredient we've used here, please feel free to shoot me a note, and we'll go from there. I'll warn you that $100+ bottles of anything won't come quickly, but then, I've tried to avoid those for the sake of accommodating your budgets as well as mine. This "review" effort will be evolving, so nothing says I can't do, say, a three-tweet "tasting" to compare items or whatever. It's just a sandbox for now. Speaking of which, I still need to go buy landscaping sand to finish off that brick walkway...

Churchill

I actually stole this from the Liquor.com sub-site where our blog is syndicated (yeah, first the lying, then the stealing... what's next, punching babies?). I don't remember offhand what caught my attention--possibly a similarity in composition that the thumbnail had to this site's photography, and I'm a very casual history buff--but once I clicked on it, I saw that I had all the ingredients handy, and it was a simple enough cocktail:

• 3 parts scotch
• 1 part sweet vermouth
• 1 part Cointreau
• 1 part fresh lime juice
• Combine all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice, shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Done. Easy. I even had Cointreau on-hand from a previous cocktail since it kept popping up. If you clicked on the link above to the original recipe I saw, you might notice that the author mentions a predilection for Johnnie Walker scotch. Personally, I'm not a fan of the stuff, but a lot of people are--it's a fairly simple, if bland, scotch that's easy to drink without much thought behind it, but it won't turn you away. If you've been reading for awhile, you know I prefer smokier, peatier scotch in general and especially when mixing so that that scotch isn't lost among other ingredients. Sometimes it works, sometimes, it doesn't. This time, it doesn't.

I tried my go-to Cask Islay scotch first, and it blew everything else away. This drink is supposed to be a cooling refresher, and the peat just mucked up the whole thing. I went back and used our single-malt standard Glenlivet 12, and man, what a difference. THAT'S how it's supposed to taste. Feature the citrus (see: Cointreau) and grassy honey (does well with the winey sweet vermouth), keep it chilled, and off you go. I also tried it with one of my favorite niche scotches that carries just a hint of sea brine with it--the ever-so-slight hint of salt really livened it up.

I did/do not chill glassware--that's just a personal peeve of mine borne from chilled beer mugs being used for stouts and porters and such--but right out of the shaker, this is a great cooler. If you like, consider using a lowball glass with a big ice ball to keep it colder longer, though you do pick up more of the winey flavor as the drink warms. Your call. If looks aren't an issue, add a couple whiskey stones instead.