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Honey and Jasmine Amaretto Sour from Stray: Amaretto Muyu Jasmine Lillet Blanc Lemon Bitters In a rocks glass with a lemon twist garnish

Rhubarb and Pine Gimlet from Stray: Gin Rhubarb and pine cordial Pineau des Charentes lime Served straight up in a coupe glass with an orange coin garnish

This was the Honey and Jasmine Amaretto Sour and the Rhubarb and Pine Gimlet. I especially enjoyed the Rhubarb and Pine Gimlet - though also generally enjoying pine as a flavour at the moment, I also recently tried Vault Aperitif's Nettle and Pine Vermouth and that was lovely

Been a while since I posted drinks pictures but my partner and I were on a trip at the start of the month, so we got to visit a lot of places! Night one we grabbed food at Mackie Mayor in Manchester which meant we got to try drinks at Stray

I cannot access The Spirits Business/The Drinks Business, PUNCH, Diffords Guide, or Imbibe on my mobile internet and haven't been able to since at least the 24th when the Online Safety Act came into force

I use these to keep up with what's going on in an industry I work in

🪪 My concerns about the Online Safety Act remain the same as when I last wrote about it nearly decade a decade ago when it was proposed as the Digital Economy Bill:

1) It normalizes uploading sensitive documents such as ID scans to random websites, which will likely increase identity theft.

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30ml brandy 15ml dark rum 15ml vanilla syrup 75ml milk Shaken and poured into a Collins glass with grated nutmeg on top

My mum picked me up a litre of Havana Club 7 from a recent trip away and this is one of the first drinks I made with it - a milk punch. It was so much better than I thought it would be!

Petition: Repeal the Online Safety Act We want the Government to repeal the Online Safety act.

I will not be verifying my age when the new rules come into place to comply with the UK Online Safety Act on the 25th.

If you're UK based, here's a petition:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

Had a few cocktails, got my eye on a gin cocktail with lemon curd in it for whenever I make it there next (maybe before Rocky Horror in just over a week)

Cocktails from First Draft bar in Norwich, UK On the left a Pina Colada riff with spiced rum and cinnamon bitters in a Collins glass with a dried pineapple garnish On the right a tequila, aperol, triple sec and coconut milk drink that tasted like the orange sweets in Quality Street, in a rocks glass with a dehydrated orange round garnish

Tried First Draft in Norwich for the first time tonight. New-ish (it's been around a while but was previously a pop-up restaurant?) LGBT friendly bar I hadn't had a chance to try before.

Was pleasantly surprised by the mix of Enter Shikari and Nothing But Thieves early on (1/2)

I'll plug this while I'm at it - it might have reached its goals but more is always good. If you're in the UK/EU please take a look:
www.stopkillinggames.com

(Yes, this drink would have been thematically blue if I had any blue curacao in the house at the moment)

60ml brandy 10ml maraschino 3 dashes chocolate bitters A dash of rose water Stirred over ice before being strained into a rocks glass Maybe could do with more rose water? Idk.

The heat has let up enough that I am no longer a non-functional puddle on the floor, and the stop killing games initiative reached its goals in both the UK and EU. Time for a drink.

This is brandy, maraschino, chocolate bitters and rose water. It tastes kinda like Strawberry Dream Quality Street?

(Also, taking the opportunity to plug this game. The characters are awesome and the art style is gorgeous, the soundtrack is good too)

A lower ABV drink inspired by a mojito in a Collins glass 45ml bianco vermouth 15ml white rum Half a lime, in slices or wedges 15ml sugar snap pea syrup 3 mint leaves Topped with soda and garnished with a lemon wedge and a mint spring

So I took this as a challenge, and have made a lower abv drink - subbing most the rum for vermouth, and the sugar syrup for a sugar snap pea syrup. Recipe, as always, in the alt text.

I've been a little fixated on a game called Best Served Cold recently - it's a game where you play a bartender who's helping solve murders.

The game has a long list of drinks you can serve, which are all based on classic cocktails. The mint punch is mojito inspired, but is listed as low alcohol

Blue drink with gold shimmer sparkles in a Nick and Nora glass - 25ml blue curacao 25ml lychee liqueur 25ml lemon 3 dashes grapefruit bitters

Eurovision tonight! So I have the night booked off and here's a blue cocktail with gold sparkles in it. Definitely unbalanced, but I do really like it.

(Household faves this year? Ukraine, Armenia, Iceland. Personal faves: Ukraine, Austria, Germany)

A red cocktail in an old fashioned glass with a lemon rind garnish over a few round ice cubes. Ingredients: 45ml Hayman's Old Tom gin 30ml Campari 15ml Italicus 2 dashes cucumber bitters 1/2 pinch salt Stirred with ice and strained into the ice filled glass, with the lemon rind expressed over the top before being dropped in.

Entered the Hayman's Gin competition recently and forgot to post the picture here so doing that now. Unfortunately the picture is very cropped in the actual submission, as I really like how the light catches in this shot.

Recipe in alt text!

Being a lot easier to get hold of than Niche, I'd consider a taste test of Nio drinks to see if the other cocktails fair as well, but I already have an idea of this... a sort-of part 3, incoming.

Nio was definitely the winner here, followed by Served. One day when I can get my hands on Niche again I may do a showdown.

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't dislike any of them this time however. They're all very drinkable.

Nio was last and this was too clear. Definitely vegetal, agave notes in the smell, but also a strong candy floss scent. The taste was also vegetal, with Cointreau. A bit sweeter than I'd expect, and the sour notes weren't reminiscent of lime, so I assume citric acid? Overall, very good.

The next one (second from left) was M&S and this was VERY fizzy. So fizzy it was off-putting. There was an almost floral, lemon Turkish delight smell to it? The taste was similar. Kinda reminiscent of a Tom Collins with rose water? I wanted to add mint. Lovely, but not a margarita.

Next on the right is Served. There were plenty of air bubbles in this but I was glad it wasn't noticeable fizzy like I somehow expected? There was definitely tequila on the nose. The taste was a little watery and the tequila did get lost, but it was fine. Very acceptable.

Going backwards, the Buzzballz is the bright yellow drink on the far right. This smelled of lemon squash, and tasted of lemon squash and white jellybabies. Not bad, but not what I'd expect from a margarita (clearly not that bad though, as I liked it in the past)

Two of these (I believe Nio and M&S) requested they were served over ice. My partner elected to serve them all the same way, so they all got 20 minutes of fridge time before being poured. I would later request ice for the Nio.

RTD margarita taste testing part 2. Wanted to compare these against the winner from last time but I couldn't find Niche Margarita anywhere...

This time there is (left to right) Nio, M&S, Served, and Buzzballz. I'd tried the Buzzballz before and did like it, so I had high hopes here.

(These pictures are from November - realised I didn't specify in the post)

Found out last week that Silverleaf shut at the start of the year. Found them by accident on a trip to London and they were awesome. I don't make it to London that much but I definitely would have been back some time.

I've spent my evening making prosecco cocktails for my mum and I, and so I may be a little drunk, but she has broken out the Nik Naks and...

...I swear these used to be bigger?

Peach coloured strawberry and basil margarita in a Nick and Nora glass. There's a basil leaf with a mix of dehydrated strawberry and flaky salt floating on top

I've been working on this for the Cointreau margarita competition. The ask is to use all parts of a fruit, I went with strawberry.

This is a strawberry top infused tequila, with a pepper infused Cointreau, strawberry and basil syrup and lime, topped with a dehydrated strawberry and flaky salt mix

My hot take for cocktails is that I don't think the carajillo is very good. I love everything in it, but the drink as a whole just comes off a bit sweet and flat. This drink was everything I think the carajillo *should* be - vanilla-y, balanced, with some spicy complexity and a pleasant bitterness.

Cherry liqueur sour with grenadine in a rocks glass with a maraschino cherry garnish, and an espresso martini with aperol, vanilla bitters, and egg white in a nick and nora glass

A couple of drinks from Brix and Bones (a fantastic local restaurant). A cherry liqueur sour on the left, and the drink on the right was an aperol and vanilla bitters espresso martini riff and I'm really hoping it's still on the menu when I go back (1/2)

A whiskey cocktail which tasted of mint ice-cream in a cup shaped like a milk carton, and a tequila cocktail in a cup shaped like a fish, with samphire and orange poking out of the mouth.

I was out with my partner on Saturday for an early Valentine's date. One of our favourite bars in the city has a few new cocktails on their menu in funky containers