Albie,

We love what you said, and would be open to discussing other spirits. Rum being one of my personal favorites. I would love to hear some of your personal recommendations, whether gin or others!

Beer

I am not much of a beer drinker but I respect those who prefer to drink beer.

I drank an awful lot of beer in my college years.

One might ask how much?

My freshman year in college was nearly a decade before Animal House hit the screen, but I can say for me Animal House was not fiction but a reality.

After I finally received multiple degrees and became a grown-up who entered the working world, I never drank much beer.

But I believe in hospitality, if beer drinkers enter my home, they will be offered choices.

If one wants light beer, they will offered the lightest beer available which is that Bud 55 calorie stuff which I have NEVER tasted.

If one wants a regular beer, they will be offered Coor’s. For those who like myself who came of age in the late sixties, Coor’s was a mystical product. It spawned hit movies don’t you know.

I like gin. The test of any gin is if it goes down smooth. Coor’s is a beer which always goes down smooth.

I know NOTHING of so-called craft beers. I can proudly say that I have NEVER drank a Samuel Adams product.
I am a Yankee fan who hates EVERYTHING in Massachusetts which includes the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Patriots and their SNOBBISH beers.

By chance, I wanted a steak at a reasonable price, so I went to a Texas Roadhouse.

They you give you complimentary peanuts and I do not think that wine or the hard stuff works best with peanuts.

I asked the waitress for what beers they had on tap. She mentioned American Ale which is a Budweiser product.

For some strange reason it tasted pretty good with their peanuts.

You enter my home desiring a so-called craft beer, and you will be offered American Ale.

If I really like you and the moment strikes me, I will often share a Coor’s or an American Ale with my guests.

But as I said I have NEVER drank the 55 calorie swill.

I think the best drinks center upon gin, but I am not a snob and I am open to other possibilities such as beer.

Hospitality is sacred, don’t you know.

Those photos remind me of how pissed off Oydsseus was when he finally returned home after a couple of decades to find his home overrun with those who were the absolute definition of inhospitable cretins. If you never saw the Kirk Douglas movie version, then it might be worth your while to look it up. The movie was mediocre for the most part, but I did love that returning home part.

Both he and Achilles were draft dodgers, don’t you know.

Achilles like Corporal Klinger dressed up as a woman in order to avoid battle, but it worked no better for Achilles than it did for Klinger.

Anyways, as I was saying, hospitality is sacred, which started that whole Greek-Trojan thingy when the coward Paris who was a guest stole Helen from the Greeks and set the standard for the violation of hospitality for the ages.

If you come into my home and I offered you a drink, I would do my best to make the best that I know how, that is how sacredly that I honor hospitality.

If you came into my home and requested a gin and tonic, what would you get?

A mixed drink is based first on quality ingredients, secondly proper proportions, and thirdly presentation.

The gin would be Beefeater’s. I do like Broker’s, but it is hard for me to get my hands on.

As the world has shrunk do to the effects of the global village, the thoughts on what is a good mixer has expanded.

I really like Fever Tree tonic water, the light variety. It is not too sweet and it does not have the chemical after taste of diet tonic waters found on supermarket shelves. It is expensive, and I have to order it on Amazon.com. Sometimes I have it and sometimes I don’t. If I don’t, you get the non-diet Schweppes which in my old age, I find a little too sweet, now that there are choices.

Quality ice is a given, clear ice cubes are essential to any mixed drink.

As far as proportions go, I am old school. Proportions start with the proper glassware.

I like a Tom Collins glass, which is somewhere between 10 and 12 ounces.

I keep gin in the freezer. Some say that is a no-no. To those I say go to Broker’s Gin’s website and start reading, they recommend keeping their gin in the freezer for a gin and tonic. Those fellows know how to make a great gin, and I trust that they know how to serve a great gin as well.

Back to proportions, Broker’s Gin recommends a close to fifty per cent proportion of gin to tonic. That does not come as news to me, that is the proportion to which I have always favored my gin and tonics.

In my old age, I have begun to think metric. A fifth is no longer a fifth after all but something which has been replaced with 750 ml bottle.

I have degrees and majors in math, psychology, film, literature, and history. My math brain likes mathematical simplicity.

A shot of gin in my view is 75 ml which is a tenth of bottle. In ounces that is bit more than 2 ounces.

Fever Tree come in 200 ml bottles which means a half a bottle is a 100 ml.

I keep my glasses in the freezer as well. I pour 75 ml of Beefeater’s in a Tom Collins glass. I pour in a half a bottle of Fever Tree or 100 ml of Schweppes. At this point, I stir, not shake. They say shaking bruises the gin which In my youth made me no difference. I liked to kick ass in my youth, and in those days I would have scoffed and ridiculed anyone saying that gin could be bruised. But civility as well as gentility have overtaken me in my old age. In view, the shaken versus stirred debate, is generational in nature.

I drop in whatever amount of clear ice cubes it takes to fill the glass.

The drink is made.

A garnish is not necessary for this drink.

I am no slave to fashion, but I do make concessions now and again. I take two ever so thinly cut slices of a lemon cut in a semi-circle. One slice, I take around the edge of the glass and discard and the other I drop in the drink for presentation.

What would you get if you came to my home and asked for a gin and tonic, you ask?

That is what you get, as it is the best that I can do.