Introduction

So it was actually 2009 during the Lenten Season wherein I decided to give up drink for the forty days. About a week in, I decided to amend my sacrifice and thus constrain the ban to only beer. I was a big beer snob at the time and it was the bigger sacrifice.

Aside from college invented drinks of Spiced Rum mixed with Crystal Light Iced Tea or Whiskey and Lemon Lime Gatorade, I really wasn't a drinker of spirits. Sure I would drink the occasional whiskey sour or seven and seven at restaurants, or partake in the wonder that is a margarita, but by and large the world of cocktails eluded me.

That was until I lifted the ban on liquor and made it a point to try several different drinks I had never had before, including any number of vintage cocktails like Gimlets and Rusty Nails. Along my drinking travels I stumbled upon the Salty Dog, which is the only way I drink Gin now and, of course the mojito--not the mojito you find in bars, mind you, real mojitos, with fresh squeezed lime juice, top shelf rum, cane sugar and muddled mint leaves... the kind you would probably have to pay $15 in any bar just for a chance to partake.

Fast forward to the beginning of this month, when by chance I picked up a compilation of Kingsley Amis articles on the subject entitled Everyday Drinking. In reading the reviews for the book online most of the audience said that it was irrelevant to drinking today. It is just for this reason that I intend to try most of the drinks mentioned in the tome, some are truly irrelevant, as the ingredients are no longer available, but most are just socially irrelevant--that is, they don't come in a mix and aren't sweet. Because it seems like a good idea at this time, and because I've been looking for a new project, I'm going to blog it.