I am not, as my husband likes to tell people, a single event learner.
It took me three separate attempts at drinking Gin before I realised that it made me weep. I would happily drink a G&T one night, then another one the following evening, only to find myself bawling at breakfast the next day.
And I’d completely forgotten that Tequila is not my friend. It makes me quite paranoid – after a couple of Margaritas, I find myself ringing family members to check everyone’s still alive. I seem to forget this phenomenon every five years or so, and buy myself a bottle, despite Pete’s very vocal protests.
My most recent purchase was a Margarita pre-mix from Costco, and it was divine. It took just two glasses for me to remember exactly why I don’t drink Tequila, and then I was left wondering what on earth to do with the rest of the 1.75 litre bottle I’d bought (17½ standard drinks, the label boasted).
Thankfully, my friend Words came to the rescue (Tequila apparently only makes her indignant, rather than neurotic), although I did receive an sms from her this morning complaining of a sore head and beseeching me not to buy any more Margarita mix. Clearly, she is a single event learner.
The problem is this: I adore cocktails. When I was a young adult in the 80s, they were hip, fun and exciting. They’re also highly potent, with each glass hiding up to two standard drinks (it used to be more, but liquor laws in Australia now limit the allowed alcohol per glass).
Cocktails can be very calorific, not to mention expensive, and I’m loathe to stock my pantry with liqueurs just so that I can make a very occasional mixed drink.
Thank goodness for my blogging mates! Last Friday night, gorgeous Sally from My Custard Pie tweeted about champagne cocktails, just as we’d opened my birthday bottle of Bollinger (which had been languishing in the fridge for months). I didn’t have the ingredients for her recipe, but on her assurance that using Bollie for a mixed drink was perfectly acceptable (after all, she’d had solid gold in her last champagne cocktail), I added a half nip of our homemade blood plum brandy to my glass.
May I present…the Baby Grace…
The Baby Grace is sweet, elegant and completely charming. She is also delicious, although it’s hard to justify opening a bottle of French champagne every time I want a cocktail.
My sweet, elegant and completely charming friend Anne from Life in Mud Spattered Boots, who is also just a little bit wicked, suggested using cider instead. The Dirty Granny blood plum brandy blend proved to be an absolute winner!
And in Anne’s honour, we’ve named it…The Muddy Boot…
Tell me, do you have a favourite cocktail?
And do you find certain sorts of alcohol affect you in strange ways?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Love, love, love the name of all these cocktails. I made an Earl Grey gin cocktail for my birthday recently which I loved but I think I soaked the tea bags in the gin for too long so it wasn’t to everyone’s taste! I also had the most wonderful variation on a traditional Pimms Cup with an Indian-style twist recently. It was divine (and incidentally contained Taittinger Champagne). Thanks for the shot… I mean shout out.
Come over for a shot anytime! I’ve never tried Pimms – must add that to my list! Where would I be without you to guide me on my alcoholic journeys, Sally? :D
My mum’s mum called Gin “Mothers’ Ruin”. She lived at a time when it was.
I know I’d be ruined as a mother if I ever drank gin, Peter!
ooooooh Muddy Boots could definitely catch on! Great name :) My poison of choice is a classic Margarita, salt rimmed of course!!
See, I LOVE Margaritas! I wish they loved me.. :)
I remember the first time I had gin and only one glass of gin to be exact I was bawling by the end of the night. I did drink champagne too but seriously it was that 1 glass of gin that brought me to tears!
Jan, I agree with you – I reckon it was the Gin! :D
Hilarious… I love how your brain is wired to derive different effects from cocktails. Wine is my tipple. I’m not really into cocktails other than one only when I indulge, good Margarita or Mojito, or guava juice mixed with bubbly. I could probably manage a Baby Grace – it looks divine. I drank far too much hard liquor in my early drinking days… still can’t stand the smell of scotch. But, my weakness is sambucca… and if started have been known to help myself the the G.O.’s glass if he’s a bit slow… and the effect it has on me is to make the room spin and render me a bit seedy the next day! I drink it very rarely, only only at or close to home.
Oooh, ED, I do love a good Mojito. Sambucca is delish, but I’ve never actually bought a bottle. Maybe it’s for the best.. ;-)
Oh, no, we don’t keep Sambucca in the house!
Celia I want to come to Sydney and drink cocktails with you! As you know, I have a penchant for gin, can’t drink Pernod and like you remember the heady days of cocktail bars with a certain fondness. How exciting to have a drink named in my honour. A x
Come! Come! Weren’t cocktail bars just the bee’s knees in the 80s? And we’d all dress up in our shoulder pads and moray taffeta and think we were so sophisticated..hehehe
I love champagne. Unfortunately, champagne makes me weep like a willow. I don’t drink very often – a Buck’s Fizz on New Year’s Eve, and maybe a glass of white on my birthday – it’s enough to remind me that I should stay clear of it. That cocktail looks yummy though!
Misky, that’s funny – I’m glad champagne doesn’t do that to me, as I adore it. Isn’t it interesting how different our body chemistries are?
Dear Celia,
LIke you, Tequila is also not my friend although I now wonder why I drank copious amounts of it during uni days. I prefer dry rather than sweet cocktails so a very dry Martini would make me quite happy. Happy belated birthday Ah Chay!
Thank you dear, although it’s very belated, which is why the Bollie needed drinking! I don’t think I’ve ever had a Martini – maybe that’s on my list of things to try! :)
They both sound great. Tequila is an hallucinogenic! I will drink any sugar free cocktail :)
Tandy, I think you may be right. My friend Chris insists that no-one actually drinks Tequila – he says some folks just hold it down longer than others.. ;-)
I’m not a big drinker at all. I don’t need much and I’m dancing on the tables so I’m very careful to only have one. I went out tonight and I was asked what I wanted and I said, “I don’t care,” and I didn’t. I got white wine but if it had been a fancy cocktail I would have liked that too.
I love what you did with your birthday champers!
Maureen, I’d love to see you dancing on the tables! Give me a couple of cocktails and I might just join you! :D
Celia, we like tequila very much, but I must say that the quality of tequila varies A LOT between brands. Phil is now extremely selective and will only drink two or three brands because others will create havoc in his system.
I am not into cocktails that much anymore, I used to like margaritas and mojitos – but now I am drinking very little. A glass of white for the most part, as red wine is giving me headaches. I used to love Martinis, straight up with olives, and also a Cosmopolitan (which I still drink when Phil makes it at home)
cocktails are fun, I just wish I could metabolize alcohol a little more efficiently – hangovers seem to be a higher risk even with very little consumption the previous day. Unfair, non? ;-)
definitely unfair, sally! aging sucks, doesn’t it?!!!
So true, dear, aging is not for sissies… but it beats the alternative by a looong shot, so I keep smiling and looking forward to the next year and the next and as many as I can get :-)
Sally, it doesn’t help that you’re tiny! Stop exercising and fatten up and you’ll improve your alcohol tolerance. Mind you, I’m not sure that’s the healthiest advice.. ;-)
Brilliant post!!!
Thanks Mimi! :)
Your cocktails sound like they would be great…my favorite would probably be Baby Grace as I love champagne.
Karen, when you come, I’ll make you one! :)
You are so sweet…wish you weren’t so far away.
Thanks to blogging I can tell you the last cocktail I had and it was a Tequila O Positive, and there were no ill effects, but it was a long time ago and B mixed it, so he probably only showed the bottle to the glass as we say http://wp.me/pSFVI-2ii and time has maybe drawn a veil over my memory. I really don’t drink much at all. I don’t remember any strange mood things from drinking, just 3 day migraines and upset stomachs and feeling like an idiot for getting in such a state. Me and alchohol are not good companions, I much prefer food!
Oooh, migraines would be enough to put me off booze, I think! I’m a wine drinker from waaaay back, but lately I’ve developed quite an affection for cider and champagne. :)
I’m a wine girl, rather than a cocktail girl. Although yesterday I tried Canada’s national cocktail, the Caesar. A mixture of vodka, clamato juice (tomato & clam broth) worcestershire sauce, tabasco – all served with a wedge of lime, a pickled bean & a salt rim – all I can say is I think it must be an acquired taste. :-p
Amanda, I can’t say it sounds appealing! Was it meant to be a drink or a soup?
[laughing] I have had wine with meals since practically childhood, and returned to like a good champagne only a matter of years ago, but cocktails and I are not friends. Drink little in the way of spirits: a good single malt at times, a snifter of cognac with friends and a G&T does agree in the summer months! But definitely nothing in ‘little glasses’ I finish in two sips :D ! Tequila: for some reason my least favourite . . . oh well!!
I’m not really a spirits drinker either Eha, although I do seem to use quite a lot in cooking!
I remember drinking cocktails of every colour in the rainbow during the 80’s. It was definitely the thing to do after an evening nursing shift. I know plenty of people who say gin makes them depressed and leaves them weeping. I love what you did with your bollie. It’s a gorgeous colour. I must pop over for a Baby Grace and a Muddy Boot. Do you have a bar where I can sit and are the nuts complimentary? xx
Aaah, same age, same city, bless you for remembering with me, Charlie! And remember they had all those wonderful names…Hideaway Island, Tropical Sunset…ah, those were the days, eh? Yes, I do have a bar, and the nuts are always complimentary here. Some of them will even chat to you. :)
That looks so scrummy Celia! Next time you ring me while consuming margaritas I’ll remind you of this post :) I love a good GnT, and I will definitley follow Sally’s method above of soaking some tea bags in gin. I don’t drink too much as I really don’t like to Not-be-in-control, which is different to out-of-control :) Red wine makes me itchy, and Rum makes me aggressive forsome bizarre reason. I think it’s because it’s a pirate drink, rum must be the reason they went around swashbuckling away- not because they were naturally nasty, they just should have switched drinks :) xox
Becca, I won’t be drinking Tequila again. Pete says now that I’ve blogged about it, I won’t be allowed to forget in five years’ time! :) Rum makes you aggro? That’s interesting, but not surprising I guess…
You silly non single event learning sausage. French Champagne cocktails wish I had been around. That Pete is a wise man, but I always love that you go your own way. You make me laugh precious thing xx
Hello darling, he IS very wise, isn’t he? Goodness knows where I’d be without him. :)
Mmm Baby Grace sounds like my sort of cocktail! And nothing wrong with using Bollinger with it, what else would one use? :)
It’s a very nice drop, L! Made extra special by our homemade plum brandy – you’ll have to drink it here! :)
In the summer we throw end of the month “Cocktail Fridays” We pick a theme and everyone potlucks. I’m more of a wine drinker at home but going out a martini hits the spot. :-) Maz.
Maz, that sounds like fun – so long as there was someone to drive me home! :)
I don’t do very well with alcohol- although I do like an occasional sip of a a mixed drink. And I love weak bloody mary’s. Mostly I like tomato juice with lemon and black pepper, I think.
Heidi, I adore tomato juice with pepper and tabasco! I can take or leave the vodka in that drink – usually I leave it..
Love Cocktail Hour – ha:) I enjoy a good mixed drink now and then (i.e. Bloody Mary, Margarita). However, I am very much a wino and beero. Have a Great Week!
Renee, I’ve never been a beer drinker, but I DO love my wine! :)
You’re such fun Celia. I can’t drink cocktails – they make me go off like a cackling helium balloon and then I need to have a good lie down! That’s not to say I don’t drink, though. i love good red wine and champagne occasions. i always think, when i hear the pop of a cork, “they’re playing my song”:). I love the name of Muddy Boot, but I can imagine that more than one and my head would be falling off my hand and I’d be asking for more Buddy Moot! A girlfriend and i used to like ‘dark and stormy’ which i think was rum and ginger beer – we decided to nicname it ‘dork and barmy’ – and – to stop drinking it. I do remember family folklore about an Aunt of mine who was not allowed to drink gin because she became a weeping willow.
Jan, I’ll bear all that in mind next time you’re down, and be sure to only serve you a single Baby Grace or Muddy Boot! I can relate to your aunt, that’s exactly what I’m like after a couple of G & Ts! :)
I’ve really enjoyed reading this post and everyone’s comments — so funny reading about all the different experiences with alcohol. I LOVE cocktails (Baby Grace sounds divine), but not anything with gin. It’s not that I’ve had a bad experience with it, I just don’t like the taste. Definitely acquired. I remember thinking we were so sophisticated drinking fancy cocktails down at the Manly Pacific hotel, they were overflowing with fruit and cocktail umbrellas back in the day!
It was definitely an 80s phenomenon, wasn’t it? Big shoulder pads, big hair, huge colourful drinks! :)
Don’t drink alcohol much, but I do find myself at the bar opposite my place in Bagni di Lucca enjoying an aperol spritz in the evenings. When I try it back in Australia it just isn’t the same.
It’s so much about place and time, isn’t it? :) Maybe we should have left our cocktails in the 80s.. :)
I started laughing out loud when I started reading this post and my husband made me read it to him..he said are you sure she is not your sister in drink…as they say one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor……….great post sis!
Norma, my friend Chris always says that no-one actually drinks tequila – some folks just keep it down for longer than others.. :)
I’ve never really been a cocktail drinker, as I’ve never been able to afford them. But our trip to Hawaii last year changed all that and I was ready and willing to try any on the menu. I’m pretty partial to coconut flavours, piña colada being one of my favourite. But a Mai Thai won me over in Hawaii too.
LOL – what a great post Celia! I guess if you’re going to have a cocktail, Pete could take the phone & computer away from you. Sort of put you in lockdown. These days I sip a glass of wine, maybe 2 per month but then when I go out with my daughter she always orders such pretty sounding drinks that I just have to go ahead & give it a go.