Saturday, March 17, 2007

St Patrick's Day...

I'm in lovely Toronto tonite... in an area of town called Markham... there's only one Irish bar within a 8 mile radius...but I did want to indulge in the holiday...

What's your drink?

There are many, many Irish whiskeys...
My particular favorite is Bushmills, (Black, if I can find it) in an Irish coffee... I'm not a stright whiskey or scotch drinker. But if you are, more power to ya.
So... Blended whiskeys:

* Avoca
* Baileys Irish Whiskey
* Ballygeary

* Brennans

* Bushmills White

* Bushmills Black

* Bushmills 1608

* Cassidy's

* Coleraine

* Clontarf

* Crested Ten

* Dunphys

* Erin's Isle

* Feckin Irish Whiskey

* Golden Irish

* Grace

* Hewitts

* Inishowen

* Jameson Irish Whiskey

* Jameson 12 Year Old

* Jameson Distillery Reserve

* Jameson Gold

* Kilbeggan

* Locke's

* Michael Collins Blend

* Midleton Very Rare

* Millars

* Murphy's

* Old Kilkenny

* O'Briens

* O'Neills

* Old Dublin

* Paddy

* Powers Gold Label

* Red Breast Blend

* Strangford Gold

* Tullamore Dew

* Wild Geese


Then we have single malts...
(They are still whiskeys, don't call it scotch... you'll get hit by a shillelagh.)

* Brogan's Legacy Irish Single Malt
* A Drop of the Irish

* Bushmills Ten Year Old

* Bushmills Sixteen Year Old

* Cadenhead's Peated Single Malt

* Clonmel Single Malt

* Connemara

* Erin Go Bragh

* Knappogue Castle

* Locke's Single Malt

* Merrys Single Malt

* Michael Collins Single Malt

* Preston Millenium Malt

* Shanahans

* Shannon Grain Single Malt

* Slaney Malt

* Suir Peated Malt

* Tyrconnell

Now, if you are like me and you really don't want the Irish whiskey, you might go for a Guinness...
Or even better-
A Black & Tan.
A black and tan is equal parts stout (Guinness or otherwise) and lighter colored ale, often a Bass Pale Ale or Harp's lager. Many an Irish barman will tell you that a layered black and tan is simply a Yank affectation and that in the homeland the two beers are simply poured together.

Also, you could indulge in the following...
A Black Velvet combines equal parts of champagne and stout.
a Poor Man's Black Velvet- substitute cider for champagne. Also called a Snakebite in the States. And it'd probably be followed up by a mondo hangover.
Take a pint of Guinness and drop a shot of Chambord into it and you have a Black Fog.
(This is really good!)
And the beerwench suggested a Purple Meany to me tonite...a black and tan with a shot of raspberry liqueur.
Another recipe would be Black Death... Stout and any Trappist Ale... But you know my affinity for Chimay, so I don't think I'd be able pull this one off...
From my travels in 1998 in Salt Lake City, our breakfast beverage- the Red Eye: Add a shot of tomato juice to any ale or lager, also known as Tomato Beer or a Red Rooster. If you add a splash of Tabasco, the drink becomes a Ruddy Mary.
From John Carbono in the Fox & Fiddle tonite- the Bee Sting: Dark beer and orange juice.
(Yuck!)
The Shandygaff (or a Shandy)- Beer and Ginger Beer or Ginger Ale (or Limeade according to Jenny, Beermaid at Fox & Fiddle.)
A scary combination, the Jamaican Night: Beer and an ounce of Kalua.
Another one in the dessert category...the Dark and Smooth. A stout mixed with port. One to finish the evening with.

In truth, I should have made this post earlier in the week so you could be prepared for tonite's festivities...

So... What's your poison?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Snakebites, absolutely!! At Finnegan's Wake. My favorite. Stronger than just beer so no time wasted to a smooth buzz, and just enough sweetness to make it interesting. I never drink to hangover so I wouldn't know if they're worse. My guess is not ... for what it's worth. Damn, now I want one and it's at least two hours before I get out of here ... !!!

Anonymous said...

You name all those drinks and you leave out the most common albeit least requested one.

Anonymous said...

The drink that Bug ius referring to is a variation of the cutsey shots with suggestive names... i.e. Sex-on-the-beach, BlowJob, Screaming Orgasm, etc...

The one he's talking about is the infamous Going-home-alone-and-masturbating.

I'm not sure of the actual mixology... I know it involves sour grapes and tears...

The Big Guy said...

From Bill L in the Help Desk:

yo,
happened to have a minute and was looking at your St. Patty's day post. Being a beer snob, I had to correct something.....

A Black and Tan is Guinness over Bass, always. The drink was named for the British soldiers occupying Ireland who wore - surprise- black and tan uniforms. The 'inside joke' of it is for an Irish beer to be "ruling over" a British beer. It's a more subtle jibe at the British than an English person wearing an orange coat into an Irish pub (look that one up if you don't know)... It's poured mixed nowadays for expediency

A Guinness/Harp combination is a called a Half & Half....

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Thanks Bill-