The Hide Bar Newsletter

The Hide Bar - Newsletter

Number 20, October 2008

October, the time of year when the leaves start falling, weather gets even colder, and bartenders start nervously anticipating Christmas. Sorry to mention it again, but we are booking up quickly for Christmas parties, so if you're planning to come along for a cocktail tasting, Champagne breakfast, Christmas dinner, or just a warming hot cocktail or three, please have a look at our Christmas Page for more information.

Next on my agenda is a roll-call of awards for people we know. Firstly Meantime, for their brilliant beers. Amazingly they managed to get four of their beers in the Top 50 Best Beers of the World at the International Beer Challenge 2008 (that's 8% of the world's best beers coming from a small brewer in Greenwich!). The IPA & Porter (in champagne bottles), the London Stout (back on tap at The Hide shortly) and the Coffee Porter are all officially some of the best beers in the world! Secondly, congratulations to Paolo for coming third in the Snow Leopard Vodka cocktail competition. His creation, 'Breakfast on the Snow' will be available on the cocktail list shortly. Congratulations also go to The Hide for being one of the four finalists in the 'Spirit Pub of the Year' category at The Publican Food & Drink Awards (we'll find out how we do next month), and to me for winning the Boutique Bar Show Free Spirit competition with 'Beginning of the End', available on our cocktail list now.

Finally, we have just had a delivery of something we think you ought to try. By now, you've probably had a taste of Jensen's Bermondsey Gin. It is the only other London Dry gin to be distilled in London (aside from Beefeater), it's very clean with a good strong juniper hit - just as gin should be. The new product is Jensen's Old Tom, gin produced in the original style from the 1800s. It's sweeter, with notes of liquorice root and angelica in there, but without added sugar, so it's still beautifully clean. A really interesting taste of gin gone by, and delicious in a Martinez, the precursor of the martini and on our cocktail list now.

Martinez (Hide formula)
35ml Jensen's Old Tom
35ml Carpano Antica Formula sweet vermouth
5ml triple sec
3 dashes of orange bitters
Stirred and served up with a lemon twist

Cheers!

Paul

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EVENTS

Tuesday tastings
Last roughly an hour to an hour and a half and include random facts, helpful hints and a little bit of tasting. They are often free to attend, but please book in advance now, as we're limited to about 25 people in our back room.

    Tuesday the 7th October, 7.30pm - Rum History
We have a master of the cocktail art coming to talk about the social and economic reasons behind the evolution of the cocktail. Or something like that. I think the official title is: "Rum: History, Production & Cocktails" or "A look at the birth of rum, its social, political and economic effects and production methods". Also known as a tasting of Santa Teresa rums and rum cocktails! Congratulations to Jim for coming up with the longest title for one of our tastings yet!

    Tuesday the 14th October, 7.30pm - Cline Californian Wines
Arthur from The Wine Treasury, importers of Cline California wines (www.clinecellars.com) will be showing some of their delicious products, including the Viognier and Syrah from our list, as well as some of their fine low-yield wines. £10 a head.

    Tuesday the 21st October, 7.30pm - New Zealand Wines
We are very proud to have Stu Marfell, a Top 10 Finalist in the 2008 Wine Society Young Winemaker of the Year, coming to show his Marlborough Vavasour (www.vavasour.com) & Clifford Bay wines. A chance to ask all those wine-making questions that have been burning you up inside, or just to taste some delicious kiwi wines. £10 a head.

    Tuesday the 28th October, 7.30pm - Martini master-class
Okay, we've done these before, but it's always a crowd pleaser. Free martinis, history behind martinis, variations on martinis, martini stuff. See whether you prefer yours shaken, stirred, olive, twist, Gibson, Montgomery, naked or filthy.

    25th & 26th October - Rumfest!

The Rum Experience is once more coming to the Royal Horticultural Halls in Victoria. This is a brilliant event that we love to support, so get a ticket (£15 from www.rumfest.co.uk) and pop along to taste a huge range of rums and meet some of the world's foremost rum experts. Live music, rum and chocolate tasting, plus distillers, dominoes and daiquiris. What more could you want?

    3rd to the 6th November - Monday to Thursday - London Bar Week.

We will be doing lots to celebrate London Bar week. More information to follow, but drinks offers, tastings and general celebration of London as one of the world's best drinking destinations are all certain!

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LAST BIT - RUM

As this month sees the UK's only celebration of rum in the form of RumFest, AKA The Rum Experience (25th and 26th October), I thought I'd waffle on about rum for a bit, and include a few of our current favourites.
This is in no way a substitute for going to The Rum Experience, tasting the rums yourself and talking to the producers and chaps who drink the stuff on a daily basis.

Okay, rum. Having actually started to write this, I realised it was a little over-enthusiastic to think I could summarise rum in a paragraph or two at the end of a newsletter. I've therefore tried to limit it to a few countries that I think have some great rums, and some examples. This is a biased and opinionated list, in no way comprehensive or complete!

Cuba
Famous for its lighter rums produced in column stills, Cuban and Cuban-style rums are ideal for long cocktails and the rum novice. Havana is the official and still produced in Cuba, while there are lots of ex-Cubans including Matusalem and Bacardi. We've got some Havanas and Bacardi 8 should you be interested. We're a little more fond of the bigger flavours of rum though, so our recommendations will come from those to follow...

Jamaica
Famously the country with the highest number of bars per capita, it's also home to two very famous brands - Appleton and Wray & Nephew. The former is typified by the excellent VX, so called as it's a blend of rums aged between 5 and 10 years. Maple syrup, orange rind and vanilla all go to make this a fantastic (and very reasonably priced) rum. Sadly we don't have any coconut water to mix it with (at least not yet), but a vanilla-infused version goes in our Ruby Shoes and the straight makes a great daiquiri. Wray & Nephew Overproof on the other hand, is one of those almost legendary spirits that should be behind every bar in the world! At 63% abv, it packs a punch, but in a very clean way. Smelling of banana leaves, it works beautifully with mixers, or particularly well in the 'Nuclear Daiquiri', a drink we've borrowed from Soho's LAB Bar as we think it's so good

Nuclear Daiquiri:
25ml W&N Overproof
20ml Green Chartreuse
25ml freshly squeezed lime juice
5ml Velvet Falernum (clove and lime liqueur)

Venezuela

Whilst not being the first country that springs to people's mind when thinking of rum, Venezuela has some lovely products. At the moment we like Pampero Anniversario -a blend of aged continuous-still rums with vanilla and cocoa flavours. Lovely and rich, yet light. At the light end, we also have Santa Teresa Claro, our house light rum. Aged for an average of three years in white American oak, it has lovely vanilla and ripe apple notes and mixes really well. Up a level in terms of richness and complexity though, Santa Teresa also produce the 1796, launched in 1996 to celebrate 200 years of Hacienda Santa Teresa. It is a solera-aged rum, meaning that the younger rums are constantly added to the older ones, giving a wonderful range of fruity, through to oaked flavours.

While we're in Venezuela, we also really like Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva. Distilled in a pot still, so heavier and fuller flavoured, this is a wonderful sipping rum, and also used in the 'Beginning of the End' mentioned at the beginning of the newsletter. Aged for 12 years after distillation, this was a gold medal winner at the 2007 International Cane Spirits Festival.

Guyana
Demerara rums (named after the river rather than the sugar - which was also named after the river), are famously rich and full-flavoured. Whilst you may not have tried a 100% demerara rum before, you'll almost certainly have tried some in a blend as they contribute to lots of Caribbean navy rums. One of the biggest distilleries produces El Dorado, which ranges from light and white, through to ancient and woody! Our particular favourites are the 3 year old, which has a lovely ripe-coconut sweetness, and the 15 year old which is simply one of the best aged rums around for my money. Treacle, molasses, wood, leather, maple syrup and marmalade all spring to mind.
XM Royal Gold 10 Year Old is another favourite Guyanan. Aged for 9 years in ex-bourbon barrels, the rums are then blended and finished in ex-sherry casks, giving a lovely rounded rum.

Martinique
Martinique, as with other French Caribbean islands, produces Rhum Agricole - distilled from fermented sugar cane juice rather than molasses as with Rum. Rhums have a very distinctive grassy aroma and make great punches. In our case, we use La Mauny Elevé Sous Bois, aged for 18 months in oak to soften and relax the spirit. It's also the ingredient in our delicious Martinique Mojito that uses La Mauny Sugar Cane Syrup to add even more character to the drink.

So that's the end of a mini tour of some rums. We have around 45 at any one time, so come try some of our suggestions, or discover your new favourite rum amongst some of the others we sell.

For more reading, Dave Broom's book entitled Rum (Michell Beazley, 2003) is a great place to go. It's in our library should you wish to wile away some time over a good sipping rum.

We'll be happy to give you a taste of any of them. Enjoy!

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OTHER STUFF

Our back room is available for hire, and we’d love to hold tailored wine tastings or cocktail classes. Just get in touch and let us know what you’d like to do. We have a price list of some of our more popular tastings, available from the website at www.thehidebar.com/parties.htm.

Likewise please get in touch if you have any comments and suggestions, please email everyone@thehidebar.com. You can also sign up to keep in touch at ‘people who like to drink at The Hide Bar’ on Facebook.

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The Hide
39-45 Bermondsey Street , London . SE1 3XF
t: 0207 403 6655; f: 0207 117 4173
www.thehidebar.com; everyone@thehidebar.com