The Hide Bar - Newsletter

Number 15, May 2008

Having banged on about how it was April and lovely and warm at the beginning of last month, it was promptly wet, cold and on some days snowing! It also seems to have rained through all of May so far, but I’m quietly confident that we can actually serve some spring-time drinks later this month. We have a range of new things on the latest release of our drinks list, put on there with the warmer times in mind. Just to give you an idea, these include:

“Near Death Experience” – our take on the classic Death in the Afternoon, this is a potent mix of Absinthe, lemon juice, Ayala Champagne, sugar syrup and pomegranate syrup

“Sweet Fairy” – sorry about the name (my fault), this is another Absinthe cocktail, with honey vodka & fresh lemon making a tangy, complex drink

“American Breakfast” – not one of our own, but a very tasty mix of Buffalo Trace Bourbon, freshly squeezed pink grapefruit and maple syrup

Bajan Smile – a classic rum punch for summer, with Mt Gay rum, Sailor Jerry spiced rum, triple sec, orange, pineapple, mango and grenadine

We also have a new beer in stock, in the form on Monteith’s from New Zealand. Made with hops from South Island, the Brewery has been running since 1868. Recently voted one of the World’s 50 Best Beers (and the Best in Class for the 4.3 – 5.5 ABV Lager category), it’s a honeyed and citrusy beer, refreshing and light without being bland or too heavy. One of our current after-work favourites!

The full selection of drinks can be downloaded from the website, or obviously seen in-house. I hope there are a few things to tickle your fancy on there.

The other advantage of sunnier (or at least longer) days is that sport becomes a little more appealing. I’ll be honest; the reason for this deviation from drink-related matters is a purely sponsorship-related one. On the 24^th May I will be taking part in a London to Paris cycle race to raise money for the CHASE hospice for life-limited children and their families. The following weekend, I’ll be cycling from Dover to Champagne to raise money for the U.K Wine Trade Charity, the Benevolent. These things get me out from behind the bar and will hopefully raise a little for some good causes. If you’d like to donate and didn’t give all your charitable donations during the London Marathon the other weekend, then anything would be very gratefully received. The following website is for the Paris race, and I will personally match anything given to me on there for the Champagne event. www.justgiving.com/lesboulonsrouilles

 Cheers!
Paul

EVENTS

Tuesday tastings : Last roughly an hour and include random facts, helpful hints and a little bit of tasting. They are often free to attend, but booking is advisable.

Tuesday the 6th May, 7pm
Our new cocktails. I’ll be making some of our new cocktails in sample sizes for you to try. Maybe even a bottle or two of Monteith’s as well!

Tuesday the 13th May, 7pm
Sagatiba Cachaça will be coming to tell us a little more about this versatile Brazilian spirit (including, but also beyond the caipirinha). Waxing not essential (unless you’re dressing down for the occasion – don’t even think about it Paolo).

Tuesday the 20th May, 7pm
A wine tasting to be confirmed. I’m afraid I’m still waiting to hear back on this one, so can’t give you the exact details now, but suffice to say it should be something tasty as the London International Wine Fair is on that week: www.londonwinefair.com

Tuesday the 27th May, 7pm
Belgian beers. I’m off to Belgium the week before, so hopefully we’ll have a few interesting bits and pieces to show you.

Last bit - Interesting cocktails from around the world

Inspired by a trip to India last week, I thought I’d showcase some of the more bizarre cocktails that you won’t find at The Hide.

The inspiration came from the delightfully-named Fresh Squirrel, seen at a small restaurant in Bangalore: “a perfect shade of mango, vanilla, strawberry and orange, with pineapple juice flavoured with red wine”. Delightful.

This set me on the trail of other equally outré concoctions, a few of which I’ve listed below under three categories:

Firstly are the plain odd, including the Fresh Squirrel above. Other examples seem to have been born of a challenge. One particularly venomous example comes from the diary of Toulouse-Lautrec. Famously alcoholic, he liked to challenge his friends at dinner parties. I’m not sure I’d recommend it though. The Earthquake: four parts absinthe to two parts red wine with a splash of cognac.
Another example from our cocktail books from the 1900s is the slightly better known Pousse l’Amour. A layered drink of a few drops of grenadine, an egg yolk, 25ml maraschino and 25ml Champagne, drunk in one. Gulp.

The second section is reserved for rubbish. Not even appealing for their inventiveness, these are interesting for the sole reason that they were conceived in the first place. I haven’t wanted to dwell on these, but a couple of quick examples.

Wigan has a lot to answer for with the Wicked Blow Job: Peach Schnapps, Cranberry Juice and a bottle of WKD – although sadly it’s probably available in other parts of the UK as well. And people say there’s a problem with bars promoting irresponsible drinking!

For those of you who like your bartenders long on cleavage, short on drink-making ability, this not-so-classic mint julep recipe definitely falls into the rubbish category. Please run away from a bar that tries to make your julep this way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk57WmewiRA

The final selection are Molecular Mixology drinks. A growing field with some truly amazing things, they are not generally what you’d call traditional. I’m not suggesting for a moment that these are odd in a bad way. I have a lot of respect for the work of MM bartenders and their drinks. It’s just that they can sound a little challenging at first. Following on from Molecular Gastronomy, MM is all about devising fascinating new combinations and ways of presenting them using precise temperature control, pressure, vaporising or condensing the ingredients and other techniques more at home in the chemistry lab.

One of the most famous proponents is New York’s Eben Freeman, although he prefers to call it ‘progressive cocktailing’. His recipes include Smoked Coke, with Coke syrup smoked over Cherrywood chips and added to Jack Daniels, and the Mojito of the Future for Bacardi – where the rum is thickened with xanthan gum and gelatine in order to hold frozen pearls of mint and lime suspended. If you fancy having a try yourself, you can watch Eben playing around here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvO_566t36k.

Another example of MM you can try in London is the Bloody Mary Prairie Oyster. Available at Shochu and designed by Tony Conigliari, this looks like an egg and comes in an oyster shell, but the yolk is made from dyed clarified tomato juice and gelatine, while the rest of the egg comprises vodka, vinegar, lemon, shallots, salt and pepper and a Worcestershire sauce foam.

Wherever you’re travelling over the next few months, and whatever you’re drinking, I hope it’s something interesting – and nice. We also thought we’d also open the floor here, with a prize going to the most interesting you come across in the next few months. Please forward them to us and I’ll pick one out at the end of July… Prize will be of a bottle of something very good for you to mix how you like.

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 now 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.

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

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