July 28, 2005
Half and half
I had no idea people drank so many "cocktails" made from beer/cider. I always thought that, when you went into a typical pub, the beers on the bar were all intended for separate sale, with the possible exception that student bars expect to sell vast amounts of Snakebite and black. The last few weeks working in pubs has taught me just how wrong I was — these are just some of the concoctions I've been asked for, or heard about:
- 1/2 pint stout, 1/2 pint bitter — often called a Black and Tan, but I don't recommend ordering it by that name in Ireland any time soon, because if you're lucky you'll only offend people by polluting your Guinness. If you're less lucky, people might think you're referring to what they'll see as a terrorist group from the early 20th century. When I ran out of Guinness halfway through pouring myself a pint, I ended up trying this, and it's not half bad.
- 1/2 pint mild, 1/2 pint bitter — generaly just called "mix" or "mixed", this drink seems to be exclusively drunk by working men in their late-50s or 60s, and apparently is (like mild itself) rarely seen outside of the midlands. Quite often people drink this with a lemonade top, but with sufficient mild I would expect it to be sweet enough for most already.
- 1/2 pint stout, 1/2 pint cider — the famous Black Velvet. Absolutely vile, do not order this under any circumstances. A 50/50 mix of stout and champagne also tends to get called Black Velvet, and frankly sounds almost as bad. I'm not sure whether layering the drinks as opposed to mixing them makes a difference, and I'm not about to waste more beer finding out.
- 1/2 pint lager, 1/2 pint stout — "half and half", apparently. I've never tried it, but given I didn't like Mickey Mouse (below), I'm not in a rush to, either.
- 1/2 pint lager, 1/2 pint bitter — Mickey Mouse, also known as Golden Sunshine. Apparently it's very refreshing, but I didn't see the appeal myself.
- 1/2 pint lager, 1/2 pint cider — Snakebite. Depending who you ask, Snakebite absolutely must, or absolutely cannot, involve a dash of blackcurrant cordial. For clarity, if you want blackcurrant (and you should!), I suggest ordering "Snakebite and black," although to be honest I really recommend drinking something else — if you hate beer so much as to turn it into this, just drink an alcopop or spirit/mixer or something.
- 1/2 pint lemonade, 1/2 pint anything else — I always thought shandy only ever involved lager, and cheap lager at that, but I've since been asked for shandies made with expensive lager, with bitter, with mild, and even with stout. Bitter shandy is actually really nice, especially on a hot day. Apparently stout shandies are the hardest to make properly, since convention says that the stout and lemonade should be separated in the glass as far as possible, with the stout floating on top of the lemonade. Frankly I'm not sure I see the point!
Now I think about it, there are some gaps in this list; where, for instance, is the cider/bitter combination? Is it so vile that nobody ever drinks it, or have I just not encountered it yet? If anyone tracks down this elusive cocktail they should let me know, and if it's not utterly vile I might try it. My experience with Black Velvet doesn't give me much hope, though...
Update: cider with bitter is apparently bitter snakebite, and cider-based Black Velvet is apparently Guinness snakebite. So, that clears that up, albeit somewhat unimaginatively.
In the comments, lonecat points out that a floating stout shandy is called Fade to Black, but in fact this blog seems to be the only place on the entire Internet where that term has been used in conjunction with Guinness, so clearly more investigation is required. Also Joe reminds me that Snakebite is also known as both Snakey B and Diesel, the latter particularly in its blackcurrant-containing form.
Posted by James at 01:30
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pubs
cocktails
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