London Cocktail Week recap, part one

What, you thought it was just going to be TV? Nobody ever said it was just going to be TV. Whatever takes my fancy shall be recapped here, and what takes my fancy right now is the week of booze I just had.

I had cocktails four days out of seven last week, which compared to last year is actually a pretty poor showing, but nevertheless...

Monday

We started off, as we did last year, in the Cocktail Village in Old Spitalfields Market. This is the main wristband acquisition place and has 40 or so little pop-up cocktail bars, meaning you get to try a wide variety of stuff without having to walk very much. Maximum booze, minimum fuss.

First task was getting past the guys with the alcoholic ice cream. Alcoholic ice cream is something I really ought to like (I consider my homemade mojito Calippos to be the very height of my personal culinary achievements), but it was nasty stuff. Artificial and overly sweet, even for me. Of course I'm far too British to say that, so we told them "maybe later" and scuttled off.

Cocktail the first!

A Bramble Royale from Happiness Forgets. You can't go wrong with champagne, gin, lemon and raspberry, though I didn't love it quite as much as I thought I was going to.

I remember there being more fun stuff in the Cocktail Village last year. There was a photo booth with props, and a bath full of rubber ducks for people to pose in, and a benches-and-barrels setup in front of an old camper van selling rum in copper cups. The most fun thing I saw this year was a booth shaped like a giant bottle of Cointreau. 

Dedicated to my brother, who has decided that he wants to be known for bringing Cointreau into conversations where Cointreau wouldn't ordinarily be. Here's to you, James. 

Cocktail the second!

A salt and pepper lemon gimlet from The Drinks Factory (my boyfriend's favourite drink-making people). I know it looks like a glass of slightly cloudy water, but it was delicious. One of my favourites this week, if not this year. Highly recommended. What you see behind it is my boyfriend's order; a little bottle of cocktail that claimed to be a fancy drink with fancy ingredients but was basically Calpol. Calpol taste, Calpol consistency. Calpohol. He loved it, I was less convinced, though it did give me a fairly powerful wave of nostalgia and remind me how upset I was when I became too old for the "nice" Calpol and my parents started buying the juniors stuff instead, which was bitter and much more medicine-like. Ah, memories.

Cocktail the third (after a break for dinner and a hard shake, which I was not a fan of) was from the Drinks Factory again, because our friends had turned up and wanted the Calpohol. This is a Marengo, and I've entirely forgotten what was in it because it wasn't particularly memorable. Oh well. 

Day One verdict: these faces. 

Coming up in part two: BLEUGH.