London Cocktail Week recap, part two

Previously: Drinking!

Tuesday

We went to the second cocktail hub in Piccadilly Circus, which we didn't do last year. It was at the World Class House, which is five floors and a lot of strangely-placed foliage.

Cocktail the first!

OK, so these fuckers. We started out on the gin floor, which boasted a grand total of two cocktails: a gin and tonic for the normal Cocktail Week price, and a "French 75v" for £4 more. I'm not really a gin and tonic person, so we both went for the French 75v, which the bartender told us was like a normal French 75 but with mead instead of champagne. Replacing champagne with other stuff isn't normally how to get on my good side, but okay. After about twenty minutes of faffing about, we were handed our cocktails (with a small cone of popping candy on the side, eugh) and discovered that the "mead" was actually honey syrup and lager. Which I am allergic to. That is NOT a nice surprise, gin place. Even ignoring the part where I spent all of Wednesday recovering from a bad reaction, it was a properly unpleasant drink. The lager overpowered everything else, and even with his extreme dislike of a) waste and b) undrunk alcohol, my boyfriend also left his unfinished. 

We decided we were done with the gin floor and went in search of whisky. 

There were four whisky cocktails on offer, and since there were four of us we got all of them. I ended up with this one: a Cardhu Gold Reserve with pear syrup and vanilla, which was definitely my favourite of the four. Two of the others were also pretty good, and the fourth was flavoured with fudge syrup, which... don't do that to whisky, guys. The whisky floor was better than the gin floor by a long way, but honestly, if I'm going to have whisky I'd rather just have the neat whisky, thanks. 

We decided we were done with this particular hub and went to find a bar. The first two turned us away (Hix claimed to be too busy and Graphic was having a private party, which they could easily have put in the little booklet but chose not to. I'm just saying). After a little walking, we ended up in the queue for Cahoots. I'd never been before but because it's a 1940s bar and most of my friends are swing dancers, I already knew more about it than I did most of the places I go to on a semi-regular basis. 

Cocktail the third!

Smuggler's Top! Now this is what I'm talking about. Gin, Cointreau and lime. This was really good, especially with the lemon thyme garnish. I'm not sure if this is on their regular menu, but if it is I will happily order one at full price. 

For cocktail the fourth, we'd been planning to go somewhere else for another £5 cocktail, but after a disappointing experience in the hub, being turned away from two places and having queued to get into Cahoots, we decided we weren't taking the risk and ordered another drink each. 

I had Turning Over a New Leaf, which is gin, black raspberry liqueur, and tea flavours. It was delicious. There were three distinct phases to each mouthful, with the second one (I think the black raspberry notes) reminding me very strongly of something I couldn't identify. I hate when that happens. Definitely order this, it's amazing. 

Also, this is what the ladies' loos in Cahoots look like:

Thanks guys!

Day two verdict: Bad start, but redeemed at the end. 

Up next: ham! Yes, ham.