I was scared.
Hesitant and even reluctant.
But sometimes, you have to conquer your fears, so I accepted an invitation to attend a cocktail tasting featuring my most intimidating alcohol: gin.
We all have a story about one type of alcohol which makes us shake at the mere thought of it. It traces to a bad experience in our very early drinking days with that particular spirit. I’ve seen people turn their heads and sprint to the bathroom when they get a whiff of a tequila shot, make awful faces when shown a bottle of vodka or nearly barf at the sight of bourbon. Mine involves gin. So much so that a PR person once sent me two bottles and I’ve yet to open either one of them.
And my logo for PubClub.com is a martini glass for cryin’ out loud!
Unaware of my turbulent history with gin, a Brown-Forman brands representative invited me to a tasting featuring Fords Gin at the cool retro Lafayette Hotel in San Diego. As I had not been there since its renovation, I was anxious to see it and accepted his invitation.
I was immediately glad I did, too, because the Lafayette Hotel is beautiful. The event was held at its elegant Lou Lou’s downstairs club, which has a circular bar with a huge chandelier. This class and sophistaction was a fitting for a spirit that invokes images of men in business suits and ladies in evening dresses disussing the important issues of the day. On that bar was a martini fountain.
Whoa!
Okay, when PubClub attends an event and there is a fountain of any kind of cocktail, it’s a no brainer to indulge. So I grabbed a glass, put it under the fountain and added an olive to my martini. Of course. A martini is not a martini without an olive.
Cautiously and very slowww-ly, I sipped it, as if either it or myself might explode like a volcano. I waited for any kind of negative response from my body but fortunately there was none. Still, just to be sure, I continued my methodical approach to consuming the drink.
@pubclub.com The msking of the French 75 cocktail. Filmed at the historic Lafayette Hotel in #sandiego. #gin #gindrinks #gindrink #french75 #french75cocktails #pubclub #bartender #bartending #cocktails ♬ original sound – PubClub
Confident after a short while that nothing bad would happen, I decided to experiment. There were two other drinks on the limited menu, a Gimlet that looked inviting which others there recommended, and the French 75 cocktail. Now, with a name like that I just had to try the French 75. Created at the New York Bar in Paris dating back to World War I, the cocktail got that name because its kick feels like you’re being shelled with the powerful French 75 gun.
The drink mixes champagne with gin, as well as lemon juice and sugar, and I’ll say it does live up to its name. And I liked it. A lot. So much that through the course of the evening, I drank two more of them. I also began to feel a bit wobbly, as if a French 75 artillery shell had hit nearby. I had brought along a gin aficionado friend and he scoffed at it, preferring the more basic martini and Gimlet. Those, he said, are the true drinks for lovers of gin.
I walked into that event afraid of gin and left with an appreciation for it, even getting a new favorite cocktail out of the experience. I’m not sure anyone who has had a bad experience with tequila can ever get over that one, but I have overcome my fear of gin.
Cheers!