Hot toddies - your cup of tea?

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I think because it's barley, I'd compare it more to a strong Belgian beer, Badgers. Hic.

I'm a phall curry girl as it happens. I love a really hot curry - so long as it's chillies hot, and not chilli powder hot, which isn't so pleasant.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Barley wine may have only been 10% proof, but it tasted 100% proof!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

In a can?
Not seen that before.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Alongside the Special Brew! I seem to remember it in rinky-dink little bottles.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... /272308635

[jeral Profile]

Why should a barley wine, which used to be typically 10% ABV, sold in 1/3 pint (roughly 190ml) nips, be any worse than a glass of grape based wine, typically 13% ABV now, and routinely sold in 250ml glasses? This is a foul calumny

Good question. If drinking pre-pub, maybe the combined effect of drinking wine once in the pub, or vice versa as I recall that an alternative to BW was half a bottle of an English wine called King's Head Sweet White Wine. We'd ring the changes. Hang on, maybe the sugar makes the alcohol be absorbed quicker? The BW came in standard beer bottles in those days, whatever they were being pre-metric.

Gillthepainter, chilli powder doesn't taste like chilli in dishes to me either, just spoils the dish. Chillis, red or green, should have likeable flavour. If just heat is needed, I prefer a good grinding of black pepper.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

I have bad memories of Barley Wine from being a teenager ( yes- before you say it - I can still remember it!!!!) 'Orrible stuff - haven't touched it since - even the name -

[Badger's Mate Profile]

As previously mentioned, Gold label was 10% ABV and sold in 1/3 pint bottles. It was reintroduced at 7.5% for some reason, tax avoidance possibly. Another similar strength beer from those days was Courage's Imperial Russian Stout, 10% ABV, like a barley wine version of Guinness. It only seemed like a good idea after too many pints of Directors

Both were really good in Christmas puds, though

[Sakkarin Profile]

Directors - now that was a good way to ensure that most of the latter part of the evening would be a blur, and you'd wonder the next day how you managed to get home...

[Badger's Mate Profile]

The A10 lay between pub and home. I do not know how I'm still alive to tell the tale.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

My one and only "can't touch the stuff any more" is whisky & water.
One for the ditch as they say up there in Scotland.

I woke up in the bath tub. Still wearing my coat so at least I was warm.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Director's bitter was the only Courage bitter I'd drink. The other stuff was ghastly; almost as yukky as Watney's Red Barrel. (spoken like a true CAMRA fanatic )
Whisky, preferably, neat - and definitely single malt. My favourites are Laphroaig, Bruichladdich, Lagavullin...yep, you guessed - Islay smoky malts. Putting whisky into something hot - nah!
Rum - once again, not in a hot drink. The best rum, of course, is Venezuelan if you can get it. Diplomatico, Santa Teresa, Carupano... far, far superior to other Caribbean rums and knocks the socks off Cuban and Bacardi. A cube or two of ice, plenty of lime juice. Or a Cuba Libre. Or a Caribe ( the Venezuelan word for a piranha!).
Shot of rum, splash of Angostura bitters, ice in a long glass topped up with 7 Up.

[Sakkarin Profile]

It always intrigues me how everyone has a different chink in their foodie armour.

My brother is a whisky connoisseur and collector, and one Christmas he treated me to a nip from the pride of his collection, an extremely old Laphroaig. To this day I regard it as one of the nastiest things I've ever drunk! It was around the same time I tried my first cup of Lapsang Souchong tea, which to me hits similar extremely smokey notes.

Mind you, it was over 25 years ago, maybe my palate has broadened in the intervening years, although I do not really like spirits of any description, other than liqueurs. And rum and brandy in hot drinks.

Directors: actually if I remember rightly, Fullers ESB was the most dangerous! It's a long time ago...

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Barley wine may have only been 10% proof, but it tasted 100% proof!

Don't remember cans, but sold plenty of dinky bottles when working behind bars in my youth

My regular beer drinking comanions favour Timothy Taylor's Lendlord over Directors or any of the Fullers - ESB too dark and sweet for me, I like the current vogue for both "English" and "American" IPAs, as I like very dry hoppy beers (Thornton's Jaipur is a good starting point)

Used to be able to buy Santa Teresa Venezualan Rum at Waitrose but haven't seen any for a while, very nice drop, to drink as a sipping spirit or digestif. Google suggest that Santa Teresa 1786 is quite widely available but ust not at Waitrose

I like Havana Club 7 Anejo, easy to get hold of now, but the usually cheaper Havana Club Anejo Especial Rum - makes for my taste n even better Dark & Stormy - which I would make with ginger ale, preferably Fevertree, rather than ginger beer

[smitch Profile]

There are a few breweries doing good barley wines. Marble released one in a can recently and Torrside have quite a few. Both are local to Manchester though so I’m not sure how available they are elsewhere.

My father in law loves smoky, peaty whisky. I thought I didn’t like it, but I’ve had a few beers aged in Laphroaig casks recently and really enjoyed them. I tried a whisky alongside one of the beers and found I liked it, so maybe my tastes have changed.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I wouldn't consider it a chink in the armour, Sakks; simply a preference for different flavours.
I love anything smoky; hence the preference for Laphroaig and the Islay malts, but they're not to everyone's taste. That delightful smoky Chinese tea you refer to is known to my brother as Lapsang Shoeshop - and he won't touch it with a bargepole.