dook dook dook
There will be bike stuff at the end for all of you eagerly awaiting my latest transportation tales. I know I am.
I don’t really know much about cocktails. I suppose cocktails are a proud American tradition, which usually means it’s something that grabs my fancy and becomes a misguided obsession, but for any number of reasons I just haven’t frequently crossed paths with this particular style of drink. The main reason is probably that cocktails were commonly used as a way to cover up the taste of bathtub gin during Prohibition, and I usually prefer to taste whatever spirits I might drink. Cocktails seem to me like a world of girl drinks and silly shots, and I’m trying, in the name of history and living in the past, to change my opinion on that.
Since I don’t know what I’m doing, I decided to just take the International Bartenders Association official list and start at the beginning. It’s split into four sections: apéritifs, dessert drinks, big drinks, and things that people might actually order at a bar every once in a while. I began with the first list, on which the Americano, a blend of Campari and sweet vermouth, is the first item, and that was probably a bad idea. Both ingredients are Italian, Italians came up with the idea of combining the two, and Italians are apparently insane. Maybe my primitive tastes just aren’t sufficiently refined to appreciate all of those crazy herbs and whatnot, and the fancy script “Bitter” on the bottle of Campari probably should have been a warning, but I just was not ready for that taste. It did not make me hungry, either. As far as bitters go, I think that Angostura has the better idea: put it in a bottle smaller than the label and suggest drops instead of ounces. I just don’t know what to think at all of vermouth. I guess I’ll be revisiting that idea once I get some cocktail glasses and start experimenting with martinis.
Besides my limited glass selection, I’ve also found a void to be filled in my bar tools, allowing me to buy yet another item that has a very specific purpose. I don’t have a muddler. I’ve attempted old fashioneds—again because of history or whatever and the delightful idea that everyone these days is doing it wrong—using the butt-end of a wooden spoon, but that doesn’t seem as fun or effective as it could be. I suspect a muddler would at least see more use than the fixed-cup spanner I bought for the bike last week.
As as bike stuff, my fancy new slick tires came, and they seem pretty sweet. This pair is 23mm wide, 2 narrower than my last pair, which doesn’t make a whole lot of difference as far as riding but made them a little easier to get on the rims. And they tell the world that I don’t need cosmetic tread patterns, which obviously makes me a cool dude.
My new tools also arrived, so I removed the bottom bracket from the Trek. One thing that didn’t occur to me while looking up prices on ebay is that all of those bottom brackets are of the cartridge style, whereas mine is open bearing. The thing’s probably worthless, but hey, new tools. After that I got sick of working on the bike, so I didn’t do anything as far as removing other parts or figuring out how much they’re worth. Maybe I’ll start on that during the week.