I would firstly like to highlight that I am not an alcoholic - despite what this post may suggest!
BA Year 1 – Between the
Sheets
My first year of university was spent consuming copious amounts of alcohol, not least this little gem that we drank by the tumbler. My first ever alcohol-induced-memory-gap occurred towards the end of first year, due to toasting my lovely Canadian friend, before she returned across the Atlantic.
BA Year 2 – Triple
Archers and Orange
We bought a friend of ours a mini-fridge for his birthday and so Fred’s was born. Essentially a bar in his university room, we’d pay for the alcohol we drank, but all funds would go towards replenishing the bar. A triple at the Students’ Union cost £5; at Fred’s, a mere £1.50 (based on 50p a shot – we didn’t pay for mixers). Perhaps unsurprisingly we spent most of this year rather intoxicated.
BA Year 3 – Blue Lagoon
The traditional Blue Lagoon cocktail is a beautiful rich blue colour, but I’d get the bar staff at Crosslands to add orange juice to it, creating a gorgeous swirl of blue, green and yellow. We’d grab a pitcher of this in the summer, sit outside all day in the quad and revise. Good times.
MA – Bellini
Whilst studying for my Masters I momentarily grew up a little, and turned to the Bellini. It would be a lie to say that these are days that I have left behind me – it’s all about champagne cocktails and anything with bubbles in still does it for me – but that year I drank classy cocktails and extraordinarily good quality grappa.
Post-MA – Purple Rain
Then came the year I discovered clubbing properly. We must have spent at least one night a week for around 6 months in Tiger Tiger in Croydon, and we almost always got through a whole pitcher of Purple Rain, accompanied by much singing. With harmonies.
GTP – Porn Storm
Roadhouse in Covent Garden is probably my favourite London club – in part due to the motorbike behind the bar, in part due to the live music every night (The Lettuceheads’ reggae version of Don’t Look Back in Anger is one of my favourite covers to this day) and in part to the fishbowls. Fishbowls are exactly that, a fishbowl filled to the brim with a cocktail of your choice. And my choice? The Porn Storm as it came complete with two bottles of Prosecco. And there’s nothing like drowning your sorrows whilst training to be a teacher.
NQT – Malibu and Coke
During the hardest year of my life (hence my recent career change), I turned to the old stalwart of Malibu and Coke. It tastes like summer to me.
Present Day – Anything
And these days I’ll try anything, though in far smaller quantities than
my university days. What’s your cocktail
of choice?
First Year: Vodka. Cocktail unnecessary. Just vodka, please. Following in my big sister's footsteps. Or a pitcher of Dragon's Blood in Crosslands. To this day, I regret not finding out what the hell was in that stuff so I could recreate it. I have a hunch that green After Shock was involved.
ReplyDeleteSecond year: We had an actual physical bar in our second year house. Lights, bar top, shelves, fridge... everything but the taps. It mostly contained a Archers (peach), Kahlua and half a bottle of JD. My housemates decided it would be HILARIOUS to get me so drunk I couldn't lift a shot glass on my own on my birthday... mainly on White Russians, which I can't touch to this day.
Third year: a friend introduced me to the Double Amaretto and Cranberry Juice, which does not have a popularly awarded name but tastes exactly like a Cherry Bakewell Tart. We were really original with our nickname for it. Can you guess?
Since then... Mojitos are almost always my cocktail of choice, but I will happily imbibe Purple Rains, Blue Lagoons, Watermelon Margharitas, Woo Woo... what else have you got, really?