Fresh set of Green Apple Reporter Notebook, my fourth for the year. Not bad considering I’ve started using GARNs since April and that GARNs aren’t even nearly as expensive as Moleskines which are made in China anyway, just like the GARN.
The Cuba Libre
A cursory search on Google for “Cuba Libre” has made me discover that certain purists only call it “Cuba Libre” — that is, rum, lime juice, and Coke — if you use a certain brand of rum.
If you use Bacardi, it’s called “Miami Libre.”
So what do you call it if you use Tanduay?
No freaking idea. The Lucio Tan Libre? Manila Libre?
I recently mixed what I considered as the tastiest quote Cuba Libre unquote I have ever made.
It’s made of
One ounce Tanduay Superior (an ounce being roughly a jigger)
Two ounces of Coke
Half ounce of lime juice
Lots of ice
Mix everything in a tall glass and wait for the ice to melt a little bit. And before you know it, you have your own party. Which is what I’m doing now. I’m tempted to make another one but that will certainly get in the way of writing, which I need to do to earn my keep, pay the bills, and keep the regular blog updated.
In any case, try always to drink responsibly. If you can’t, well…it happens to the best of us.
“Alcoholics wake up at the crack of ice.”
— Anonymous
IF YOU can’t annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.
Or so says Kingsley Amis, the novelist father of Martin, one of my favorite British writers.
The same can very well apply to mixing drinks, which usually involves ice.
Gin Buck and Msinga
HERE I am at one or so in the morning, trying to encourage sleep by fixing myself a Gin Buck or two—except that I used calamansi, instead of lemon because I was unable to find some at the grocery I visited last night.
I am in the middle of this novella entitled Msinga by Rian Malan that was published by Granta in its Winter 1989 issue, more than two decades ago.
Msinga is a region (province?) deep in South Africa that, even as it had much promise for development, remained poor because its tribes and sub-tribes killed each other over land disputes and cattle rustlings, among others. Always. The piece reminded me of Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost, which I began reading abroad but I never got to finish. KLG is about how regular people were able to change the world because, one day, they decided that something must be done. It’s similar to Malan’s Msinga. One day, Neil Alcock, a white guy decided to do something about the poverty in Msinga. He was successful but he eventually failed. But still, it was step in the right direction.
I haven’t Googled Msinga yet but I will as soon as I finish this piece—and probably this drink.
![Got the recipe after I used search terms—gin, ginger ale—on Google. I came up with Gin Buck, which is one and a half parts gin, a tablespoon of lemon, and six parts ginger ale. (On the second drink, I used two parts gin. Owing to increased strength, the gin bit. But the ginger ale alleviated the bite.) [Pink ball courtesy of a children’s party I attended.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsutv1E7OI1qeq5s9o1_500.jpg)
Got the recipe after I used search terms—gin, ginger ale—on Google. I came up with Gin Buck, which is one and a half parts gin, a tablespoon of lemon, and six parts ginger ale. (On the second drink, I used two parts gin. Owing to increased strength, the gin bit. But the ginger ale alleviated the bite.) [Pink ball courtesy of a children’s party I attended.]
