London Cocktail Week

Ok...so I did 17 cocktails in 7 days...well actually 6 days because I didn't get around to having a drink on Monday. My goal was to stay away from crowds and enjoy my beverage. Hence the mid-day drinking. I'd definitely say it was worth the 10pound wristband and if I were ever here again during this time, I would totally do it. I got to explore new neighborhoods and go to bars/restaurants I wouldn't have tried otherwise. Definitely a fun experience. Here's where I went, what I saw, what I tasted, and how things ranked. All descriptions are courtesy of my London Cocktail Week Guidebook and all times are approximate.

Cocktail #1: Tuesday, 1PM. Quarter Bar and Lounge. London Bridge area.

Shardi-ni: A smooth blend of fresh watermelon, passion fruit notes and vanilla-infused vodka.

Taste:  1 Atmosphere: 2 Presentation: 3
SO tasty! And pretty! And, this place was very relaxing and friendly in the middle of the day. Nice swanky chairs to sit in.

Cocktail #2: Tuesday, 1:30PM, Porky's BBQ Bankside. I also had some decent Memphis BBQ with this drink.

Jam Julep: Evan Williams Bourbon, raspberry syrup, blackberry syrup, plum bitters, and a handful of fresh mint. Served w/ a chocolate bourbon cookie. 

Taste: 4 Atmosphere: 12 Presentation: 2
Beautiful and tasty. Just your standard restaurant, but this drink was anything but standard!

Cocktail #3: Tuesday, 8PM, Christopher's Martini Bar w/ Reggie and Steve

Honeymooner: Stolichanaya Honey Vodka, limoncello, fresh raspberry syrup, lime juice, and a dash of Peychaud's bitters

Taste: 15 Atmosphere: 13 Presentation: 5
Fancy martini bar. Not well lit. Something tasted weird in this one, maybe the honey. And we had to drink 1.5 each since the waitress thought we wanted 3 of them (one for each of us, but Steve doesn't drink). 

Cocktail #4: Tuesday, 8:45PM, Bedford & Strand w/ Reggie and Steve

Strawberry and Basil Cooler: Absolut Blue Vodka, homemade basilcello, strawberry puree and lengthened with a splash of soda

Taste: 11 Atmosphere: 8 Presentation: 11
Just boring. But, the place was kinda cool down in a basement.

Cocktail #5: Wednesday, 1:30PM, Aqua Spirit near Oxford Circus

They didn't have the ingredients for the special cocktail, so I got to order whatever I wanted off their menu. I did the Japanese Velvet: Pear sake, pear puree, lemongrass, lime juice, honey, and apple juice.

Taste: 10 Atmosphere: 7 Presentation: 4
Interesting taste...actually not that bad to be ranked so low. This was a fancy sushi restaurant on the 5th floor of some building.

Cocktail #6: Wednesday, 2:00PM, Whyte & Brown

Whyte Wine Spritz: white wine, rhubarb bitters, rose lemonade, mint, and lemon zest

Taste: 12 Atmosphere: 11 Presentation: 12
Standard wine spritzer. Nothing to write home about.

Cocktail #7: Thursday, 1PM, The Alchemist w/ two of my Statistics students

Loire Lady: Chambord black raspberry liqueur blended with grapefruit vodka, dry and sweet vermouths and citrus bitters. Heated and poured over dry ice and served over cubed ice.

Taste: 6 Atmosphere: 1 Presentation: 1
Holy amazingness! And the menu is amazing. And the bar itself is beautiful. I must return. They do dinner and stuff too. Looks fun!

Cocktail #8: Thursday, 1:30PM, 3 South Place Bar & Grill w/ two of my Statistics students

SPH Autumn: Bacardi Superior Rum infused with cucumber, green tea syrup, lime juice, peach bitters, cooked pear, and mint leaves

Taste: 9 Atmosphere: 15 Presentation: 6
Boring hotel bar. Very crowded w/ the lunch crew. The bartender did come over and explain the drink to us, so that was nice. Very refreshing.

Cocktail #9: Thursday, 8:30PM, El Nivel w/ Reggie and Steve. We also had some Mexican Tapas.

Mexican 55: Ocho Blanco Tequila, lime, Yellow Charteuse, pimento dram and topped with sparkling wine

Taste: 8 Atmosphere: 6 Presentation: 13
Cool space upstairs where you could see into the changing rooms of a musical happening. Fun to watch. Drink was like a mimosa w/ tequila added. Food was decent.

Cocktail #10: Thursday, 9:30PM, Jamie Oliver's Secret Basement Bar w/ Reggie and Steve. We also played Scrabble.

Covent Garden: Gin, elderflower liqueur, and fresh apple and lemon juices

Taste: 14 Atmosphere: 9 Presentation: 9
Smelled funky in here. Drink was just okay. All I really tasted was the apple juice.

Cocktail #11: Friday, 3:30PM,  The Print Room

The Print Room Twist: Absolut Wild Tea vodka, earl grey syrup, creme de peche and topped with Prosecco

Taste: 2 Atmosphere: 3 Presentation: 14
Yummy!! And this place has balconies overlooking Covent Garden. I sat inside because the balconies were crowded on a Friday afternoon, but I might check this place out during the week.

Cocktail #12: Saturday, 11:30AM, Black & Blue Borough Market

Bold English Rose: Cherries, cassia, a few secret ingredients, sweet-and-sour cherry, spice and floral notes, elderflower cordial, fresh lemon juice and raspberries

Taste: 3 Atmosphere: 14 Presentation: 7
Yummy again! I drank this down in no time. So yummy. Not even sure if it had alcohol in it. :) Just a restaurant otherwise.

Cocktail #13: Saturday, 4PM, Adventure Bar

The Appleton Dreamcatcher: Appleton Estate Rum, Chambord black raspberry liqueur, vanilla, apple and passionfruit with a fortune cookie on the side.

Taste: 5 Atmosphere: 4 Presentation:8
Cool basement bar. I bet it's crazy when it's busy at night. I enjoyed it at 4PM and they have drink specials during the week until 10 or something. I'd go back. Oh, one of the drinks had a cricket on a stick w/ it. Weird, but cool.

Cocktail #14: Saturday, 4:30PM, Foundation Bar

The Gaffa: A rum based concoction sweetened with peach liqueur and apple juice, topped with fresh lime and spicy ginger beer

Taste: 7 Atmosphere: 5 Presentation: 10
Another cool basement bar. Liked the vibe in here too, but again I bet it's nuts when it gets late. I'd go back in the middle of the day again. :)

Cocktail #15: Saturday, 5:15PM, Pix, Ate a few required snacks from the snack/tapas buffet

Pomaroyal: Pomarina Brut Cider and Chambord black raspberry liqueur

Taste: 16 Atmosphere: 16 Presentation: 16
Blah. Boring drink. Boring food. Crowded.

Cocktail #16: Sunday, 9:30AM, Dishroom

The Dhoble: Fresh orange juice, spiced gin, Maraschino liqueur and a squeeze of lemon, served over cubed ice

Taste: 13 Atmosphere: 10 Presentation: 15
Drink was fine. Tasted like OJ. Just a restaurant. Nothing too exciting.

Cocktail #17: Sunday, 12:15PM, Angostura Butterfly House

Daiquiri

Taste: 17 Atmosphere: 17 Presentation: 17
Bad move. Should have skipped the drink. Too much rum that early in the day. I even forgot to take a pic of it it was so boring. The butterfly house was cool, but sitting outside the house drinking this wasn't. Blah. Bad way to end my week, but it was too rainy for me to go out Sunday night and I was being productive, so I stayed in. 

Week #6: A few outings and a big run on the coast

Week 6 has come and gone and the fun never stops here!

Cryptography: We had a special guest speaker on Tuesday (see below) and then watched a great BBC special that Andy Ross recorded for me a while back on the Secret Codebreakers. It tells the story of Bill Tutte and Tommy Flowers and I thought it was really well done. Then, we reviewed a bit for our midterm and the students turned in their first papers. FUN!

Applied Stats: Students did a peer review of project 1. We learned about tests for normality and homogeneity. Found stats had a few good things in it this week, but without the help of the internet, some students are struggling to find statistics in the world.

Monday: Stayed at home all day and worked. Then, went out and had dinner w/ Ed and some of his guests at the neighborhood tapas place, Meson Del Felipe. It's good. Not outstanding, but good. It's a bit noisy and crowded in there too and that's not always my style.

Tuesday: Ed's friend, George, came to visit my cryptography class to talk about his time doing special ops stuff for the US. All unclassified stuff, but I think the students enjoyed hearing his stories. It was nice to have a day's break from class prep for me too! After class, I stopped at a tea shop on my way home and then did some work until dinner. I took George and Ed to this great restaurant in Borough Market called Rabot 1745. Everything on the menu has cacao bean in it in some form. They even had roasted cacao beans (delicious) on the table and a cacao bean grinder in case you needed more chocolate on your food. A great meal! Took some nice night photos on my iPhone on my way home.

Menu and roasted cacao beans

Tuna tartare with cacao guac

Choc du Vin: chicken in a red wine chocolate sauce

Chocolate soup with meringue

Wednesday: Early AM run and then off to Art of the Brick, a Lego art exhibit by Nathan Sawaya. Amazing stuff. This is not Darth Vader made out of Legos. It's like real art...made out of Legos. My favorite part were his descriptions of his work. I took some pics of those too, because I think it helps to bring it all together.

Love this one...and its description below.

That night, Ed, George and I went to see if Lindsay Lohen could handle live theater at Speed the Plow. She was fine. The play was short and more than anything she just seemed like herself chatting with the other actors on stage. Maybe that's good...or maybe she didn't get into character enough. Not a disaster. Not spectacular.

Thursday: Awoke at 6AM to find my computer dead and my charger no longer working. The prongs had been falling out of the magnetic piece that connects to the machine for weeks, but I had always been able to put it back together, but not Thursday morning. AND all my work for class was on my dead machine. Brilliant. I made the only day-of appointment at a Genius Bar in London at some mall out in Zone 3 on the tube, so that was to be my afternoon. A student let me borrow a cord for class so I could get the assignments for the day off of there. Then, after a work meeting I headed out on my adventure. It was fun to be in a mall. I walked around a bit, but I had my MacBook and giant Stats book with me, so I needed a rest. Starbucks chai tea latte and a apple cinnamon duffin to the rescue. Then, it was time for my appointment. After waiting a while, a nice young man came over and saw my broken cord and looked and looked through my account info, but wasn't finding a way to replace my cord (I guess my laptop is too old). But, all of a sudden he went to the wall w/ the chargers, picked up a new one, opened it, gave me the new one and dumped my old one in the box and told me to be on my way. YAY! Free new power cord. So sweet that guy. :) Totally made my day.

Friday: Class, afternoon run, work.  Then, it was too nice out to stay inside and work, so I took a stroll to Chinatown, got some nice bubble tea and walked home. It was lovely.

Saturday: Borough Market in the AM. Had some coconut pancakes, so yummy tea (that I went back and bought a few backs of) and a sausage breakfast burger (sausage burger, fried egg, spinach, hollandaise sauce and a freshly baked bun!!). Then, I stopped at Waterloo station on my way home to pick up train tickets for next week's field trip to Bletchley. Yeah...I purchased 20+ train tickets for THIS Friday (as in the day before) and not NEXT Friday. I couldn't believe I had screwed that up. Thankfully, they are refundable tickets (minus a small refund fee), but still. I about had a panic attack in the train station. Ugh! Then, it was time to go to Bournemouth for the weekend. I took a 1PM bus and arrived in Bournemouth around 3:30. Walked about 1.5 miles to my hotel (which was ADORABLE!) and then explored Boscombe (the town my hotel was). Walked down to the beach and around this cute pier that has all these neat musical instruments on it (pipes and steel drums). Then, I walked up Sea Road and checked out some of the art along this street. I also saw the police box that was in the main shopping district. For the Doctor Who fans out there, this is one of only 2 functioning police boxes in the entire world apparently. Fancy. Then, it was back to the hotel for rest and A&M football. The game wasn't great, so about halfway through I went and picked up some Thai take away. Yummy.

Sunday: Woke up early. Had a banana and some porridge that the hotel was nice enough to bring me Saturday night since I'd miss their breakfast. Walked a little over a mile to the race start. It was FREEZING (mid 30s). I wore a jacket there, but left it at baggage check. Got in my pin and was ready to go by 7:30. Race started at 8 and I had a great run! The feeling in my fingers came back around mile 4. There was a terrible hill around mile 8.5. Lots of great coastal views.  A few out and backs, but I didn't mind it because it was great scenery and it was fun to see runners coming towards me and then see runners behind me on my way back out. I ran the half in 2:11:59. A 23 minute improvement over my first half in Texas. Super happy with that and this one was sooo much easier. It also wasn't 90 degrees. :)

After the race, I took a bus back to the hotel and went out to do some shopping before roast started at 1PM. Bought a belt (my jeans are getting loose) and some new boots (the ones I brought are hurting my feet...the new ones are ugly, but functional...and cheap from Primark). Then, I went and had a cider and roast at a cute little pub called Chaplin's. I also got a free dessert w/ this card from my hotel. Lime cheesecake. It was yummy and I don't even like cheesecake. I dropped my things off at the hotel and took a nap. Then, it was off to do some mini-golf in the park and get my feet in the water at the beach. I also took a stroll up to another garden that overlooked the city below. Beautiful. Then, it was back to the hotel to figure out a dinner plan. I decided to eat at Urban Reef, a fancy place on the waterfront. Great choice to reward myself! Had baked camembert w/ honey, thyme, and fig preserve and some scallops cooked in salsa verde and this lovely glass of wine my waiter picked out for me. Just perfect. And, I was back to the hotel in time for Downton Abbey.

Monday morning I had my first official English Breakfast w/ tea, sausage, bacon, fried egg, baked beans, hashbrown, grilled tomato, and mushrooms. Yum! It was very nice. Then, came the bad stuff. It was raining. Ugh. The walk to the train station was about 30 minutes. The buses in Bournemouth/Boscombe are super confusing. They are owned by 3 different companies and the one that came by my hotel only came twice a day. :/ So, I decided to just do walk it. Bad move. I should have called a taxi. Anything really. I was so angry all the way there. Umbrella was useless because it was windy. My jacket kept me somewhat dry, but not really. My bag was soaked by the time I got to the train station. Just miserable. I missed my car. I missed warm, dry Texas. It was miserable. I was wet all the way home on the 2.5 hour bus ride until I made it back to the house. I immediately took a shower and had a cup of tea to warm up. Miserable. I'm pretty sure these blogs would be much less fun if London was having its typical rainy days. I am not a rain fan and I am very grateful it's been unusually dry this semester.

I got home and had a few hours to get some classwork done (got some feedback emailed out on papers and started my test writing for my 9AM Tuesday class). I did not accomplish both of those tasks before Steve, Reggie and I headed out for a TV taping, but it was fine. I got up at 5AM today and finished stuff. No biggie. It's London...who needs sleep!?! Steve had scored us tickets to Live at the Apollo (a British stand-up comedy TV show). It was great fun and we happen to get seats in the front row! They filmed two shows last night and so we got to see 6 comics total. They were all pretty good despite the fact that I usually don't get British humor. Good stuff, but we didn't really get home until midnight.

Tea report #2

Tea fans:

This month's tea report is going to be a bit sad. I was pretty busy w/ my parents, so I didn't do much tea shopping. I did however do quite a few cream teas/afternoon teas, so I'll recap those. Although, many of those are listed in other blog posts.

Tea shopping:

Yesterday I checked out Drury Tea & Coffee Company which also has a location in the Covent Garden area. Loved their little store and the guy working was very willing to help me. Lots of good looking flavors of loose leaf tea (including a black cherry one I might go back and get) and lots of pyramid tea bags (which I like because they're quick and easy to use and cooler looking than a regular tea bag). I got some sweet apple tea bags. I had some yesterday. The flavor is very mild, but nice. I like this little store and would certainly recommend it!

I also checked out Harrod's tea selection w/ my parents. Fumiko got me some delicious Earl Grey from Harrod's when she was here. I found that place a bit overwhelming and didn't buy any tea that day. Maybe another day. If I can make myself go in there again.

Tea making:

As I noted in another blog, I learned about brewing tea in the pot and then pouring it over a strainer this week. I tried it at home. The tea tasted wonderful. But, cleaning the pot was a mess. Not sure if that's easier or cleaning out my little tea house shaped strainer is easier. Hence the reason I got some tea bags this week. BUT, I totally get the importance and deliciousness of properly brewing tea w/ the loose leaf stuff. It does taste way better.

Tea out and about:

Let's see. I had cream tea in the Cotswalds (B), afternoon tea w/ my parents at Bea's (A-), cream tea in Salisbury (C-), and cream tea in Bath (A-). Good stuff.

Next month: Look out for some unusual afternoon teas I plan on doing here in London and a few more visits to some tea shops. Only 2 more months to purchase/try all these teas!!