Gin and Tonic the Way It Should Be

From the most recent edition of Mr. Wright’s Weekly Pub News.

"Where’d the Bubbles Go?

If you have a Gordon’s gin and tonic at Dan Ryan’s, you get a decent pour of gin, with cold, fresh, bubbly tonic water. Next door at The Shannon, they’ll still give you a generous pour of gin, but there’s not one bubble to be seen. Similarly, over at The Brass Monkey, order a Gordon’s G&T or vodka and tonic and you’ll be hard pressed to see any bubbles at all. The regular G&T drinkers based at Dan Ryan’s established an investigatory committee to find out what happened to the bubbles. ‘Nuke Fizz’ Ed proposed the idea that the G&T’s at The Shannon were bubble-less because Dan’s serves tonic water from cans stored in a fridge, while our Irish friends poured room temperature tonic water into the gin. This theory was subsequently proven incorrect. Billy the Kid thought it could either be the shape of the glass (a somewhat medieval line of thought, IMHO) or the amount of soap used to wash the glass. A lot of froth about nothing, I was beginning to think. But in fact, the soap theory turned out to be bang on. One night, Billy the Kid button-holed Lothar, GM from the Far Eastern at ‘The Monkey’ and Lothar showed Billy and Max how fresh, bubbly tonic water when poured into an over-soaped glass at ‘The Monkey’ instantly lost all its bubbles. Billy also proposed this theory to Roger Marten, former GM at the Formosa Regent, who also gave Billy the thumbs-up for the over-soaped glass theory. When Bad Boy Billy proposed this theory to a manager at The Shannon, however, the person concerned told the staff nearby in Chinese that Billy was speaking a load of hogwash when Billy had actually hit the nail upon the head. In So there you have it - at establishments that are using a too soapy washing solution for their glasses, tonic water bubbles are virtually all killed off, barring perhaps a few brave ones left clinging to the straw or the underside of an ice block. The bottom line is if you like bubbly G&T’s, go to Dan’s, or perhaps The Brass Monkey, if Max has adjusted the soap quantity. Meanwhile, the G&T’s at The Shannon remain as flat as _________ (you fill in the blank)."

What I find most amazing of all is that any of these places actually use any soap at all :wink: Still, I suppose we could have a bit of harmless fun by always requesting our poofy G&Ts “in an unsoaped glass, my good fellow. There’s a good chap.”

Why are you drinking “Gordon’s”?

I’ve always thought that “Bombay Blue Sapphire” was a better drop… :wink:

[quote=“The Big Babou”]Why are you drinking “Gordon’s”?

I’ve always thought that “Bombay Blue Sapphire” was a better drop… :wink:[/quote]

That reminds me, I’ve got a bottle of Bombay at home just taking up space.

anyone know where I can get a good Vodka Collins.

I’m tired of explaining to bartenders a) what a VC is or b) what it shouldn’t be (which is invariably what i get here)

Kenny, what should it be?

[quote=“Kenny McCormick”]anyone know where I can get a good Vodka Collins.

I’m tired of explaining to bartenders a) what a VC is or b) what it shouldn’t be (which is invariably what I get here)[/quote]

Try Watersheds.
VC should be like Tom Collins, but w/ vodka, lemon juice (or sweet and sour) and splash of soda or sprite.

Kenny, what should it be?[/quote]

actually not that hard to make.

essentially a Tom Collins, but with Vodka instead of Gin.

Lemon Juice, little sugar, or some lemon mixer
with Vodka (2:1 ratio vodka:lemon)
Shake, Strain.
Add
Carb water/Club Soda
Slice of Lime/Orange

but few places here have the right lemon stuff i think, so it ends up tasting like a Vodka and Soda/Tonic

if you ever get a chance, try a vodka with pomegranate juice. it is one of the best drinks. of course this was NYC. hard to find that kinda juice in a bar.
my favs Vs: Grey Goose, and Zubrowska (Polish Potato V)
a belvedere or skyy is ok too. some of the stolis. but not absolut.

Pomegranate juice is just grenadine, isn’t it? Most bars have it, but its pretty sickly sweet, nasty stuff.

well, to me it was different. vodka and grenadine not the same as vodka and actual pomegranate juice.

i actually dunno what is in grenadine.

Rinsing the glasses properly… like sandman I am amazed soap was used at all. Flat tonic water poured from tins that have been open for half an hour will never have bubbles. I suspect this is also a problem.

Soapy glasses may also explain why all draught lager beer served in Taiwan is flat. The Carlsberg at the Monkey is particularly flat.

Get that bad boy in the freezer right now!

Martinis by tomorrow.

Get that bad boy in the freezer right now!

Martinis by tomorrow.[/quote]

That’s where it’s taking up all the space. My peas barely have room to breathe.

You’re in Taipei, so stop grumbling. Try being in Zhongli and spending forever trying to direct the guy behind the bar to the bottle of Bacardi sitting under the spotlight directly behind him.

Not his fault he didn’t know the name of the biggest-selling brand in the world, he doesn’t drink the stuff. But when I got my first bar job years ago my manager took the time to teach me how to do my job properly.

He also taught me about the bubbles, and how glasses should always be rinsed after washing for that very reason. In fact he employed a glasswashing person because the machines were just too tempramental. Nevertheless, a lot of older people always insisted on drinking out of the same glass all night because the first drink was just to wash the soap off.

Gin is gross, btw. Buy a man’s drink. Rum or Vodka. (Or champagne.)

You’re in Taipei, so stop grumbling. Try being in Zhongli and spending forever trying to direct the guy behind the bar to the bottle of Bacardi sitting under the spotlight directly behind him.

Not his fault he didn’t know the name of the biggest-selling brand in the world, he doesn’t drink the stuff. But when I got my first bar job years ago my manager took the time to teach me how to do my job properly.[/quote]

What I’m concluding from this and other threads is that service provided in Taiwan by foreigners is often as bad as that provided by locals. After all, the foreigners obviously don’t have the proper training if the service is so shitty at the Shannon, even with a manager imported from Ireland, and the glasses too soapy at Brass Monkey and elsewhere. Actually, I’m less forgiving of these places as they aspire or claim to give far superior service to local establishments (it doesn’t bother me near as much when some guy in a small pub in Tainan can’t make a perfect tom collins, after all, I’m probably the first person to ever order one from him).