VASHE ZDOROVIE!

We don't dink a lot of spirits yet we've got lots of unused bottles of liqueurs, whiskies, cognac, gin etc in the cupboard - results of a quick grab at Duty Free on the way home from overseas trips.

Just lately I've taken to having a glass of vodka and tonic as a change from wine. I only ever feel like having one, admittedly a large one and it's a nice pre-dinner cocktail. As I don't like to 'mix the grape with the grain' it's also a good way of cutting down on wine consumption.

The lockdown, with bottle shops being closed though, means that I can't buy a bottle of nice vodka - I prefer NZ crafted ones like 42 Below, Broken Shed and others but I'm not a hipster.

NOT ME

THE NEXT HIPSTER SPIRIT IS - VODKA

I fossicked around at the back of the cupboard and found a couple of old bottles of vodka - one old and the other very old. Both had been opened.

The old one is EFFEN Cherry which is a Dutch vodka I've had for 25 years. It's really nice but was forgotten about.

It's one of the samples I was given by the producer back in the 1990s when we were evaluating it as a brand to import. We passed on the opportunity and I'm not sure if any was imported by anyone else. I've certainly never seen it on the shelves. Although it's been open a while it still has lots of flavour and the alcohol hasn't dropped much.



The very old bottle is a Russian brand named PARROT.

This bottle is over 60 old being from the 1950s or early 1960s. I found it while clearing out the underground cellars of the old Hughes and Cossar store in Khyber Pass Auckland back in the mid 1980s.
It's been opened since about 1990 - 30 years ago and, apart from the alcohol drop down to about 25 to 30% is still remarkably flavoursome and interesting.



A recent discovery of ours is the East Imperial tonic company which makes a range of different flavoured tonics and other mixers. We get it delivered by the boxful.
Her Indoors likes the grapefruit flavoured tonic with her gin but I prefer the 'Old World' style.

It's a local company and they claim to use the true ingredients which certainly show through in the flavours.
The real beauty is that they are single-serve 150ml bottles. This means that if you only want one drink you only open the little bottle without having a half bottle or more of tonic sitting around to either go off or induce you to have another drink.