IDFC 3.1.21

 Trek goes Marxist. A bit. They don't stick the landing.

IDFC 1.1.21

This time round,  "Return Of The Archons" gets the IDFC treatment. Short version, it's shoddy and problematic, but one of the highest quality examples of problematic shoddiness TOS's first year managed to produce.

IDFC 6.1.20 (And Happy 2021!)

 Somehow forgot to end 2020 with a post about New Years. Um. Happy New Year?

I also managed to forget to mention that my latest IDFC is up, looking at the Enterprise episode "Detained". Even by my standards, this is clearly just using Trek as an excuse for a political essay.

Christmas 40K: Very Well-Wrapped

It's Christmas at Casa Del Calamari, so I've finally had the time to take some photos of miniatures I finished this year. Starting with these Ultramarine Terminators, which represent the completion of the Imperial half of "Assault On Black Reach".

I've also been busy painting up some Orks from that same box set, in the hopes that 2021 is the year in which I finally finish painting the GW box sets I bought before 2010. Will I make it? It seems desperately unlikely!

Gin And Bear It: 19th to 24th

  Dec 19th: Wilkins & Sons Rhubarb

Look. Just. C'mon, you know? C'mon.

0/10

Dec 20th: Sweet Potato Raspberry Gin Liqueur

Aha! More like it, Advent Calendar Of Booze! You have pleased me.

Not really sure if there's much to be said about this one. The raspberry works really well, balancing the sweet and tart you expect from the aforementioned cluster of juice-globes. Just a really tasty gin.

8/10

Dec 21st: Poetic License Fireside Gin

Eh, I don't think mulled gin really works. At least, it certainly doesn't work cold. You need some warmth to bring out the flavours of your chosen mulling agents - this is like drinking Gordons over a Sainsbury's spice-aisle spillage. 

I mean, you could heat it, I guess. That's not what the website recommends, though, and in any case, we already have mulled wine, and mulled cider, and hot chocolate with Baileys or Kahlua or Tia Maria. Or even egg-nog, apparently, though I've never actually come across it, and half-suspect it to be some kind of cross-Atlantic practical joke.

4/10

Dec 22nd: Malfy Gin Rosa Sicilian Pink Grapefruit

That took longer to type than to drink. Which is a good sign, I grant you. The grapefruit hits you before you even open your mouth, starting surprisingly sweet before reverting to type. Ah, grapefruit. Don't ever change.

8/10

Dec 23rd: Edinburgh Gin Plum And Vanilla

Piss OFF.

0/10

Dec 24th: Poetic License Fireside Gin

Well, merry FUCKING Chistmas. The gin advent calendar equivalent of a pair of ugly socks you already got for your birthday anyway.

Still, at least it means I can get this final post up before noon.

0/10

Gin And Bear It: 13th To 18th

Onward, to glory!

Dec 13th: 6 'o Clock Sloe Gin

Oh, that's weird. Inadvertently, we're immediately returning to the idea of how quickly I can get sick of a particular flavour of gin. Turns out, sloes don't bother me as much in consecutive slots as strawberries do with a week between them.

Is this an uncanny valley type thing? Like, give me a month between flavours and I'll have happily reset, and give me a day between flavours and I can determine the subtle distinctions between them. Stick 'em a week apart, and all I remember is my own review from the last time round.

Whatever the answer, this is sweeter than yesterday's sloe gin, and I appreciate the difference. After laughing maniacally at the deaths of doznes of berries, callously murdered so I could be faintly sarcastic about the aftertaste their broken, pulped bodies left in my mouth, I felt a tiny bit guilty. The sweetness of this gin lets me know the sloes got it. It's all good. It was a privilege for them to serve.

7/10

     

Dec 14th: Wilkin & Sons Rhubarb

This is a bit disappointing. I usually love rhubarb gin, but while you can definitely taste that flavour here, it's too far down in the mix. It's like you stirred a Gordons with a stick of rhubarb before tossing it away, mumbling about overdoses and poison and triangles. It's not bad, by any means, but it really should be better.

6/10

Dec 15th: The Lakes Sloe Gin Liqueur

Okay, this is maybe starting to feel a tiny bit lazy? Slow it down with all these sloes, I say, so very wittily.

I mean, it's not actually bad. I still can't tell the difference between a sloe gin and a sloe gin liqueur, but it tastes nice, and has a stronger mouthfeel than the last two sloe-related beverages.

I'm just starting to wonder whether it's been worth all the red juice on our hands.

7/10

Dec 16th: Edinburgh Gin Rhubarb And Ginger

I've had this before, I think? Not that it matters, because it's gorgeous. The rhubarb is just at the right height in the mix, slow-dancing with the juniper, rather than either cowering terrified in the corner of the disco or scaling the decks, demanding the DJ play a CD of their own mixes brought along from home. The ginger is more subtle, but lingers, warming you long after the initial burn of the alcohol has passed.

The perfect drink for winter, then. Or for people who don't hate pleasure. Either way. 

9/10

Dec 17th: Sweet Potato Lavender Gin

DAMN. I know lavender gin isn't for everyone. I know some people feel like they're sucking on alcoholic Palma Violets. Those people are wrong and are to be pitied, obviously, but they don't have to worry in any case. This is far sweeter than you'd expect form a lavender gin, with the floral elements quite far down in the mix. You feel less like you've raided a lush's candy store, and more like a honey bee with a taste for cocktails.

And who could resist feeling like that?

9/10

Dec 18th: Mason's Dry Yorksihe Gin: Tea Edition

Gin and tea: not just a terrible pun. I should work in advertising. You know, except for having a soul.

ANYWAY. The taste of this gin. No idea why this works, but it does. The tea in this is ludicrously powerful - you can smell it in the shot before it's gotten anywhere near your lips. And I guess you need that cut through something as powerful as gin is. Whatever the alchemy involved, it tastes great, and further links the gin and tonic to its heritage in British India. 

Which arguably just means this is just an artefact of British Imperialism flavoured with cultural appropriation but, y'know. Still fucking tasty.

8/10

Gin And Bear It: 7th To 12th

It's Stage Two of my attempt to drink my wway through a gin advent calendar as still retain the werwithal to describe what's going into my gullet at each stage.

Dec 7th: 6 o' Clock Damson Gin

6 o' Clock behind door number 7. See what they did there? I'm tempted to knock a point off on general principle. Any shitty jokes around here better be mine,

That'd be unfair, though. 6 o' Clock isn't a gin to set the boozer's world on fire, but it's pretty nice. Could do with more damson, I think, but I guess it isn't the distiller's fault that I haven't the slightest interest in subtlety. 7/10

Dec 8th: English Drinks Company Cucumber Gin

Sweet Bacchus, no. No, I cannot sign off on this. A slice of cucumber in a glass of Hendricks and tonic, that works. That's lovely. That's subtle. This is like drinking Gordon's from a hollowed-out cucumber, that is then hammered into my face by a mallet made of frozen cucumber which is then also hammered into my face.

To reiterate: no. 4/10

Dec 9th: Edinburgh Gin Plum and Vanilla

This is more like it! Not sure I've ever combined plum and vanilla before, even before you get to the juniper and ethanol, but it works beautifully - the kind of fuck-it-let's-have-pudding-AND-another-drink concoction that makes cocktails so satisfying. Nice colour, too.

8/10

Dec 10th: Whitley Neill Quince Gin

Confession time: I don't even know what quince is. I mean, I realise Google exists. I just prefer the mystery,

Whatever it is - I want so say some kind of pureed rodent organ? - it's very tasty. It's somewhat hard to discuss, though, since I've had this gin before, and also it tastes like nothing else that exists. Um... It's good? Yeah, that will do. Accuracy in reviews is important. DRINK THIS GIN. THIS GIN IS GOOD. REVIEW CONCLUDED.

7/10

Dec 11th: Poetic License Picnic Gin

Apparently, this is supposed to taste like peaches and cream. I could only taste the strawberries, which as previously mentioned already mixes with juniper and alcohol to taste like an energy drink for high-functioning alcoholics.

And I've done that once this Christmas already. I guess I'm like those film reviewers who knock a star off every time they see a car chase. I've drunk so much gin that what's nice is starting to mean what's original. Which I guess is a little depressing, but ultimately I can't get too worked up about the idea that I'm starting to not appreciat drinks that taste like vodka and Red Bull at seven times the price.

6/10

Dec 12th: Bramley & Gage Organic Sloe Gin

On the other hand, sloe gins still seem to be going down quit nicely, so I'm not sure what's going on. I guess it helps that this one is a little more tart than usual, like the berries involved resent you murdering them for their pulp just that little bit more. That's it, delicious juice-stuffed globes. Resent me as I consume you!

7/10