Mr Davies tweets a link to an article about gin. This article says you should forget drinking
gin and tonic with lemon or lime; you must drink it with mango.
It is not easy to source tropical fruits in the Wess Curntry,
but I am assuming a manglewurzel is pretty much the same as a mango and so will
happily give it a whirl once I’ve dug one up and brushed the soil off.
I am, however, a little suspicious about the accuracy of the
article. Actually if you are a
ginoisseuse like me you will know that the type of fruit that matches a gin
depends on the botanicals in the gin, and every gin is different. Some contain elderflower and orange peel;
some contain cucumber; some contain things you’d find lodged under an elephant’s
toenails. And some of the cheaper ones,
particularly the ones sold at airports, contain essence of diesel oil. So, because I am a chemist and know about
these things, and also a bit of a pedant especially after a gin or four, I
would question whether mango is right for every
gin. For an airport gin, for example,
wouldn’t a spoonful of engine sludge be a better accompaniment?
The article goes on to say that you must serve your gin with
lots of ice. Correct. Then it says you should serve it in a balloon
glass so as to allow the aromas to escape and reach your nose, “as they would
with a fine wine”. Again, excuse me, but
if you cool something down with lots of ice, the last thing the aromas are
going to do is escape. They are going to
huddle together at the bottom of the glass, like we have to at 95 Chancery Lane
these days because the heating is so rubbish.
Finally, the author says that the mango-gin combination creates “a chemical reaction that basically
causes a flavour explosion in your mouth.”
Well. As a chemist, I do like a
good reaction, especially one that basically causes an explosion. But is it nitpicking to want to see the
equation for this reaction?
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