221–229 of 229 posts
Since we are talking cocktails and we are on HN, shout out to Drinkable [1], a mobile app with cocktail recipes, 100% opensource, available on F-Droid as well [1] https://github.com/MOIMOB/drinkable
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I mean give the reactionaries a little credit. The systembolaget by my house closes at 1500 on Saturdays. Come on. It is a really reasonable deal to buy from there though often. Selection is pretty good and the taxes on beer and wine are less and as a result due to the flat markup you can get really good deals on fine wines and the like.
The one where I live closes at 1400. I've never been bothered by that, if something social suddenly comes up that I'd like to be tipsy for I'd grab something I already have or buy some "people's beer". I.e. 2.8 or 3.5 percent alcohol, available at any grocery store, cornershop or petrol station, sometimes lovingly called "emergency rockets". In my area it's also trivial to find both illegal vodka and legal beer peopl…
You simply can't get anything of that level in a normal store. Dealcoholized Rieseling, Morello cherry juice, cider apple juice, etc.
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The one where I live closes at 1400. I've never been bothered by that, if something social suddenly comes up that I'd like to be tipsy for I'd grab something I already have or buy some "people's beer". I.e. 2.8 or 3.5 percent alcohol, available at any grocery store, cornershop or petrol station, sometimes lovingly called "emergency rockets". In my area it's also trivial to find both illegal vodka and legal beer peopl…
I think the big appeal for me with Systembolaget is actually their non-alcoholic alternatives. You simply can't get anything of that level in a normal store. Dealcoholized Rieseling, Morello cherry juice, cider apple juice, etc.
It's a quite different experience compared to regular profit optimised mass retail.
Now, I'm very aware of the drawbacks for local producers. It's a bit tricky to get things onto the monopoly shelves, you can't have anything the least provocative or advert-like on the label and even if you're only going to sell through your local monopoly shop you still need to price in sending your bottles to a logistics hub in Örebro or wherever. This is surely annoying, but pretty much every monopoly shop has inventory from local smalltime craft brewers and distillers and the like anyway.
As I see it, this is an unexploited business opportunity, one could likely live quite comfortably skimming a margin from small alcohol producers in exchange for lower transport costs and reliable advice in product design that shortens time to market.
Very cool motivation around personal “lists” generally! Gin took me the longest to “get” and subtle cocktails that play to its strengths seem to have had the most lasting appeal. Whiskey drinks are great but I’d usually just rather have a nice whiskey straight, versus diluted with sugar. Whiskey+wine has some good combos. Likewise with tequila. Rum/rhum I still don’t get the sipping side, so cocktails is still the go…
> Rum/rhum I still don’t get the sipping side There's a vast variety and some is great, some not so much. There are very sweet, delicious rums like Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, which is tasty but a little bit on the syrupy side. Then there are delicious but less sweet rums like Appleton Estate, Flor de Cana, Havana Club, Mount Gay, El Dorado etc. Ron Zacapa is very sippable too, and very approachable, and I think t…
Stroh 80 sucks on its own, but as a component of a cocktail it's actually quite nice. Try mixing it into warm toddy or tonic based drink depending on season, and use roughly half the amount you'd use of a 40% spirit.
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Finding Chartreuse is harder than it used to be. The monks decided to reduce production.
No, they didn't reduce production, they just stopped scaling it with the rising demand. Chartreuse got very popular in the last few years, and the monks started to produce more, but now they are at a point where they feel they a) earn enough money for the monastery and b) they claim scaling further hurts the sustainability. So instead of producing more, they allocate the existing stock mostly to the hospitality busin…
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The one where I live closes at 1400. I've never been bothered by that, if something social suddenly comes up that I'd like to be tipsy for I'd grab something I already have or buy some "people's beer". I.e. 2.8 or 3.5 percent alcohol, available at any grocery store, cornershop or petrol station, sometimes lovingly called "emergency rockets". In my area it's also trivial to find both illegal vodka and legal beer peopl…
I think the big appeal for me with Systembolaget is actually their non-alcoholic alternatives. You simply can't get anything of that level in a normal store. Dealcoholized Rieseling, Morello cherry juice, cider apple juice, etc.
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40ml is a decent double tot. I would not want more than that in a single drink anyway. Especially if its a strong liquor!
40ml is 1.3 oz so not even a double. I didn't realize the Norwegians were all drinking weak cocktails!
A cocktail with only a single shot of liquor, especially if the rest of the drink is large volume, is pretty weak I agree.
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Unpopular opinion, but I think this is a great idea for alcohol and cigarettes, especially in areas with high rates of alcoholism.
That is in fact why alcohol is insanely expensive in Norway. Because they have historically had high rates of alcoholism and want to combat that.
Such a fun and entertaining read. I'd never suggest someone give up a software career to become a food writer, but I'd love to read more of OP's writing as he pursues these goals.
Writer of the post here, really appreciate this! When I was really little I did say I wanted to be a food critic when I grew up...