When life gives you snow... make snowballs.

Well, not literally—I've not found too many people who are fond of this mix of Advocaat and lemonade (also available in handy premix bottles) other than dear old Mumsie.

But there has been some interesting work on snow cocktails. I was particularly impressed by a chap who had videoed himself in his garden making a mojito from the snow from his bird table.

There is a old fashioned lamp-post outside my wind, now adorned with lovely large icicles. Needless to say Mrs B. was not keen on me shimmying up it just to make a cocktail.

In the end I found some icicles donated by a kind neighbour...

Here is the result:

A Gin & Tonic made with Beefeater Winter (well, what else?) atheistically pleasing but a devil to drink.

A word about the Deadly Yellow Snow

A Deadly Yellow Snow in its simplest form

Reading DBS's post about his snowball experiments last night inspired me to go out and scoop up a pint glass of virgin snowflakes from the garden and attempt my own Snow Julep.

Like David I found that it pretty much impossible to drink without a straw—the liquid just sulks at the bottom of the powder.

The only solution I found was to mash the whole thing up with a spoon, producing, in effect, a Bourbon Slurpee. This looks rather pretty and holds its consistency very well: I can imagine it being a great thing to suck on of a hot summer's day.

Mind you, as I sat reading in bed last night nursing one of these concoctions I couldn't help thinking to myself that it actually wasn't very nice: it had unpleasant, bitter overtones that I put down to the mint that I found in the fridge not being in the first flush of youth.

But when I came down this morning I idly sipped the melted snow in the pint glass, expecting something, well, pure as the driven snow. In fact it was really foul, with horrible stale, dusty flavour. My wife thinks that foxes peed in the snow (but then she is convinced that everything in the garden is constantly urinated on by all of God's creatures). I suspect the truth is that the snow that lands in London has to fight its way through all kinds of pollution.

The Bourbon Slurpee serve

It's possible that DBS has a better quality of snow down in Havant. But if you're planning to experiment with snow in food or drink, you might want to taste it on its own first!

Deadly Yellow Snow
50 ml bourbon
Sugar lump
Fresh mint
Suburban snow

Place mint in a glass. Drop in sugar lump and muddle with the mint leaves. Add snow and pour in the whisky. Either drink with a straw or mix into an alcoholic Slush Puppy. Then discard.

Lab Update #3: Snow.

Lab update #3 - Fun with Snow

With all my scheduled meetings for the day cancelled, I decided to make the best of this impromptu day-off and use the weather in some drinks.

First I tried a Snow Julep using Jim Beam Green Label Bourbon, it's looks good and I thought it was a nice idea but it was very difficult to drink without a straw.

The next idea (below right) was inspired by Clayton (and I have to admit I feel the same) love of the G Vine ice balls, rather than one big ice ball to add to your whisky why not use a compacted snowball. Once I had packed it together I put it

in the freezer for a minute to let it harden up.

this seems to cool the drink moderately, but not as much as the Gvine cubes.

Below left: you can see a Gin & Tonic, "Evans" style served with another chunk snowball ice.

Some readers may think, using snow ice is all well and good but I would like to be warmed up.

Well I shall introduce you to my simple hot toddy recipe:

2pts Whisky

1pt Sugar Syrup

1pt Lemon Juice

4pts Boiling Water

I have scaled this up using 500ml whisky, 125ml sugar syrup, 125ml honey, 250ml lemon juice. I added the whisky sugar syrup and lemon juice to a saucepan and gently heated it, I then added the honey,a pinch of nutmeg, and stirred. After heating for a few minutes I removed the pan from the heat. After cooling I strained it and bottled it.

Voila! You have a premix hot toddy, just add hot water (1pt toddy mix : 2parts boiling water.)