Quote:
Originally posted by paigowprincess
And on a totally unrlated topic- what exactly is Dubonnet and does anyone actually drink it?
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It may be called a vermouth, but it's not the martini mixer one usually thinks of, which has rather a lot of sugar. It's a vermouth to the extent sherry or any other fortified wine is a vermouth. Dubonnet comes in both red (flavored with spices & quinnine), which is the more common variety, and white (flavored with various herbs). The red is usually drunk neat, the white is also sometimes in mixed drinks, but is quite lovely neat with a twist.
Which gives me the opportunity to repost my favorite cocktail: a Damn Your Eyes: 1/2 vodka, 1/2 dubonnet blanc, shaken until cold, with a twist. Of course, you have to find a bar that has white dubonnet for this, which is actually quite challenging.
It also gives me the chance to relate a story from the Mr's side of the family: when his parents got engaged, his mother was dragged off to meet his dad's family, headed by her fiance's grandfather, an ancient and very stern and frightening Methodist minister of the "fire, brimstone and demon rum" variety, who was also about 6 1/2 feet tall and was a former semi-professional boxer. No one drank or smoked in his presence - no one dared to speak unless spoken to. Then came my mother in law who, promptly at 5, made herself a cocktail. "What are you drinking" the old dragon asked her? Everyone in the house held their breath. "Dubonnet" the m-i-l said. "Ah, Dubonnet," the Mr.'s great grandfather said, "I remember drinking Dubonnet in the streets of Paris at Armistice," and he proceeded to reminisce about the end of WWI and kissing all the pretty French women, to the complete and total shock of his entire family. He and the m-i-l got on like gangbusters until he died a few years later at the age of close to 100 carrying one of his maids up the stairs (she'd fainted, they say - I imagine his days of kissing pretty girls was past, though I could be wrong).
