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Monday, March 19, 2012

A good gin & tonic – A Spanglish institution!


By Tony Higgins

As some of you know I spend a lot of time working in London and when I return to Caravaca, at the weekend, Teresa and I like nothing more than to have a few drinks around the town.

Last Saturday night we ended up in the pub Calle Mayor, to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a couple of Guinness’. Anyone who has drunk Guinness will know that after a couple (2) of pints it can become quite heavy, so it wasn’t long before we were onto our favourite, gin & tonic. There is nothing quite like a Spanish gin & tonic and I remember a few years ago reading an article by Michael Robinson, the Spanish TV football commentator, in which he said the same.

One of the waiters in the Calle Mayor did a great job upselling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upselling) special types of gin & tonics infused with herbal tea and strawberries, which were very nice. The mixer (the tonic) was quite a new brand of premium tonic water called Fever Tree (http://www.fever-tree.com/) which is also very nice. On the flight back to London, this afternoon, I was surprised to see an article, in the in-flight magazine, devoted to Fever Tree and the two London entrepreneurs Tim Warrillow and Charles Rolls who are the brains behind the brand that has apparently become the most sought-after accompaniment to gin in Spain. The article also referred to bars in Barcelona (http://www.bobbygin.com/) dedicated solely to gin and it is in these types of joints (bars) that Fever Tree has taken hold. Incidentally Tim Warrillow, 36, first showed entrepreneurial nous (knowledge) at Newcastle University, where he started a company hiring out his friends as waiters while taking his management and marketing degree. Newcastle of course being the home city of Teresa and I, so another small link.

See below a good Spanglish video which can be used as a listening exercise, the video is in Spanish and English.


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