And a Drink for Aloysius

Tonight I reverted to my wild youth, or at least wild late twenties, and made brandy Alexanders. I was introduced to them in the novel Brideshead Revisited, which enthralled me when I was about 27. Actually, the Jeremy Irons TV version enthralled me; when I read the book I was sorta bored.

In the novel the louche character Anthony Blanche sets up Alexanders on a bar and downs them one by one. A friend and I promptly had to try it ourselves. I tried them again at home from time to time when I had some dark creme de cacao on hand. Back then I wasn't all that excited when I finally tasted one, but I probably used cheap brandy. Phil was the Anthony Blanche type. I was more a Charles Ryder.

Tonight I had better brandy on hand, Courvoisier, and the usual dark creme de cacao and heavy cream. I drank it down faster than I do most of the drinks in this calendar. I'm not a big chocolate fan, but it's sort of like spiked chocolate milk. Always one to seek out a second opinion, and I still had lots of that Metaxa brandy from last week, I mixed up a second one with that. That went down even smoother.

I don't know where or when I'd drink brandy Alexanders. They seem to be a gentleman's bar sort of drink, if the gentleman is wearing some lavender with poofy gray hair. I'll guess I'll have to slip into a tux and drink it in secret at home. Et in Arcadia ego.