I have a tendency to buy small things that I think might be cool blog fodder, use them, then forget to write about them.
That happened recently - well, within the past six months - with two things I picked up after reading about them via Garden & Gun emails: Shrub & Company sipping vinegars and the book To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion.
I bought both last spring and dove into them right away. The shrub - I got the grapefruit flavor - adds an interesting dimension to drinks. But maybe too interesting for me. I get it, but honestly, I might not be sophisticated enough as a drinker to truly appreciate it. I liked the drink I made, but I didn't love it. (Or maybe I just need to spend more time playing with the shrub to make something better.)
The book, on the other hand, I loved. It's an encyclopedic look at pretty much everything Hemingway - or Hemingway's characters - drank. It includes quotes from books, excerpts from letters, and other fascinating tidbits about the life of Hemingway and his friends and family.
It inspired me to reread A Moveable Feast and The Great Gatsby, both of which are old favorites of mine. (It's wild to compare Hemingway and Fitzgerald as writers while you read about how their lives intersected, but that's another post. On a different blog, probably.)
It's great stuff, exploring Heminway's life and works via his drinks. Plus, the book is full of cocktail recipes - and you know I like that.
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