Not an urban myth

It rained a lot, I’m still itchy, I spent a lot of time hunched in front of a computer … that about sums up my yesterday.

Not very exciting, so it’s lucky I have the answers to my booze quiz to share with you. I know you’re all on the edge of your seats, so here goes:

1. The most popular cocktail in the world is an Old Fashioned – one sugar cube wetted with three dashes of Angostura bitters and a little soda, crushed, stirred with a large ice cube and two ounces of rye – it has topped Drinks International’s Top 50 classic cocktails list for the last six years straight.
2. The three main ingredients in an Aperol Spritz are Aperol, soda and Prosecco.
3. The difference between whisky and whiskey is that the Scots spell it whisky and the Irish spell it whiskey, with an extra ‘e’. This difference in the spelling comes from the translations of the word from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic forms. Whiskey with the extra ‘e’ is also used when referring to American whiskies. However Japanese and Australian whisky usually drops the e.
4. Beer is usually made from barley, although wheat, rye, oats, millet, sorghum, rice and corn have all been used for brewing
5. Taylor Swift’s favourite drink is a whiskey sour – whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, and optionally, a dash of egg white – she was introduced to the drink by celebrity chef Ina Garten
6. Coca-Cola was first created in 1886 by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton. While cocaine-infused beverages may seem far-fetched to modern drinkers, they were quite common in the late 19th century. Cocaine was not made illegal in the United States until 1914. But by 1903, the tide of public opinion had turned against the widely used and abused narcotic, leading the Coca-Cola Company’s then-manager, Asa Griggs Candler, to remove nearly all cocaine from the company’s beverages. But Coke wouldn’t become completely cocaine-free until 1929, when scientists perfected the process of removing all psychoactive elements from coca-leaf extract.
7. The biggest selling red wine varietal in Australia is shiraz.
8. It takes around 600 grapes to make one bottle of red wine.
9. The biggest selling white wine varietal in Australia is sauvignon blanc.
10. Bob Hawke the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia, was immortalised by the Guinness Book of Records in 1954 for sculling 1.4 litres of beer in 11 seconds. Hawke was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford between 1953 and 1956.
11. A Nebuchadnezzar is a bottle containing 15 litres of Champagne, equal to 20 standard Champagne bottles.
12. After the US, Australia is Jim Beam’s biggest market, accounting for about one-third of global sales.
13. 24 people die annually from being hit by champagne corks, usually in the face at weddings
14. Colin Firth doesn’t have his own wine label. Snoop Dog is the latest celebrity to get on the wine bandwagon, he’s about to release a red wine in the US under the TWE 19 Crimes label.
15. The alcoholic beverage that inspired the term “dutch courage” is gin. It is believed the term was coined during the Anglo-Dutch wars between 1652 and 1674, either because the English soldiers drank gin before a battle to fight the fear, or because they saw the Dutch soldiers drink gin and witnessed the bravery with which they fought after it.

In other random news, I was quite startled by this pic of young Ricky Gervais photoshopped beside older Ricky Gervais …

It’s from an article about Dutch graphic designer Ard Gelinck, who has been photoshopping famous people so it looks like they’re hanging out with their younger selves. I DID NOT recognise the acerbic comedian, I didn’t even have an inkling.

Song of the Day: Bob Dylan “Blowing in the wind”