Morning Comrades.
It’s been a week alright, well, not counting today but here we are. I figured I have ranted and raved enough this week so today is going to be all about sharing resources that I have enjoyed and figured you would also.
First and foremost though- some free downloads for you all as a small thank you for your continued support and interest over these last 2 years here. I often get asked if I could sell stickers and I don’t, mostly because I find the logistical part of selling stickers to be too cumbersome and wasteful. With that, here is a link that allows you to dowload these four graphics from the last sticker pack to make your own- they are all laid out in the same format and you can with them as you wish. If you have any question as to how t make your own stickers etc - just drop me a line. I should be around on Sunday to answer emails.
Secondly, a subtle reminder to like and share this week’s playlist, it’s a good one to take into your weekend.
Resources
All of these, collectively and / or individually are worth your time and I will share these mostly without comment as their value is worth more than I can say about them. Enjoy!
The Lethality of Washington’s Global Monroe Doctrine
Half-Earth Socialism’s Five Book Plan
From Verso: “As authors Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass argue in their thrilling and provocative new book, we must humbly accept that humanity cannot fully understand or control the earth—but we can plan new energy systems, large-scale rewilding, and food production for the common good.
Here the authors present their Five Book Plan for imagining a utopian eco-socialist future – or a future at all.”
International Marxist University
“Welcome to Marxist University 2022, four days of online discussion dedicated to understanding the fundamental principles of Marxism, hosted by the International Marxist Tendency on 23-26 July.” - This looks and sounds genuinely exciting!
Last but not least, Tatjana, our correspondent from Copenhagen is back with a new cocktail recipe to get all of us wired over this sure to be scorching weekend!
Hello everybody and welcome back!
I accidentality bruised a couple of bones in my hand thanks to a dumb keg, so this week we're doing something easy, where I don't need to double check my sources. This is not the most groundbreaking, innovative or history-filled post, I know. So if you're here for that, this is just noty our week. Instead, enjoy your weekend and tune in next time. This week however, we're doing a spiked ice coffee! Which I'm not even sure I'd classify as a cocktail. But I do love these fuckers.
Anyone who's ever spent time with e, knows that coffee is one of my favourite things. Ice coffee even more so. I will drink 5 of them in no time, almost shit myself, run to the bathroom and keep going afterwards with zero regrets. So.. what's better than an ice coffee? Spiked ice coffee. Depending on how lazy I am, I'll use either proper espresso or shitty instant coffee. If you go for the actual espresso, use a double shot plus some. For shitty instant coffee, you want it strong but not just burnt-coffee-beans-bitterness in flavour. It still has to taste like coffee. Something like 4 g of medium roasted instant coffee to 10 cl of water is a good guideline. I also shake my ice coffee, if I can. Shaking coffee, sugar, milk/cream and alcohol will the mix a higher viscosity and make it frothy. Even though I enjoy ice americanos, I use milk/cream if it's to be spiked. Think of it as the mix of an ice coffee and a White Russian. Espresso Martini are probably a better comparison, but we don't talk about that, because fuck that drink. Hard.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- Coffee, either espresso or instant
- Coffee liqueur/Crem de Caf
- Frangelico (or some other hazelnut liqueur)
- Crem de Cacao
- Cardamom bitter
- Simple syrup
- Whole milk/cream
- Boston shaker
- Jigger
- Big rocks glass (like the tall Cidra from Libbey sized) or beer glass (about pint sized).
HOW YOU DO IT:
- Pour 10-12 cl of your espresso/instant coffee into the shaker. Pour 2 cl Crem de Caf , 1-2 cl of Frangelico, 1-2 cl of simple syrup and about half 5 cl of milk/cream. It has to be a dark beige in colour.
- Have your glass out and ready. Put around 5-7 ice cubes ino your shaker, close it and shake for a good 10 seconds. You can hear and feel when the ice cubes run into less resistance, because they’re melting, but also hear how the liquid inside is thicker.
- Open your shaker and pour it all out into the glass – incl. ice cubes and shards from the shaking. This is called a dirty shake; when you use the ice the drink has been shaken with in the drink as well, that's the name for it. If you've shaken it hard enough, you should have something extremely frothy.
- Top off with some ice cubes, so it looks nice and delicious. Add straw if needed.
- Drink!
ON A PERSONAL SIDENOTE:
Regarding the coffee, i'd recommend a medium roast. If you opt for the instant, you absolutely have to go medium roast. For the milk/cream, you can use both whole milk and cream. If you do use cream, I'll add this little tip: if you mix it 50/50 with pure coconut puree, it'll taste even better. Coconut cream is pure magic. As for the liqueurs I can as always recommend using Giffards and Brizard. They're easy to get a hold of and are decent in flavour. You should also check, if you got any local distilleries maybe making some coffee liqueurs. I luckily live in Copenhagen, where I have access to all sorts of amazing, locally produced products, but there's a lot of weird shit being made all around the world that's worth checking out if you can. It's just about finding them. For the hazelnut liqueur, I'll suggest using Frangelico. There's others, but Frangelico is hands down the best one in my opinion. It's unfortunately not cheap, so get what you think is right for you. Of course you're free to add 2-3 cl of vodka to this, if you wanna lean more into the buzz. I do that sometimes myself as well. Now cardamom bitter might sound kinda weird in this context, but will really take this to the next level of deliciousness! Bitters are not cheap and a cardamom bitter might have limited use in your home bar, so don't feel like this is a must to buy. However, I can highly recommend the cardamom from Scrappy's Bitters, if you want to. A former colleague always adds 1-2 dashes of orange bitter and an orange peel to his spiked ice coffees instead of cardamom since he likes the orange notes better. I can recommend going with Reagan's orange bitter here. Again, bitters are not cheap, but they last long since you only use a couple of drops for each drink. It's well worth the money for a good one.
As for the specs, this is an approximation. I've never actually measured anything with a jigger for spiked ice coffees. This not something I'd serve guests, but is something for us – the staff. It's all free pouring and tasting my way through – hence no 'actual specs'. You should adjust bitterness/sweetness to your personal taste, so taste the mix as you go before it's shaken. A little goes a long way! If you like it more bitter, use 1 cl of simple syrup and 1 cl of Frangelico instead of 2 cl. Or do 2 -2,5 cl of the coffee liqueur. Add more Crem de Cacao and simple syrup, if you like those sweeter more chocolate-y notes. Experiment and have fun with it.
If you follow world of gastronomy, you have some idea of what's happening on Copenhagen right now. Needless to say, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. It's not something I'm gonna get into here, but suffice to say, us, workers, are both hoping and pushing for change.
Now.. here, I give you the perfect way to get overly caffeinated and buzzed at the same time. Enjoy!
With that, I bid you all a restful and pleasurable weekend comrades. Thanks for tuning in and I will see you all next week. Until then, I remain yours, without compromise,
V