| Brooks Club |
Some years ago Loraine and I wandered into a deserted bar in London, and sat down at the bar.
I mentioned to the bartender that I was looking for a favourite Drink for the hero in one of my thrillers, and he said I should think about a Black Velvet.
He then poured one for us, carefully half filling a Champagne glass with Guiness and then carefully pouring champagne over the back of a spoon so that it ran down the sides, without mixing with the beer.
As he pushed the layered drink across the bar to us, he told us the story of the origin of the drink, back in 1861, in the venerable Brooks Club.
Prince Albert. the consort of Queem Vctoria, was being mourned, and the bartender was asked to serve a customer champagne. He refused, saying this would not honour the much-loved Prince, and instead said he would only serve a special drink during the period of mourning.
He then created the Black Velvet, remarking that the colour and layering symbolized the black cloth armbands that mourners wore, and the champagne the spirt of the Prince.
The legend was born, and the drink persists to this day.
I could not resist the story, and snuck in Black Velvet as the preferred drink of my hero.
If you want to celebrate something, think Black Velvet, and add the story.
Other drinks also use layers. The Poor Man’s Black Velvet using apple cider rather than champagn, with the Guiness added as the top layer.
The German equivalent uses a Schwarzbier (a dark lager), and is served in a beer mug; it is named the Bismark, after the Iron Chancellor who ruled European politics from 1871 to 1890.
He dominated the cowed King Wilhelm I and lead Germany to victory over Austria and France, and then united Germany.
A master of realpolitik, he ran circles around all others with his balancing of power through coalitions and brute force.
The Italian version of the Black Velvet is the Velluto Italiano (Italian Velvet), which uses a two parts of Birra Moretti La Rossa instead of Guiness, and one part of Prosecca instead of champagne.
| Black Velvet |
