Tuesday, July 03, 2012
The Ghost of a Raspberry and the Changing City
“In cold weather like this,” said the Innkeeper of a Gastwirtschaft
further down, “I recommend Himbeergeist.” I obeyed and it was a lightning
conversion. Spirit of raspberries, or their ghost – this crystalline
distillation, twinkling and ice-cold in its misty goblet, looked as though it
were homeopathically in league with the weather. Sipped or swallowed, it went
shuddering through its new home and branched out in patterns – or so it seemed
after a second glass – like the ice-ferns that covered the window panes, and
carrying a ghostly message of comfort to the uttermost fimbria. Fierce winters
gave birth to their antidotes: Kummel, Vodka, Aquavit, Danziger Goldwasser. Oh,
for a thimbleful of the cold north! Fiery-frosty potions, sequin-flashers, rife
with spangles to spark fuses in the bloodstream, revive fainting limbs, and
send travellers rocketing on through ice and snow. White fire, red cheek, heat
me and speed me.” Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts
I first tasted this delightful distillation of raspberries on one of
the Austrian lakes over two decades ago. Later on I chanced upon it on the
shelves of a pub run by John O’Hanlon on the corner of Tysoe Street and
Rosebery Avenue in Clerkenwell. It helped me through a particularly anguishing
period in my life and so my memories of it cannot entirely be disentangled from
that bout of angst. That pub was originally called the Three Crowns becoming the
eponymous O’Hanlon’s when that ex Irish rugby star first set up here with his
microbrewery. Later on he moved his brewery down to Somerset and the pub
deteriorated, becoming successively Mulligans, then Gringos, and now the Old
China Hand.
la forme d'une ville
Change plus vite, hélas! que le coeur d'un mortel
Change plus vite, hélas! que le coeur d'un mortel
The form of a city
changes quicker, alas! Than the mortal heart!
Baudelaire, The Swan.
Labels: Alcohol, Himbeergeist
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What a pleasure to encounter a blog by someone literate and apparently well-read to boot.
Hail fellow and well-met!
All the best from Huigh in Canberra
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Hail fellow and well-met!
All the best from Huigh in Canberra
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