Petting Party

I’ve been feeling rather homesick lately. Missing my friends, missing my old haunts, and silly little things like my favourite Indian takeaway where they had a vintage sitdown Space Invaders table to play while you wait and they drew little hearts on the cardboard lids of my curries. I don’t know when I’ll next be going home, November I think, so for now I’m just going to tell you all about the main thing the West Country taught me: where to get decent cider.

• Good cider is getting easier to obtain in London. When I first moved a few years back it was just gross gross gross Magners or Strongbow only. Bleurrrgh. Now you can easily get Addlestones and maybe normal Westons in quite a few places, including Jaguar Shoes on The Kingsland Road in Shoreditch.
• There are a few places that do Vintage Westons on tap in London. Two glasses of this and I’m shit-faced. It is dangerous stuff. One of these is a truly awful bar somewhere behind the big Debenhams on Oxford Street. Don’t ask me where I’ve always been annihilated after visiting and wouldn’t have a clue what’s it’s called. The other is a delightful pub in Greenwich, right next to the ruins of The Cutty Sark. It’s called The Gipsy Moth and has a wide variety of yummy ciders. It is ace.
• Okay, the biggie: Black Rat. Years ago, my friends and I used to frequent a pub in Bath called The Farmhouse. It sold Black Rat and had live jazz. It was amazing. Now, they used to do something in there called The 5 Pint Challenge. If you could drink 5 pints of Black Rat you would get your money back. Simple, you think? Easy, right? Errrrrr WRONG! I’ve only ever known one person ever to complete it and they shat themselves afterwards. Twice. While we were out. I won’t name and shame them but er, yeh, sorry! You know I love you! So now you know the dangers of Black Rat here’s where you can buy it! If you live out west you can buy 2 pints of the stuff for a fiver at Broadlands Farm Shop in Box (they sell loads of cider for that price so make sure you try the Red Devil too. It’s the most delicious tasting cider I’ve ever had and it gets you plastered. It’s made from an apple that has red flesh so it’s a really unusual colour). If you live in London, supposedly the only place that sells it is a pub called The Garage in Southfields. I’ve never been so I cannot confirm this but if anyone wants to go check it out let me know I may just be up for it.
• Finally, my favourite pub in the entire world, The Apple in Bristol. Set on a boat in Welshback, it only serves cider. Can you get any better? A Bristolian boat that forces you to drink cider? Fucking brilliant. If you are ever in Bristol, please visit this lovely pub!

***Image of The Apple’s cider menu***

Filed under: alcohol, night life