Hi, everyone. And welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 歡迎回來《閑話英倫》. Hi 安瀾, what are we going to talk about today?

Hi, 璐璐.

What's going on?

So hot! I can't take this heat anymore.

I think the heat in Wuhan is getting to 安瀾. But tell you what, how about I get you a cold drink and we talk about British summer drinks?

That sounds like a very good idea.

Ok, 所以今天我們就來聊聊這些英國人常喝的summer drinks, 就是聽起來就很夏天的這種. 我們說飲料其實 they're all alcoholic.

Well, yeah. This is not an episode for kids. This is an episode for the parents or the big kids.

Yep. First of all, if you ask me about the quintessential British drinks, I would say G&T.

Gin and Tonic.

Gin and Tonic金湯力. Whichever bar or even just cafe converted into a bar place you go to, you definitely, definitely, definitely will see this classic drink. In London, they just call it G&T, right?

Exactly. Because it's a classic cocktail, because it's so easy to make.

You say it's a cocktail, it's just a mixed drink, really, it doesn't take any skill.

It doesn't use any skill. All you have to do is get some gin, tonic water and lime or lemon. That's it.

But because I know, although we're called 酒館, I'm pretty sure some of our fans, some of our listeners, they are not drinkers, they don't really drink alcohol. So, let's explain what this is. Gin is translated into金酒,琴酒,或者什么杜松子酒,更早的翻譯 that gin is a very, very British thing, isn't it?

Not really. Gin was actually created in Holland.

I did not know that. I thought gin, because you see London Dry Gin or like the original Gin, you think gin must be a London thing.

No, it was first invented in 17th century in the Netherlands, but it became very popular in the 18th century and it was so cheap that what it’s known as the Gin Craze made many British people completely alcoholic.

Yeah, blame the drink.

Because you could buy pints of Gin. And people, particularly poorer people, poorer women would actually drink lots and lots of gin.

Even nowadays the basic Gin really is not very expensive. I mean, you can check it online like for example, London Dry Gin, they are very basic brand. It's relatively affordable.

And that's after taxes. So you can imagine how cheap it was to create and how much gin you could get.

Now for those of you who are non drinkers, you probably read the word Gin in some of the British literature. I wouldn’t say where, just English literature. Then I would not recommend you to drink it but at least smell it. It has a very distinctive smell. I actually really love the gin smell.

Yeah, I really like Gin&Tonic, but it always had a bit of a reputation. So we talked about Bathtub Gin.

("Bathtub gin" 是一種在禁酒令時期（1920-1933年）在美國出現的高度酒精飲料，其名稱來源于家庭釀酒者將大容量的酒精容器存放在浴缸中，以便添加水和其他成分來稀釋和調味 。這種自行制作的酒精飲料通常使用廉價的谷物酒精，通過添加杜松子等植物來賦予其味道，但質量參差不齊，有時可能存在安全隱患 。

而 "toilet wine" 或 "prison hooch" 通常是指在監獄中非法制作的酒精飲料，由于缺乏適當的設備和原料，囚犯們會使用任何可用的甜味水果、面包或糖，以及酵母或面包來發酵制作酒精。這種飲料可能隱藏在廁所的水箱中進行發酵，因此得名 "toilet wine" 。然而，這種自制酒精飲料可能存在健康風險，包括肉毒桿菌中毒 。)

Pretty much.

So they make it at home?

Make it at home. And one of the old nicknames for Gin is Mother's Ruin.

Is it because it's traditionally seen as a drink favored by middle aged women?

Partly, but it was also because in the 18th century, as I said before, it was the poorer people in society, mostly women who would drink Gin because it was so, so cheap.

Drink Gin instead of water.

Yeah.

By the way, Gin is over 40 or around 40 degrees. It's a spirit. It's a very strong drink.

Now why we drink Gin&Tonic is actually because of medicine.

Yeah, Tonic was used as a medicine.

Yeah. The drink became popular in the 19th century when British soldiers were based in India, what they had to do was they had to drink tonic water made from quinine.

奎寧. Is that not for like malaria?

It is.

治療瘧疾的.

But because tonic water had a very, very strong taste, they used to put Gin in it to make it more palatable, to make it nicer flavor.

So that you just gave your soldiers a cocktail, basically.

Exactly. And they liked it so much. They brought it back to the UK and it's become one of the most popular drinks in the UK.

I mean, we haven't really seen that trend in the bar scene in China to that extent, but London is all about Gin now. In the past few years, there are so many specific Gin bars or Gin parlors.

Because there's so much variety of Gin now. Because you have classic Gin, you also have infused Gin. There's so many different varieties, pretty much any flavor can be put into Gin.

對于不是特別了解酒的小伙伴在洋酒里面講infused一般就是一個烈酒, 然后你把什么東西不知道什么果汁或者什么東西泡進去, 或者說加進去, 會給他一個special flavor, 比如說 strawberry infused Gin. 就是草莓味道的金酒. I think G&T is a favorite summer... is one of the favorite summer drinks is because it's very clear and it's quite refreshing. You can add things like cucumber or like grapefruit in it.

Yeah. But if we want to go to a really traditional summer drink and this is something that's only really drunk in the summer, then we gotta talk about Pimm’s.

Unless you know British culture really well, or English culture very well, you probably haven't heard of it or you probably haven't drunk it before. 你在中國的網上查, 我們把它翻譯成飄仙一號. Why一號? does the original name have number one in it?

It does. It was created by James Pimm in the 1840s and he made Pimm’s No. 1 and it's a gin-based liqueur. It has herbs and spices in it.

Liqueur is a sweetened alcohol made from usually strong alcohol but add in some syrup and spices like you said, herbs. 叫做利口酒或者叫力嬌酒, 是一種甜酒, 度數也很高, 一般它是從這些烈酒里面出來, 然后加一些別的什么糖漿什么的味道. When you say Pimm’s, I think of Wimbledon Tennis.

Yeah. It's normally drunk at Wimbledon, it's drunk at summer events, garden parties, because it's a really refreshing drink. It's not a very strong drink, because you add lemonade, lots of ice and lots of fresh fruit...

Like strawberry.

Strawberries, oranges, cucumbers, lots of mint. It's about a 3 to 1 ratio.

You don't normally drink Pimm’s on its own right? Pimm’s is used as a mixture. You mix drinks with Pimm’s.

Pimm’s on its own doesn't actually taste very nice. It's quite strong.

It tastes medicinal.

Well, it is, it's got a very herbal flavor, but it's a really nice refreshing cocktail because it's quite fruity as well and it's not very strong.

它跟溫網連接的特別緊, 大家比如說在溫網的時候, 7月份, 很多人就是露天會去大屏幕, 哪怕他進不了溫網也會在露天大屏幕, 只要天氣好大家坐在外面. 然后那個時候最最popular的cocktail就是 Pimm’s lemonade. I'm not a big fan.

I love Pimm’s . I really love Pimm’s.

A taste of home for you.

It is a taste of home and Pimm’s you can actually buy quite cheaply in China.

Yet they are not very expensive and you only have that one particular really brand to buy it’s called Pimm’s No. 1.

Exactly.

大家有興趣可以去各大網站去查一下, 飄仙一號也買的不貴, if you're interested, you can try Pimm’s lemonade and see if you like it.

Now the next drink is a bit more traditional, cider.

I never really get cider. I thought cider is apple juice, but it's alcoholic, right? 蘋果酒不是蘋果汁

Yes, in the US apple juice is called sweet cider.

Oh, and cider is cider cider, with alcoholic cider.

It’s alcoholic. It's made from apples and we've been making it for over 2,000 years. It was used instead of drinking water.

You know what, I bet the first cider they made was accident. They just left their apples out for too long and they just sort of fermented.

You can pretty much ferment any fruit or vegetable.

That's true.

Now the UK is one of the largest producers of cider in the world and you can get sweet and fruity or dry and crisp, and it's become quite popular nowadays in the UK because cider generally is not very strong...

But it’s sweet.

It's sweet.

So even for people who can't really handle their alcohol that well, they can still drink a bit of cider, it's refreshing. For me it's way too sweet.

I don't really like cider. But if you like slightly sweeter drinks, you can have it still or sparkling. It actually goes well with quite a few different types of food like pub lunches and picnics.

Yeah, I suppose if you eat like sort of meat that apple does sour and the sweetness of the fermented apple will probably take some of the grease off.

I don't mind cider, I’ve had fresh cider which is nice, but it doesn't keep very well.

No, you wouldn't think it keeps. So for those of you who like 小甜水, I think you can try English cider.

And I think the final one is another very light alcoholic drink, shandy.

I think even fewer people heard of this unless you’ve lived in the UK or you live in the UK. Shandy is some sort of mixture of juice with beer? if I remember correctly, it's not my thing.

Beer and lemonade.

Beer and lemonade. That wouldn't be too bad because when I was in Germany, I actually had a few drinks is basically a mixture of beer and various things.

Well, in Germany they actually have shandy, they just call it a different name.

Yeah. Beer and lemonade, true.

So this is a really popular drink because it's quite low in alcohol, but it's very refreshing. So it's a drink that is sometimes drunk by younger people or older people. They just want to have something that is quite cooling but not too strong.

安瀾, I got to ask, you know there’s a stereotype, a lot of the American TV shows, when they talk about, when they make these stereotypical episodes about British people, about English people, they always make a joke about how you guys have the beer really warm. That's not true though.

It's some beers we drink warm, but it's not that common anymore. To be perfectly honest, I don't mind beer, I prefer wine to be honest, but I also drink beer. And in the UK it's very common just to have like chilled lagers (= lager beer). Lagers are probably more popular than some of the stronger beers. That's one thing about being in 武漢 is that beer here is very very very strong.

Depending on where you go and depending on what you drink, I think you just have been choosing very strong beers.

Well and it's also very hot.

Let's clarify that not every British person would drink warm beer.

No.

It's actually the warm beer you...or the room temperature beer that you drink is called ale.

Yes, and that is not as common as it used to be in the past. But now it has a bit of a resurgence. So more people are discovering ale. But I would say the average British person, they probably drinking the same sort of beers as Americans, they're drinking lagers, Pilsners and as very light chilled beer.

I see. So that ends our episode about typical British summer drinks. So what would you like, 安瀾?

I think I would like a Pimm’s cup, but I don't think you have any Pimm’s, so a G &T would be nice.

It would be nice. I would appreciate it. Thank you, 安瀾.

Okay.

Alright, leave us comment in the comment section, which of these you have tried and what would you like to try.

So until our next time.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.