Word: hooch
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...original pirates of the Caribbean were liars, cheats and thieves. But they could be trusted to pour a glass of rum the right way. Unlike many modern imbibers - who debase the sugarcane-based spirit with Coke, coconut cream or fruit juice - the bloodthirsty seafarers enjoyed their hooch neat. (Edward "Blackbeard" Teach was the exception; he took his grog with a pinch of gunpowder.) Now artisan rum producers from Antigua to Venezuela are persuading sophisticated sippers to dump the mixers and drink like Captain Kidd once more. These master distillers specialize in dark, aged rums that are big on nose...
Samogon, which literally means self distilled, had its heyday in the mid 1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev enforced his alcohol reforms which, among other things, restricted sales to certain stories and prohibited restaurants from serving drinks before 2 p.m. It was a mini-Prohibition and, to get their lips on hooch, people were making alcohol with anything they had. One popular recipe suggested putting yeast, sugar and milk into a washing machine, switching it on a two hour cycle and then distilling the result. In rural Russia, peasants drank heart medication because they believed it contained alcohol...
Vodka is the world's most popular spirit, but its rich potential for natural taste is also the least appreciated. In the West, distillers filter the hooch heavily to create a neutral liquor that adds an undetectable kick to your Moscow mule or bloody Mary. But in vodka's homelands, Poland and Russia, distillers follow a different philosophy. Their brews retain the character of the original ingredients, which can include anything organic and fermentable, from potatoes to grain to beets. And although these artisan vodkas are best drunk neat and chilled, some connoisseurs suggest sampling the spirit in a wine...
...number to what was then Saigon, where he immolated himself (a photograph of the fiery moment was stuck on the grille). Then out on the Perfume River in a rented boat so busily tarted up that it resembled nothing so much as spaghetti Bolognese. The Lurp, a little sorry hooch in his belly, loosened up. ''Yeah, I saw Mr. Bob Hope. They came and got us in the bush. Said we were going to see Mr. Bob Hope. We thought we were the luckiest guys on earth. We got all cleaned up, went to Danang. Surfed for two days. Then...
...groupies gathered, the legend grew and, soon enough, the work suffered even more deeply. A nadir was reached in 1974 when he was assigned to cover "The Rumble in the Jungle" between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. He chose to float in his hotel pool, a bottle of hooch in hand, while the great fight took place, and he was unable to file anything. After that, it was largely writer's block, self-indulgence and personal disarray until Thompson committed suicide...