We safely arrived home yesterday and promptly fell asleep for a good 20 hours.

When I did emerge from my monster sleep it was to begin to deal with all the emails which had accumulated whilst I was away and then to abandon work and head off for the November meeting of the London Cocktail Society.

I first went to a LCS event just over a year ago and really enjoyed it. Since then I have only managed to get to a few but they are always to be recommended as not only do you get to visit a bar with like minded people (there are always lots of people there by themselves and I have gone by myself too which I guess is the main advantage of joining the group- instant drinking companions!) but they arrange special events, tastings, demonstrations etc which really add to the evening.

This evenings event, which is taking place in the lovely Shaker & Company in Euston, is partly a tasting of all the new single-varietal bitters from the Master of Malt and partly a small competition. The plan is for us to spend some time tasting the different bitters and then for us to individually, or in groups, mix up a small batch of our own, choosing combining as few or many of the different flavours as we like.

We arrive early so order drinks from the tempting menu. Having complained the other day about finding it hard to get non-sweet drinks at bars in the UK, I instantly seize on the 'Breakfast with Obama' which promises ginger, grapefruit, lime, salt and bitters and proves to be just as delicious as I had hoped. I will have to return another night for another one it was so good.

Then it was time to head downstairs to begin tasting. Having spent a lot of my time since getting home reading the excellent new bitters book by Brad Thomas Parsons which describes bitters as 'an aromatic flavouring agent  made from infusing roots, barks, fruit peels, seeds, spices, herbs, flowers and botanicals in high-proof alcohol (or sometimes glycerin)' I'm not sure these count as bitters as they are neither bitter, nor combinations of different flavours, so they're more tinctures which you would combine to make your own bitters- which is fine by me.

Before I know it, we're tasting different samples and already beginning to make our own concoctions. I really loved some of them (especially sour cherry, coffee and liquorice) and loved that you could add the bitter taste using drops of different tinctures (such as Wormwood or Gentian) to suit your palate, or leave them out completely. I came up with a combination that combined 100 drops of sour cherry, 10 of coffee, 2 of liquorice and 1 of Angelica for a sweet, dark tasting mixture with a hint of bitterness. I love it and can see me buying a few of these to mix up my own combinations to suit my mood.

Just in case you think all I do is sleep and drink I promise you I am very busy at the moment working on some beading projects, but I'm keeping them under wraps for the time being so they can be a surprise when they appear next year. Keeping those secret leaves me with little else to talk about but stay tuned as there will be more beading talk soon. Otherwise I'll have to just start showing you photos of me answering emails which I'm sure will send you away in droves.