This is the penultimate Quaranatini Time! Pubs are set to re-open here in the UK TODAY so there’s only one more movie star tipple demo video to go. The last time me & Mr R exchanged money for cold beverages in a pub was on our wedding day – 20th March 2020 – which was the very night pubs closed their doors because of Covid-19. It has been a dry old 15 weeks.
Will we be excitedly queuing up for pints of beer for hours and hours on end tonight? Hell no! It’s going to be mayhem this weekend I reckon. Until the dust settles, we will be continuing to booze it up at home by making the final Quarantini Time – a Gloria Swanson Champagne Cocktail. Until then, here’s last week’s tipple. A gloriously chocolatey-mocha-in-a-glass-pudding-in-boozy-form “Giant” Martini!
Here’s how to make this spectacular tipple – invented by Rock Hudson and Liz Taylor whilst filming Giant because it was so HOT in Marfa, Texas where this epic was filmed.
I heartily recommend having Liz Taylor’s Chicken Steamed in Wine and settling down to Giant with a few of these as pudding.
There’s a little epilogue to this demo film as I forgot to toast key workers for all they are doing to keep the country and the world going as we do each week. I also forgot to give credit to Greg Swenson of Recipes for Rebels as this fab drink appears in his fab book of the same title.
Greg writes:
Liz Taylor and Rock Hudson devised this concoction to combat the heat and boredom of 5 weeks shooting on location in Marfa, TX in June and July 1955.
“Rock and I hit it off right away and acted like a pair of kids. The heat, humidity, and dust were thoroughly oppressive, we had to bolster our spirits any way we could. So we stayed out drinking all night and luckily were young enough and resilient enough to go straight to the set in the morning with fresh complexions and never even bags under our eyes. During our toots, we concocted the best drink I ever tasted—a chocolate martini, made with vodka, Hershey’s Syrup, and Kuhlua. How we survived I’ll never know.”ELIZABETH TAYLOR, ABOUT FILMING IN MARFA
It is a COLD Saturday here in London and I am daydreaming about watching Giant again over the weekend. Can I find it? It’s in my flat on DVD somewhere!
Cheers folks and a special cheers to Greg in Indiana!
6 responses
How Adorable you are! Love, love, love watching you in a video format! Love the Quarantini concept as well!
How Adorable you are! Love, love, love watching you in a video format! Love the Quarantini concept as well!
Aw, thanks Greg! These were such fun to make and kept us going during the first UK national locdown. Looks like another is coming up, bring on the cocktail shaker! Jx
Aw, thanks Greg! These were such fun to make and kept us going during the first UK national locdown. Looks like another is coming up, bring on the cocktail shaker! Jx
I know this is an old post, but I am sure that they were using Hershey’s Syrup from a can, which is a different, richer, texture and taste than the formula that came in the bottle (most of us used the bottle for chocolate milk and the canned stuff for recipes, ice cream topping, etc. There is a homemade version of this, I found the recipe online. I mention it only because I can imagine it would be especially delicious in these martinis and would save you having to pay extra for importing.
Betty! This is fascinating information! Seriously, I am sooooo pleased you dropped by to let me know this and I am definitely going to seek out the online recipe and try it out. I am going to be doing an event in my local cinema later this year, screening Giant with these martini’s available from the bar so I feel some experimentation coming on. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment – Jenny xxx