Miles' End - a bit of history.

This is the tale of a drink; a very pleasant drink, refreshing and cooling for long hot days, the ideal tipple for a summer's afternoon; the drink itself, apart from it's laudatory qualities, became ensconced in UK Hacker lore in the late 1980s, and hence I deem it worth of recognition.

Invented in the summer of '86 at University College London, by one Miles Nelson, the Miles' End (yes, a bad pun) is easy to mix, and quite delicious.

The recipe is, in a tall, half-pint glass: (Imperial measure)

Small amount of Ice
1 shot semi-decent Vodka
1 shot Cinzano Bianco
1 slurp of Rose's Lime Cordial
Add mixer (see below) to fill the glass to 3/4ths full.

Recommended mixers are:

Soda (dry)
Tonic (medium)
Lemonade (sweet)
By this, we mean UK-style Lemonade, fizzy and clear; R-White's for preference. If you can't get this or anything like it, use Sprite or 7UP.

I personally prefer the original, Medium/Tonic mix, however the Sweet version tends to be the most preferred by the general populace; a Rose version is possible using Cinzano Rosso, although this is intrinsically heresy to purists.

Anyway: once the glass is 3/4ths full, start experimenting; mixing a good Miles' End requires practice, and using the remaining space in the glass you can usually balance the mix with a little more Vodka and Cinzano until the mixture tastes delicate, citrusy, not overly-sweet, and generally quite innocuous. Practice makes perfect, and is well worth it.

Once made, then sit back in a sofa or deck-chair, relax, and drink.

The Master Blaster - Moog's Revenge

Without going into too much detail, one of the reasons for the Miles' End's popularity is due to the quantity of Miles' End's that were/are drunk at various UK Student/Network Parties; given their innocuous nature, they can be drunk repeatedly by anyone without getting "samey" or boring.

At one of the above-mentioned parties, one Richard ("Moog") Acott modified the Miles' End to his taste, and thereby changed history, as well as nearly burning a hole through the carpet of the room in which he stood, when he eventually dropped the mixture.

The recipe is, into a tall, one-pint glass: (Imperial measure)

One Sweet Miles' End (as-per recipe above)
Gordon's Gin (green bottle, white label) until 4/5ths full
For historical sake, the Gin should have been purchased by someone named Rachel. We don't know if this affects the flavour, but what the hell, that's tradition for you.

The astonishing thing is that, with the space remaining in the glass, judicious balancing using more Cinzano, Vodka and Gin, the mixture can be rendered entirely innocuous to the point where it is almost undetectable as being alcoholic; again the flavour is that of water with a citrus twist.

A true Master Blaster appears rather flat, but is improved by ice added afterwards, so as not to interfere with the mixing process.

This is not a drink to be taken lightly; traditionally the glass is shared amongst friends and treated with caution, although on one occasion I did drink an entire one, and for some reason got off extremely lightly in the morning, with nothing worse than a mild hangover, which (given the ingestion of almost a solid half-pint of Gin) seems quite incredible.

If you feel experimental, I highly recommend it. Keep a bucket handy just in case.