Keeping the English Sober

Measure for measure, the English people may be among the most disciplined drinkers on earth. Bartenders are required by law (and by their bosses and bar owners) to dispense certain types of alcoholic beverages in precise amounts, what the law calls “specified quantities,” when serving by the glass. So, for example, when you order still wine at the bar or at table, you’ll likely be offered a choice of small, medium or large. Those sizes correspond to 125 ml, 175 ml and 250 ml (roughly 4¼, 6 and 8½ fluid oz.). At a theatre bar where we recently drank, the barkeep would dole out those amounts in, respectively, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th measuring cups seen in the photo. The 1st cup is for measuring certain spirits — gin, rum, vodka & whiskey. With this end up, as seen in the photo, you can measure out 50 ml. (roughly 1¾ oz.), or what officially amounts to a double shot. Turn the cup over — as in the photo below — and you have the means to pour a single shot, 25 ml. ¶ I’m not certain, but I believe that Irish bars may have to dispense with their beverages under similar guidelines. I wondered, when we were in Ireland and later during our first travels through England, why the drinks uniformly seemed pallid. I seriously wondered, for example, if the gin was being watered down (the Negronis I ordered one evening at a wonderful oyster bar in Galway were frankly of no consequence whatever, and I departed an unhappy patron). But now I think I understand: When ordering certain cocktails, you’ll probably want to make it a double shot and, depending on your taste, budget and tolerance, perhaps order more than one.

A cup for measuring out an exact shot of gin, rum, vodka or whiskey as defined by alcohol-beverage regulations in the U.K., according to a bartender in Cambridge, England. Turn the cup over and you can pour an exact double.

What about American bars & restaurants — what limitations determine the amounts they pour into wine and cocktail glasses? I have not researched this — that is, whether a certain set of regulations governs the quantity you’ll receive when ordering a drink in the States. But my experience tells me it’s entirely up to the bartender. If they’re friendly, if they like you, you’ll get a generous pour. Or buy that second glass of wine. I have often noticed that the second pour is larger than the first. Perhaps it’s a reward for opening your wallet a bit wider.

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Pico Alaska

Former newspaper reporter and editor (Anchorage Daily News). Co-founder of the Alaska Poetry League and coach of the first Alaska teams to compete at the National Poetry Slam (2000, 2001). Adjunct instructor (expository, critical and creative writing) for 30 semesters at the U. of Alaska Anchorage. Volunteer-in-the-Park in Denali National Park and manager of Denali’s Kahiltna Base Camp (1986, 1987). Bronx native, son of immigrants from the Italian Mezzogiorno (Calabria and Lucania). Educated by Irish Catholics, liberal Jews, and the New York Review of Books. Husband to Kathleen, father of Maeve, and author of “Wind Blown and Dripping,” a play about Dashiell Hammett’s service as editor of a GI newspaper in the Aleutian Islands during WW2.