After all [Time Out Columnist]

I AM WRITING this column on a bleak day at the end of January, branded by the British media the drabbest month of the year. Indeed, behind the windows of my small garden office is what in Russia we used to call ???vodka weather???. Why ???vodka???? Because it was only a stiff alcoholic drink which could disperse the all- permeating winter greyness (or so we thought). On a day like that, even a near-teetotaller like me can be forgiven for fancying a glass or three of something to lift the sinking spirit. It is therefore a perfect time to introduce you, dear readers, to yet another collection of mine (on top of those of the old guide books, train timetables, engineering jokes etc. that we have covered on this page in the past) ??? unusual drinks and the no-less-unusual technologies of their making.