Another round of potions on me
Did you know that you can make fake 3D pixel art in Blender by just like turning anti-aliasing off?? And pixelizing post-effects? Sounds super simple but it took me forever to figure it out.
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Hogwarts subjects | Potions
Potions is a core class and subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this class students learn the correct way to brew potions. They follow specific recipes and using various magical ingredients to create the potions, starting with simple ones first and moving to more advanced ones as they progress in knowledge. A standard potions kit includes plant ingredients such as Belladonna and supplies such as glass phials and weighing scales.
Potions is the class I’d have loved most.
How bout: urban magic but in a way where magicians mix shit in a cheap pot on a stove or microwave it to make potions like how college students try to make ramen taste good
I call them Depression Potions ™
Writer's Guide: Writing about Alcoholic Drinks and Cocktails
Or how to write believable bar and nightclub scenes. I often find myself helping friends with their WIPs and often it as a bartender, I find myself having to correct them on bar and mixology terminology. So here's my quick guide to keeping your lingo on the straight and narrow.
Terminology
- DASH/SPLASH: a drop of a mixer such as juice or flavouring.
- MIXER: non alcholic beveraged served with the measure of alcohol in the same glass.
- NEAT: Plain, without any addition of ice or a mixture. Just the alcohol.
- ON THE ROCKS: Served over Ice.
- STRAIGHT UP: The cocktail is chilled with ice and strained into a glass with no ice
- DIRTY – if somebody asks for a dirty martini, you add olive juice, the more juice the dirtier it is
- DRY- A dry martini includes a drop of vermouth and an extra dry martini contains a drop of scotch swirled in the glass and drained before adding the gin
- BACK – a ‘back’ is a drink that accompanies an alcholic beverage such as water or Coke, but isn't mixed.
- GARNISH – something added to a drink such as a lime or lemon or orange.
- TWIST - a twist is literally a twist of fruit skin in the drink.
- BITTERS – a herbal alcoholic blend added to cocktails.
- RIMMED - the glass is coated in salt or sugar to enhance the taste.
- VIRGIN- non alcoholic
- MOCKTAIL- a virgin cocktail
- DOUBLE - Two measures of the same alcohol in the same glass. A bartender can only legally serve a double in the same glass. They cannot serve you a triple.
Equipment
- COCKTAIL SHAKER - it is a metal cup that fits into a glass, used to shake the components of your drink together with ice to chill it.
- STRAINER- used to seperate ice in the shaker from the liquid within as you pour it into the glass.
- MEASURES- these are little metal cylinders meant to measure out the pours of the alcohol. You pour the alcohol from the bottle into the measure and then put it into the glass. It's imperative that the right measure goes into the glass or the drink will taste of shit.
- BAR SPOON – a long spoon meant to mix the drink.
- OPTIC- it is a mechanism that attaches a bottle to an automatic pourer. The bartender usually fits the glass under the spout and pushes up to release the amount which cuts off at the single measure.
- SHOT GLASS- a shot glass is a small glass to contain one measure
- PINT GLASS- a glass used for serving pints of lager or ale
- HALF PINT GLASS - a tulip shaped glass half the measure of a pint glass
- SPEEDWELL/TAPS/DRAFT: are the taps used to pour beer from kegs stored under the bar floor.
- SLIM JIM/HIGH BALL GLASS- It is a tall straight holding 8 to 12 ounces and used for cocktails served on the rocks such as a Gin and Tonic.
- ROCKS GLASS - or an old fashioned glass, it is short and round. These glasses are used for drinks such as Old Fashioneds or Sazerac
- COUPE GLASS- Are broad round stemmed glasses used for cocktails that are chill and served without ice such as a Manhattan, Boulevardier or a Gimlet
- MARTINI GLASS - a martini glass is that classic stemmed "v" shaped glass, used to serve drinks without mixers such as Martini and Cosmopolitans
- MARGARITA GLASS - is a large, round bowl like glass with a broad and a tall stem used for Margaritas and Daiquiris
- HURRICANE GLASS- a tall tulip-like shaped glass with a flared rim and short stem. It holds 20 ounces which means it is the perfect glass to serve iced cocktails in such as Pina Colada, Singapore Sling, Hurricane
Alcoholic Drinks
- Vodka- Vodka is made from potatoes or fermented cereal grains. It has a strong taste and scent. It is usually consumed neat with a mixer such as Coke or Orange juice or cranberry juice or in cocktails like Martini, Bloody Mary and Cosmopolitan.
- Whisky/Whiskey- Whiskey is a distilled alcoholic beverage, made from fermented grain mash such as barley, corn, rye, and wheat. It gets its flavour form being fermented in casks for long period of time. When serving a whiskey, one asks whether they want ice or a mixer. Everyone has their own preference. I prefer mine like myself, strong and Irish. Scotch is Scottish Brewed whisky.
- Rum- Rum is made by fermenting and distilling sugarcane molasses/juice. It is aged in oak barrels. It has a sweet taste.
- Beer: is made out of cereal grains and served chilled in bottles or pulled from taps/speedwells.
- Ale: Ale in the middle ages referred to beer brewed without hops (a kind of flowering plant that gives beer its bitter taste). It is sweeter and would typically have a fruity aftertaste.
- Stout- is a darker beer sometimes brewed from roasted malt, coming in a sweet version and dry version, the most famous stout being Guinness.
- Poitín- (pronounced as pot-cheen) is made from cereals, grain, whey, sugar beet, molasses and potatoes. It is a Dangerous Drink (honestly i still don't know how I ended up in that field with a traffic cone and a Shetland pony) and technically illegal. Country folk in Ireland used to brew it in secrets in stills hidden on their land.
- Vermouth: Is made from infused with roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs, spices, brandy but vermouth is classed aromatized wine. It comes sweet or dry
- Gin- is made from juniper, coriander, citrus peel, cinnamon, almond or liquorice and grain alcohol. Gin has a strong scent and taste and is usually served in a martini or a tonic water.
- Schnapps- refers to any strong, clear alcoholic beverage. It is considered one of the best types of spirits because of its pure and delicate aroma. Lesson: never drink peach schnapps.
Cocktails and Drinks
- Irish Coffee: an Irish coffee is adding whiskey to coffee and sugar and topping it with cream. As a bartender, I would honestly rather cut my arm off than make one of these.
- Baby Guinness: Is a shot made by pouting Tia Maria or Kaluah into a shot glass and spreading Baileys on the top so it looks like a small pint of Guinness.
- Silver Bullet: a shot of mixed tequila and sambuca.
- Long Island Iced Tea: The Long Island contains vodka, gin, tequila, light rum, lemon juice, triple sec and cola. It has a real kick.
- Mai Tai: is made with light and dark rum, lime juice, orange curacao, orgeat syrup and rock candy syrup and served with a mint garnish.
- Manhattan: The Manhattan is made with rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters.
- Margarita: The margarita is made with tequila, cointreau and lime juice.
- Mojito: a mojito is made with muddled mint, white rum, lime juice, simple syrup and soda.
- Martini: a martini is made of gin, dry vermouth and garnished with a lemon twist or olives.
- Mimosa: a mimosa is a made with sparkling wine and orange juice.
- Mint Julep: Made with Kentucky bourbon, simple syrup, mint leaves and crushed ice
- Pina Colada: is made with white rum, dark rum, pineapple juice and coconut cream
- Screwdriver: Vodka and Orange juice
- Tequila Sunrise: tequila, orange juice and grenadine
- Tom Collins: made with spiked lemonade, sparkling water, lemon juice, simple syrup and gin
- Whiskey Sour: is made with powdered sugar, seltzer, lemon juice and whiskey.
- White Russian: made with vodka, coffee liqueur and cream.
- Black Russian: made with two parts coffee liqueur and five parts vodka.
- Gin and Tonic: gin served with tonic water
- Bloody Mary: made with vodka and tomato juice mixed with lemon juice, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, fresh herbs, brown sugar and cracked black pepper.
- Brandy Alexander: served straight up and made with brandy, cognac, creme de cacao and cream
- Cosmopolitan: Made with citrus vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice and fresh lime juice
- Daiquiri: made with rum, lime juice and sugar.
- Gimlet: gin and lime juice
My Top 10 Bartending Rules and Responsibilities
- Overpouring is never an option. You can seriously hurt somebody by overpouring, not to mention spoil the drink and ruin your sales. You only serve people what they ask and never more.
- When somebody has had enough, you stop serving them. After a while, you know when to cut somebody off.
- Never leave bottles on the counter or in reach of customers. Your expensive spirits should never be in reach of anybody but you.
- If you tell somebody your selling them premium and top shelf alcohol, you cannot substitute with cheaper licqor. It's illegal.
- As a bartender, your eyes always have to be scanning a crowd. You can't leave people hanging.
- The golden rule - if you see somebody messing with someone's drink, you chuck it if you can or warn the person. And you get that son of a bitch out of your pub.
- 50% of the job is cleaning. You have to clean your tools constantly. You cannot reuse measures and spouts, you have to wash everything. Beer traps are clean out every night, rubber mats are washed and anything you have used has to be clean.
- You have to hand dry your glasses. You never polish a pint glass as it fucks up the pint. You polish your cocktail glasses, shot glasses and straight glasses.
- If someone seems down or on their own, you try make conversation. Often you'll hear some disturbing stuff but always try lend an ear or make everyone feel included.
- If you break a glass in the ice bucket, you got to get rid of the ice.
i want a setting that was once a high fantasy world but time has passed and the days of quests are over while the age of indoor plumbing has begun but the elves and stuff like still exist
like i want fuckin.. space operas where humans weren’t all that phased by aliens because there had always been other species, and our starfleet utilizing translation potions to help communicate
or a cyberpunk world with like digital magic and the hideous, deformed descendants of dragons creeping through the deepest darkest alleyways of the cities, devouring any fool who dares go down where the neon lights don’t reach
magic mecha to defend us from the giants awoken form their slumber by fucking dwarfs who couldn’t stop mining where they knew they shouldn’t, meanwhile rival mage factions are getting close to all out war to be fought with spellcasting pistols and rifles rather than wands or staffs
come on guys what the fuck happens 1500+ years after our young hero leaves his village to become a mighty warrior i gotta know y’all
Eight Forms of Creating Potions
Yes, this is from a Hogwarts text, however, the information contained therein is accurate and relevant and certainly worth sharing on this blog, if only to fully expand upon the type of material I hope to cover here.
Infusions
An infusion is a form of water based potion, similar to a tea, and best suited for immediate ingestion of delicate ingredients such leaves or petals. To make a magical infusion: pour boiling water over your ingredients in goblet and leave to infuse for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Strain before drinking if necessary. The leaves in an infusion need to steep longer than your average herbal tea, to allow enough time to release their phytochemicals, which are the active ingredients of the potion.
Decoctions
A decoction is another water based potion designed for immediate ingestion. However, it is a more concentrated brew than an infusion and is usually reserved for tougher ingredients such as roots or bark – where prolonged stewing is needed to release the phytochemicals. A decoction can also be reduced, which is to say, it can be made more concentrated by prolonged simmering which evaporates the water. To make a decoction: simmer your ingredients in water in a cauldron over low heat for 10-30 minutes; then strain. Reduce if necessary with further simmering over a low heat.
Tinctures
A tincture is an alcohol based potion. It fulfills the same function as an infusion or decoction but with the added advantage that it will keep for up to a year. A tincture is suitable for both delicate leaves and tougher materials such as bark as the alcohol releases the chemicals very effectively and in a similar way to the prolonged simmering of a decoction. To make a tincture: steep your ingredients in vodka or another spirit for a week. This allows time for the alcohol to release the active elements in your plant materials. After a week, strain off the liquid into a vial and store for up to a year. Administer sparingly, a tablespoon at a time.
Vinegars
A vinegar fulfils the same purpose as a tincture except that vinegar is used instead of alcohol. Prepare your vinegar in the same manner as a tincture and store for up to a year. A vinegar is useful in the case of alcohol intolerance or where the herb used is particularly bitter as the vinegar will mask it to a great extent.
Syrups
A syrup is the most palatable form of potion. Here magical ingredients are preserved in a sugar solution. A syrup is another potion that will keep for up to a year. It is best suited for occasional use at it is very sweet and could cause tooth decay if taken regularly. A syrup can be taken by the spoonful or alternatively diluter in water in a similar manner to a fruit squash. To make a syrup: first make an infusion or decoction of your ingredients and reduce if necessary. Strain and add sugar to the potion, stirring frequently, until the brew won’t dissolve any more sugar and resembles a syrup. Store in an airtight bottle in a cool, dark place.
Poultices
A poultice is a wad of chopped plant material that is held in place directly over a wound by a bandage. To prepare a poultice: chop your fresh herb and apply directly to a wound or infection. Hold in place over the wound with a bandage. If using chopped dried herbs rehydrate them with some water first. If the herb is tough and hard to handle, try adding some vinegar diluter in water to your poultice.
Fomentations
Fomentations or compresses are cloths that have been dipped in an herbal solution – such as an infusion, decoction, or a tincture – and then are applied to a wound. To prepare a fomentation: first create the required infusion, decoction, or tincture. Then dip your cloth into the liquid, quite liberally, and apply. It is important to use a very clean cloth to prevent the spread of infection.
Salves
A salve is very similar to a lotion or a cream. Magical ingredients are mixed in base of oils or fats for external application to the skin.
Neat!
kaleighbytheway