One of the things I forgot to mention about Latitude - which certainly contributed to the civilised air of the weekend - was the Pimm's. Being the main sponsor of the festival, it was inevitable that they would be flogging the stuff everywhere, but I never imagined that we'd be walking the site round carrying a whole jug! Even without the usual trimmings (cucumber, strawberries, lemon, mint and a good glug of vodka being my personal preference), a simple Pimm's and Lemonade was just the ticket to revive our party-worn spirits on Saturday afternoon. There was even a Pimm's bus, which we walked past, but felt would be too dangerous to enter.I've always thought that the herbal, faintly medicinal flavour of Pimm's would be well complemented by the sharp spiciness of ginger beer, but have never been bold enough to experiment with such a classic winning formula. Upon researching the precedent and etiquette of Pimm's mixology, I discovered that there were once many variations of the actual drink itself. The one with which we are familiar these days is Pimms' No.1 Cup, which is gin-based; but apparently they used to make other versions too, based on each of the popular spirits - including rum. Considering that gin is my least favourite spirit, and I still love Pimm's, it is probably just as well that you can no longer get hold of the rum variant, or I might find myself with a serious habit. Still, it can't hurt to dream about it....can it?
