The Manipulation

It’s all as if it’s written down somewhere, and we are mere puppets controlled by something far more superior – well scripted, well written, and in the end dangling by a thin thread, which, in retrospect, you either snap and fall or as people say “hang in there”.

As we grow older, mature, understand the worldly ways, we come upon a furtive tide of underlying meanings, covert operations and opaqueness in the people around us. Our complex minds as well as the minds of people in our little world are so quick in comprehending situations, that to make it in our favor, all it takes is a nanosecond. These qualities are not rare, they are inbred in us and we have to adept to much battering before they take over and we are in control.

Manipulation is a wondrous thing if used correctly; don’t get me wrong, it would take a devils advocate for me to admit that manipulation should be used in the dirty sense, but there will be times when you will need to resort to mild mind alterations or put up a smoke screen depending on the direction. I, personally, being subject to quite a few obvious situations which were so obtuse, allowed it to be played on, just so that in the end, the grand finale would be executed by me. In life, one must learn to take control of situations. Observe, be sharp and lookout for that string, you could all but turn it around.

Similarly, I was quite fed up of having a bottle of Crème de menthe lying around at home. I had bought it off a duty free shelf just because the color was so damned good and vibrant that I could picture out heady cocktails at terrace dos not realizing that the peppermint taste was quite tooth-paste’ish and I would rather gargle with it than sniff and swig.

I got an opportune moment of doing the honors by whipping up a cocktail for a classic bar shot, just – again, because the color said it all. I did not want to just throw in the liquor and top it up with ice and shoot it. Though the picture does justice to the seductive color, it does not actually do anything much to the taste sense of my readers, quite more so since I have methodically manipulated you into thinking it looks good but tastes exactly how I have described it above. Incidentally, the cocktail I shook up (a last minute think off my head) turned out to be quite tantalizing – just like its color.

1 shot Crème de menthe (each per glass)

For the tangy shaves:
1 shot Lime Cordial
1drop Angostura® Bitters
1 tsp Gin

In an Ice Tray start by pouring a small shot of Lime cordial, followed by gin and a tiny drop of bitters into an ice hollow, top it with water and stir. I have specified in the recipe the quantity required for each ice hollow in the tray as the alcohol content should be low to get good hard ice cubes. Fill up all the hollows similarly and deep freeze.

To serve, pour the crème de menthe into a chilled Margarita Cocktail Glass. Shave the ice in an ice shaver (I find the manual hand cranked ones quite useful) to get soft tangy snow and quickly toss into the cocktail glass. Serve with a lime twist.

This drink is best enjoyed immediately, as your tongue gets subjected to the electrifying tangy but dry (due to the gin) ice shaves it is immediately subdued by the cool calm flavor of the peppermint which makes its way through to take over. Who is manipulating whom now?  - I had been manipulated into buying the liquor due to its attractive color, hated it, and then manipulated the taste to make it the way I liked it. It’s all a vicious circle – and you could pick a point or two into what I am “actually” trying to say.