Cocktails at Baroosh Bishop's Stortford

2014 is the year me and most of my friends turn 30 which means the excuse of being in my 20s to explain why I live a life of zero responsibilities is approaching its expiry date and I need to quickly conjure up another excuse (suggestions welcome).  However my friend who has got her sh*t together probably isn't as concerned as me and seemed very happy celebrating her 30th birthday at Baroosh.

If there was a Baroosh in every nondescript town, they'd be doing all right.  It's a spacious bar with very nice decor and decent music that shouldn't offend anyone (except when the bass dropped a bit which thrilled us and also perplexed us).  They have an over 21 year olds rule which may explain why the atmosphere is lively but not rowdy and the floor isn't sticky.

So this is a hedgerow martini which has absolut vanilla, absolute kurant, apple juice, elderflower and rhubarb bitters.  I always seem drawn to cocktails with rhubarb in it but to be truthful, I'm not entirely sure what rhubarb actually tastes like.  By the time it's covered in crumble and custard (because I've never had it any other way other than the best possible way), what does it taste of really?  Such pressing questions my late 20s mind has.  Therefore I wasn't sure if it was the rhubarb or the lemon that made this drink taste soapy...but in a good way.

This is a tuscan mule.  It has tuaca,  ginger beer, bitters (vague much?) and lime.  As it has tuaca and not vodka, this means I miss out again on having this served in a proper cup as a mule should be (the initial time being here) which was frustrating as they were serving our pork scratchings in a very suitable cup.  Was half tempted to toss out (or crunch through) the scratchings to pour my drink in.  This would have been not only geeky but greasy behaviour.  I liked how this drink was quite fiery but I couldn't discern any difference between this and a moscow mule.  May channel my geekiness to set up a blind taste test sometime.

Baroosh is a great Saturday night venue for a girl's night out or just a general night out.  Considering we got there when it was quite quiet, we still had to wait a while for our drinks to be made but I'd obviously rather it was made with a labour of love than having a drink with a squirt of mixer in it.  Then I acted my age and left at the grand time of 10pm to get the train.  Let's hope that sort of behaviour was a one off.