Do you know that first ever Hard Rock café was opened in London in 1971 by two Americans - Issac Tigret and Peter Morton for their sheer love for burger. Sounds inspiring, isn’t it?. People across globe are very passionate about their food and that is how interesting café – like Hard Rock takes shape! Pizza Express too has a similar storyJ. Another interesting fact, Hard Rock café’s logo was designed by celebrity artist Alan Aldridge, best known for his work with the Beatles. Another interesting fact about Hard Rock is that Paul McCartney and Wings had their first impromptu gig, before they kicked off their UK tour. Today HRC has more than 15000 live performances every year. Isn’t the number huge?!
About their famous T-Shirt story “The London cafe sponsored a local football (soccer) team, and the team t-shirt featured the simple Hard Rock logo. The extra shirts were returned to the cafe and then given away to loyal customers. They became such a huge hit with the public that one report said more people would show up to buy a shirt than to sit and have a bite. Not only did Isaac and Peter have the good sense to begin to sell them, but a stand-alone shack had to be built outside of the cafe just to handle the retail requests.Today, retail makes up approximately 40% of our Cafe business. What they say is true: Better lucky than good.” (Source HRC website) Hard Rock has very steady fan following and wherever they travel, they make sure that the visit their favorite café. Whichever place I am, I too make a point, to visit HRC. HRC, started with burger in 1971. It is still known for their 10oz burger that sells like hot cake, apart from the variety of American food that is served. HRC is popular for their cocktails and LIIT is perhaps the most famous one. We were invited to taste some of their famous LIIT versions and also try and make some on our own. Like every other dish or drink, LIIT too has its history as well as controversies. Well, we will not get into the details of that, but one of the famous story about LIIT is that it was invented by Robert "Rosebud" Butt. He created it to get entry into an event with the help of Triple Sec in 1972, when he was working at Oak Inn at Long Island. Another story states that LIIT was invented during 1920 prohibition in US by “Old bishop man” and he used whisky and maple syrup. Wel,l whatever the story is, the fact remains the same, that LIIT is one of the most popular cocktails across globe.
Why is it that this strange combination of spirits and soda actually tastes very similar to iced tea? We could tell you that it's because the juniper in the gin reacts with the molasses in the rum, creating a flavor that combines with the agave in the tequila that implodes with the neutral characteristics of the vodka, resulting in a chemical compound that, when looked at under a microscope, resembles the molecules found in tea leaves grown in Sri Lanka (on the south slopes, of course), but that would serve no purpose at all. The fact is, for one strange reason or another, this weird mixture of ingredients tastes like iced tea. And in that regard, it's a dangerous mix. ~Cocktail specialists Gary and Mardee Haidin Regan(Source http://www.liicetea.com/)
I was excited to try different version of LIIT at HRC and to know the story behind each LIIT. HRC is serving five versions of LIIT - Long Caribbean Iced Tea, Channel Island Iced Tea, Raspberry Iced Tea, Boston Iced Tea and Texas Iced Tea. All LIIT are great and each of the flavors are distinct. Though I liked all and tasted all of them, my favorites would be Texas and Caribbean because as they were little high on alcohol JWell spent evening with fellow bloggers over great LIIT and finger food. LIIT festival is on till 14th of December.
