A pub in Kuala Lumpur is offering an exotic cocktail called the Noonday Reviver that is attributed to Evelyn Waugh. The pub is called The Sticky Wicket and has a cricket theme throughout its decor and menu. The cocktail is described as
a reinterpretation of Brideshead Revisited novelist Evelyn Waugh’s Noonday Reviver, comprising Citadelle Reserve gin, Becherovka herbal liqueur, house-made Guinness Demerara reduction & ginger syrup, with lingeringly complex, yeasty dimensions (you might especially like this if you love Marmite) & a tickle of cinnamon near the end.
The article, in a KL food blog, is accompanied by photos of the ingredients as well as the finished product. Here’s a link (scroll down to the second drink in the article). Â
A less elaborate version of a drink called “Evelyn Waugh’s Noonday Reviver” was described by Kingsley Amis in his 1972 book On Drink (reprinted in the 2008 collection Everyday Drinking). Amis’s recipe consisted of gin, stout and ginger beer. The attribution to Evelyn Waugh was, according to Amis, based on hearsay, and he admitted that he “cannot vouch for [its] accuracy.” He probably overheard someone’s recollection of a drink Waugh had described in his 1947 booklet Wine in Peace and War. This was to be taken late in the morning and consisted of old ale, gin and ginger beer with a sprig of borage. Whether Waugh called the drink “Noonday Reviver” cannot be determined from sources available on the internet.
