Put pep in your step — walktails are just the tonic for a lockdown ramble

We live in a golden age of upmarket off-licences and portable cocktails, says Jimi Famurewa
Deceptively adorable: Pocket Negronis are surprisingly bracing sharpeners
sendanegroni.com
Jimi Famurewa @jimfam24 March 2021

Amid the familiar rhythms of my lockdown Saturdays — the morning pancakes, the dutiful afternoon playground trip, the thud of a reliably hapless Charlton Athletic performance — there has been, of late, something new. After teatime, as dusk slowly settles, my mate Steven will appear at the door with a rucksack and a purposeful look. “See you in a bit,” I’ll yell out to my wife, stashing miniature cans in my pockets, dressed as I once might have been for a night out.

And then the two of us will, like many others have throughout this strange, largely publess year, set off for what some semi-seriously call a walktail: a gentle booze-fuelled ramble among the rich, chaotic tapestry of music-blasting picnickers, slaloming bikes, people scrambling into bushes for furtive wees and other grown adults embracing park drinking with the gusto of teenagers. It is a curious wonder. And now, as next week’s reintroduction of the rule of six expands its scope, I am here to offer both a ringing endorsement and a guide for the budding walktailer.

We should probably start with the actual choice of alcohol. Though the word walktail suggests spirits and careful mixology, I’d say there are no fixed rules for what is essentially a roving liquid picnic. It could be a beer hike, a saunter with a shared bottle of wine or involve a flask of mulled cider almost deployed as a gluggable hot water bottle.

Still, having said all that, a considered choice adds to a vital sense of ceremony and occasion. Plus, helpfully, we happen to be living through what you could comfortably term the golden age of upmarket off-licences (think Salthouse Bottles in Brockley and Shop Cuvée in Highbury) and portable cocktails.

Gin-soaked shrubs: Hippy Fizz cans from Scottish-born micro distillery Porter’s Gin
Hippy Fizz

Hippy Fizz (from Scottish-born micro-distillery Porter’s Gin) is a pineapple-muddled gin shrub with a bloom of totally tropical lusciousness. Elsewhere, the same company’s cans of Pocket Negroni (available at sendanegroni.com) are bracing 21.8 per cent sharpeners in a deceptively adorable package. Shoreditch bar Tayer + Elementary’s apothecary-style double serves of inventive, batched cocktails are similarly formidable, and deliver a warm, textured high if you don’t mind looking like you’re sipping laudanum.

At the mellower end of the scale, new wave canned spritzes and hard seltzers — indisputably the alcopops of the influencer age — are still on the rise. There are too many to name here but Vacay, Good One and Sweetdram offer both the refreshing hit of La Croix (that cultish US-imported soft drink) and some grown up tartness.

When I picture my most vivid memories of the past year, I think of sunset post-tennis beers as bats flapped overhead

Is food a part of the equation? For me, anything more complex than a haute drinking snack (a splayed packet of Torres crisps; piquant, Peperami-ish Moons Green beer sticks) nudges things into full-blown picnic territory. And that is fine. But in my experience there is something uniquely therapeutic about keeping it brief, keeping it moving and arriving back home an hour or so later, buoyed by social interaction and jacketed in that warm, three-drink buzz.

When I picture my most vivid memories of the past year, I think of sunset post-tennis beers as bats flapped overhead, foaming frizzante in Victoria Park and that shared sense of making the best of having literally nowhere else to go. I think, really, of the unpredictability and sense of adventure you don’t really get in a pub or a bar.

So let us savour the walktail for as long as we can. It is a tonic, no matter what you happen to be drinking.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in