The week in pictures

db’s Lucy Shaw braved the Horny Devil cocktail at Vietnamese chef Bobby Chin’s first London outpost, The House of Ho in Soho this week. Made with lemongrass vodka, Vietnamese devil’s chilli and a coconut rim, it packed a punch.

This week, Hendrick’s Gin, purveyors of the unusual headed to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, bringing with them their Carnival of Knowledge – a crammed programme of mind expanding and libatory stimulating events from “Zombie making workshops”, “Jelly Brain Dissections” and “A Genteel Tipple through Gin in Literature”. The Carnival will run at the festival’s One Royal Circus until Sunday, 10 August.

Also in Edinburgh this week was British Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, who signed a replica of her ‘Butt of Sherry’ to mark the opening of historical exhibition – Poetry for the Palace; Poets Laureate from Dryden to Duffy.

More than 60 people packed The Griffin Bar in Glasgow for an exclusive, free, unplugged event featuring Scottish Indie rock act, The Bluebells. Hosted by Magners Cider, the gig was a prelude to Magners Summer Nights Festival which takes place this weekend and the next with acts including The Bluebells, Alison Moyet, The Waterboys, Steve Earle, Squeeze and Teenage Fanclub set to take to the stage.

With Mark Hix’s most recent venture, Hixster Bankside, opening a stone’s throw away from db’s offices we felt it was our duty to try out its its cocktail menu. Favourites included the strawberry blonde, a blend of ginger infused Black Cow vodka, Fraise liqueur, lemon juice and sugar – deliciously jammy.

Among the more unusual concoctions Just in Thyme; a blend of Tanqueray gin, Hix IPA, honey water, lemon juice and egg white. Our libations were washed down with the underground bar’s goose-fat fried chips with curry sauce, chicken popcorn and “Moons Green beer sticks” – a spicy salami stick treat.

Credit: @Champdenwhite

London drinks writer and photographer Colin Hampden-White showed his support for Ballantine’s latest campaign this week via Twitter. The blended Scotch whisky brand wants a whisky emoji icon to be introduced, which would allow whisky lovers to signal their whisky allegiance with an icon when posting on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The Royal Academy in London launched its Legends of the Martini exhibition this week – a multisensory, interactive experience that explores the evolution of the classic cocktail and the stars who made it famous. Launched in collaboration with Belvedere vodka, photographers, set designers, film makers and musicians have been asked to reinterpret eight colourful characters from history associated with the Martini via still life images, short films and musical scores. Can you guess who the above image is intended to represent?