COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK: A PINK COTSWOLDS COCKTAIL FOR A PINK CADILLAC

Don’t let the name of the cocktail fool you. Pink Cotswolds Gin resembles not the soft colour its descriptor implies. Nor is the Cotswolds Distillery’s mill, the machine that grinds the barley used in Cotswolds whisky, soft in anyway, particularly in its country-western name, Rawhide.

The distillery staff decided on Rawhide for its mill due to the fact that it keeps “rollin’, rollin’ rollin’” as the 1958 American country song dictates a cattle driver, or drover, should. The hit song became the theme song and the actual theme of the popular television Western of the same name about drovers in the 1860s. Rawhide, which ran from 1959 to 1965 was one of the first programs to touch on serious societal issues such as drug abuse, torture and racism and its success ingrained it in American culture in which it continues to be referenced today even in internationally successful films such as Shrek. 

But undoubtedly more important than the rollin’ legacy of Rawhide itself is the Hollywood legacy still being written by one of the show’s main actors, Clint Eastwood. After acting classes and several minor and uncredited appearances in TV and film in the mid-1950s, the Tinseltown tough guy got his first big break as nice-guy rover, Rowdy Yates. By the time the program ended, Eastwood’s Yates had become the main character and the notoriety he gained playing a cowboy landed him the lead role in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western trilogy beginning with 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars.

Eastwood’s rugged Rawhide persona spanned the rest of the 1960s with films such as Paint Your Wagon and Hang ‘em High before he landed the bad boy role of Harry Callahan in 1971’s Dirty Harry, the role that defined him throughout the 1970s and 80s. 

It wasn’t until the end of the 80s that his rough and ready drover image failed to drive success for the 1989 film - a film that complements the name of this Cotswolds cocktail - Pink Cadillac. The action-comedy bombed with critics and at the box office and Eastwood’s bounty hunter role alongside respected film and stage actress, Bernadette Peters, has garnered the film a mere 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

So as you sip your raw Pink Cotswolds Gin you shouldn’t waste your time watching Pink Cadillac. But you can maintain a certain respect for one of Hollywood’s hard heroes by remembering that almost every actor plays in films ranging from good to bad to ugly.