The Daily Tippler

I did a lot on BBQ drinks last year, so this year I thought I would offer something more of an honorarium. I, unfortunatley, could not find much on the provenance of this one, but I have a few ideas. It’s called Army Navy and the first receipe I had is from 1948, so it could be in honor of the armed forces and it wasn’t long after the end of WWII. On the other hand it may just have been created at the Army & Navy club in Washington DC. At any rate it’s pretty good and if you like Bols Genever feel free to replace the gin with that. And if you still have a hankering for some of those BBQ drinks, Jump.

Army Navy (1948):

-2 oz Gin or Bols Genever
-1/2 oz lemon juice
-1/2 oz orgeat

Shake with ice till well chilled and strain into a pre-chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

As with most of what we’ve been discussing over the past week, it is hard to pinpoint the exact time and place where the return to classic cocktails occurred. There are many important bars, restaurants and bartenders who contributed; some aware and some unaware of what was going on. Many people like to think of Dale Degroff’s work at the rainbow room in the late 80’s as the seminal moment; but I think it is more interesting to look at the forces surrounding it.

The cocktail revolution is really just a part of the larger food revolution that has occurred over the past few decades. A lot of this can be attributed to positive economic growth. But more importantly the country’s desire to move away from processed and package foods. To distill the importance of each ingredient in it’s raw and natural flavor. For this I think we owe ‘us’ a toast to thank ‘ourselves’ for our contribution to the revival. Without the tipplers there wouldn’t be much tippling. Happy Cocktail Week everyone!

The Daily Tippler:

-3oz. Sazerac Rye Whiskey
-1 Splash Antica Formulae Sweet Vermouth
-1 Splash Luxardo Maraschino
-2 Dashes Fee Brothers Cherry Bitters

Combine ingredients in a shaker over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

All though we like to joke about the damage prohibition did by preventing people from getting tipsy it actually did some real damage to the country and society.

Prohibition froze the budding American Whiskey and Wine industries in their tracks and a lot of the popular drinks of the early days of the Republic are lost forever.

Over the next seven decades the country would search for it’s cocktail identity traveling through a number of phases; many of them taste-bud numbingly sweet. We drank things straight and on the rocks. We enjoyed Tiki’s, Galliano, and Rum with Diet coke. Cosmos became flavored Martinis which gave way to the low point of drinking culture: Red Bull and Vodka.

Sex on the Beach:

-1/2 oz. Vodka
-1/2 oz. Peach Schnapps
-1 1/2 oz. Cranberry Juice
-1 1/2 oz. Orange Juice

Build in the order given in an ice-filled highball glass

a complete waste of time.

Part 2 of the ascent of the label cocktail involves one of the worst times in the history of the United Sates: Prohibition. The Volstead  act went into effect in January of 1920 and was not repealed until December of 1933 plunging the United States into 13 long dry years of temperance.

A lot of stories fly around about how tippling was a lot more fun during prohibition; sure anything forbidden has a romantic allure. But, the bottom line is the reality of prohibition was a lot less romantic. During prohibition people drank a lot of pretty unsavory things. Bathtub Gin; that meant people were making Gin in bathtubs, I can’t imagine that being very sanitary. This type of booze killed people, often. Along with people this contraband killed off a lot of the tipple names once common, like the Sling and Cobbler. Since booze was hard to come by you drank whatever was available and ordering drinks by name actually fell by the wayside. All though these drinks and, to a lesser extent, names are still around when the country came out on the other side of this dark period it seems that everything was now going by cocktail.

Prohibition:

-1 oz Gin
-1 oz Lillet Blanc
-1/4 oz Apricot Brandy
-1/4 oz Orange Juice

Combine in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

So how does Cocktail go from being one of many drinks to being “the” Drink. This is two part story and here goes part one:

All though no one knows the exact where’s and when’s of the story there is a lot of evidence to suggest that Cocktail originated in the Northeast and spread from there. In it’s early days it was looked down on upon as it transitioned from morning tonic to all-day and evening drink. During this time two things were incorporated that helped boost the reputation and popularity of Cocktail: Ice and Vermouth.

Ice had been used in various drinks like the Julep for decades before it made it into the Cocktail in what seems to be the 1860’s. The Italians (sweet) & the French (Dry) had been trying to penetrate the American tippling market with Vermouth since the early 1800’s. It does, however, not seem to take hold until finding it’s way into the Manhattan. Around the 1890’s we start to see the role of bitters diminish and the use of Vermouth and ice skyrocket; bringing the Cocktail a little closer to what we are used to today.

Manhattan, Formula #1 (Old Standard)
How to Mix Drinks – Barkeeper’s Handbook, 1884

-2 or 3 Dashes Peruvian Bitters
-1 or 2 Dashes Simple Syrup
-1 1/2 oz. Whiskey
-1 1/2 oz. Sweet Vermouth

Fill Mixing glass 3/4 with shaved ice, stir, strain into a Fancy cocktail glass.

It is, I’m totally serious…

No I’m not. Nobody really knows where the name came from and there are a lot of stories floating around. Here’s one that at least involves fowl:

A tavern near Elmsford, New York was popular with the officers of the Revolutionary soldiers of Washington and Lafayette. The American troops preferred whiskey or gin, the French preferred wine or vermouth. All enjoyed a bit of brandy or rum. Sometimes late in the evenings, in a spirit of camaraderie, the spirits were mixed from one cup to another during toasts. A soldier stole a rooster from the tavern owner’s neighbor, who was believed to be a Tory supporter of George III of the United Kingdom. The rooster was promptly cooked and served to the customers, with the tail feathers used to adorn the accompanying drinks. The toasts accompanying this meal were “vive le cocktail” and the mixed drinks were so called ever after. (Wikipedia)

Westbrook Cocktail:
Savoy Cocktail Book, 1930
Serves 6.

-5 1/4 oz gin
-2 1/4 oz sweet vermouth
-1 1/2 oz whisky
-2 bar spoons sugar

Shake with ice and strain into 6 cocktail glasses

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that question.

Bitters are an alcohol based herbal infusion. The general idea is to take a bitter flora, which have strange names like Gentian & Quassia, a flavoring agent, traditionally citrus in the form of dried peels, and throw it all in a jar of high proof alcohol and let it macerate for a while. Today they come in all forms and flavors and can ad a dynamic zip to your cocktails.

More interesting then the what is the why. You ever watch a movie that has schisty guys in the 1800s selling miracle tonics? That’s bitters! They were originally invented for medicinal purposes and contained alcohol merely as a preservative. It is true that bitters are great for settling your stomach and doctors prescribed them a lot; most “patients” were told to drink them every morning. If you have ever tasted straight bitters it’s not to pleasant, so it was often prescribed in wine or some other spirit. At this point we refer to yesterdays Timeline: someone, probably many someones, got the idea to pour the bitters in the Sling and called it a Cocktail.

BOKER’S BITTERS
Workshop Receipts, 1883

-1 ½ oz quassia
-1 ½ oz calamus
-1 ½ oz catechu (powdered)
-1 oz cardamom
-2 oz dried orange peel

Macerate for 10 days in 1 gallon strong whiskey, and then filter and add 2 gal. water.
Color with malva flowers.

World Cocktail Week Starts Today!

In honor of world cocktail week 2010; I’m going to try to distill (pun intended) the history of the drink into seven posts. Because this will be brief at best, and because I make no effort to hide my plagiarism, for anyone who wants more info I highly recommend “Imbibe” by David Wondrich.

One supposes that I would start with the inventor of the cocktail, but trying to figure that out is like trying to figure out who decided to drink water first. Cocktails by today’s definition have been around as long as distilled beverages; since they consist of mixing any distilled beverage with something else. As early as 1880 there was scholarly, albeit inconclusive, research about the invention of the cocktail. Therefore, from a purely organizational standpoint, I offer the following incomplete time line:

-Wine Punch: wine being the earliest of spirits and made by every know civilization mixed with something

-Punch: wine gives way to other stronger spirits as the base for punch

-Collins, Fizz, Sour: the punch bowl behind the bar gives way to the single drink mixed on the bar

-Slings, Juleps, Toddies: Enter Sugar

-Cocktails: Enter Bitters

The word cocktail starts to appear in print at the very beginning of the 1800s; one can assume it had been around for a decent time before that. In the beginning and for awhile it is used to refer to drinks with Spirit, Sugar & Bitters; all though that is no longer really the definition I’ll leave it at that for today.

Plain Cocktail:
Jerry Thomas 1862

-3 or 4 dashes Simple Syrup
-2 Dashes Bitters
-1 Wine Glass (2 oz.) Spirits
-2 Dashes Curacoa

Squeeze Lemon Peel in a glass; fill 1/3 with ice and stir.

Do you ever go to a place and notice that they have ten or more types of Margaritas on the cocktail list. They offer different types of tequila and other flavorings, but in the end they all pretty much taste like a Margarita?

I’m not suggesting that there aren’t different varieties of Margarita beyond frozen or on the rocks. I spent this past weekend in Austin, TX and it got me thinking. You can kind of break Margaritas into three categories:

1. Basic, see: Blended

2. Fruit flavored, see: Grapefruit

3. Spicy, see: Jalapeno

Everything else is pretty much bullocks. In Austin, however, I ran into a cocktail I hadn’t seen before which also related back to my post on how the Margarita may have emerged from the Martini (see again: Origins). This drink claims to be an Austin Texas creation, of course which bar or restaurant has ownership is in great dispute. It’s pretty good and should be a great addition to your spring/summer drinking schedule, but it does just kind of taste like a Margarita:

The Mexican Martini:

-2 oz.  Silver or other light color Tequila
-1 1/2 oz. Cointreau or Grand Marnier
-2 oz. Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
-Splash Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
-Dash Lemon-Lime Soda
-Splash olive juice

Combine in a cocktail shaker over ice and strain it into an oversize cocktail glass with a salted rim. Garnish with jalapeno stuffed olives.

and where are we going?

So, I am a little late to the game in summing up the Aughts, but I thought I’d throw my two cents in anyway. A lot of people are looking at the past decade as the resurgence of the cocktail. To be honest it probably had it’s impetus fifteen years ago and didn’t really crossover till about five years ago (if you remember the decade started with Red Bull and Vodka, which was quickly followed by a wave of flavored Martini’s).  What has happened over the past five years has been nothing short of tremendous. I’ll try to illustrate what I mean by using David Wondrich’s book, “Imbibe,” as an example: It was published in 2007 and some things are all ready out of date. When Mr. Wondrich was writing it he refers to real Holland Gin as virtually impossible to find and now it is everywhere; along with a slew of other ingredients brought back by the popular demand of Artisanal Barkeeps and their ever more discerning clientele. Just think only a few years ago Absinthe was illegal and know we are distilling the stuff.

Absinthe, I kind of feel it has become the last touchstone of the aughts. It was supposed to be the next big thing and, while it has an immeasurable importance in recreating old recipes, it has not succeeded in becoming the ‘it’ Spirit. Unlike Gin and Whiskey which have clearly beaten vodka back for the role of dominate cocktail base.

So, if not Absinthe then what? Personally I think that the Speakeasy fad has run it’s course and we are going to see more singularly focused bars; led by the likes of Rum & Tequila. All ready established bars like Mayahuel and Roneria Caracas are leading the pack and the former Eastside Company will soon become a Tiki bar. In the long run, dare I say it, Vodka may even make a come back.

The following recipe is the only serviceable one I found that features Rum & Tequila. One expects most efforts to mix these two would occur at Frat Parties. But this one comes from the 1937 “Cafe Royal Cocktail Book.”  Published by the United Kingdom Bartenders Guild it is fairly useful  in that an encompasses everything civilized people were drinking during US Prohibition.

The Mexican Eagle:

-1/4 Jamaica rum
-1/4 French vermouth
-1/2 Tequila

Combine in a shaker over ice and serve in a chilled cocktail glass.