Professor of Cocktail Studies

  French 75 (named for the World War I French field gun; and no, I am not making this up.) Pour 2 oz of chilled champagne or sparkling wine into champagne flute (about halfway). Into mixing tin: 1 oz gin (or cognac) 1/2 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/2 oz simple syrup Add ice Shake Strain with a Hawthorne strainer and pour into champagne flute at a 45 degree angle to avoid fizzing. If necessary, top off flute with more champagne/sparkling wine. Garnish with the longest spiral lemon twist you can make.

  A while back I decided to get my bartending school certificate professionally framed. Got a call yesterday that the job was finished. My daughter Chloe and I picked up the framed certificate this afternoon. We hung it up in the corner of the kitchen that has become ground zero for all things bar- and booze-related. Then she noticed the date on the certificate. Turns out I completed the course exactly five months ago today—a neat little case of perfect timing.

  How to make an Irish Coffee With one small exception, Irish Coffee is idiot proof. (For the exception, read the paragraph below that starts with “Here’s the slightly tricky part.”   Do it now or you’ll definitely regret it.) You’ll need a 12 oz. mug.   Fill it with hot water to ensure that the coffee remains hot when you pour it in.   Then, obviously, before you start building the drink, pour the hot water out. Pour in 1/4 oz.   Demerara syrup.   (It’s 2 parts Demerara sugar to 1 part water.) Add about 3 oz. of coffee.   (You can make the coffee yourself, but since the coffee is a key ingredient, unless you’re a coffee aficionado it’s better just to do what I did:   stop at the local Starbucks and bring home a large cup of breakfast blend coffee.) Stir long enough to make sure the syrup and coffee are well mixed. Add 1 oz.   of Irish whiskey.   Traditionally Catholics favor Jameson while Protestants prefer Bushmills, inform...

 The earliest form of cocktail was punch, which tracks back to mid-17th century England and was nothing like the Kool-Aid plus liquor we think of today.   The one commonality is that it was usually served communally—“the flowing bowl”—but even this wasn’t always the case. Here we have a punch cocktail from the mid-19th century, called “General Burnside’s Favorite” (yes, that General Burnside, for Civil War buffs).   The recipe originated with famed mixologist Jerry Thomas. It’s served piping hot, and before building the drink, you should rinse the glass or mug with boiling water. Then start with the juice from 1/2 lemon.   Add 2 oz. VSOP brandy, followed by 1 oz. Jamaica rum and 3/4 oz. Orgeat. Fill with hot water, stir well, and top with grated nutmeg. The result may have been General Burnside’s favorite, but it’s far from mine.   I managed to drink most of it, but it’s not something I’ll make again anytime soon. (The original recipe dates from ...

How to make a Classic Daiquiri. 2 oz. light rum 3/4 oz. simple syrup (50/50 mix of sugar and water) 3/4 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice Just three ingredients. What could possibly go wrong? It turns out that it’s easy to make a mediocre daiquiri, not so easy to make a good one. 1. You’ve got to get the right balance between sweet and tart. Limes vary in acidity so some are more tart than others; you have to taste test the lime juice and maybe scale back the juice to 1/2 oz. Some rums are slightly sweeter than others and if the lime juice isn’t too tart you may need to scale back the simple syrup to 1/2 oz. (Some recipes specify 1/2 oz. anyway.) 2. The distinctive notes of the rum you’re using can’t get lost. It’s a daiquiri, not a rum & Coke. 3. You add the ice after the ingredients because you need to shake the shit out of the mix to make sure the drink is well aerated. But because the ingredients are at room temperature this extended shaking is going to melt more ice th...

  I started out thinking of the “Professor of Cocktail Studies” thing as a matter of whimsy, but I soon realized it was worth taking seriously. When it comes to bartending, I’m a novice. And in addition to having little experience, I’m neither young, good-looking, nor charismatic; in short, probably not someone a bar owner would be eager to place behind a bar. So I decided that my best bet was to educate myself in all aspects of the trade; basically to know as much or more about it than other prospective employees; and aside from that, to master the subject for its own sake. This includes not just knowing about cocktail history and the craft of making cocktails, but also the legal aspects of serving and consuming alcohol. So here, as best as I can do right now—at some point I’m going to confer with an attorney who specializes in this area of law—is my best stab at the issue of drinking and driving…. 1. This guidance is by a layperson, not an attorney. Consult ahead of tim...