Professor of Cocktail Studies

The Godfather is . . . as simple to make as Fredo was simple-minded. (Admit it: you thought I was going to say "a cocktail you can't refuse It has just two ingredients: Scotch (preferably blended), and Amaretto, an almond-flavored cordial. You just need the requisite booze, a mixing glass, a Hawthorne strainer, a Rocks glass, some ice, and a spoon. Here goes: Fill the mixing glass 2/3 full with ice. Add: 2 oz. Scotch 1/4 oz. Amaretto Briefly stir with a spoon until the booze is well blended and chilled, but not long enough that the ice has time to start diluting the drink... ...which is why, ideally, you should have already taken this step: Add ice to a Rocks glass, preferably a single, relatively large ice cube (or sphere, as shown in the pic). A larger size slows the rate of dilution. Strain the booze into the Rocks glass. And that's it. As quick as shooting Paulie in the back of the head. You don't need a garnish (in fact, with a Rocks glass you really should n...

Last week I wrote about the classic Painkiller cocktail. There's a similar cocktail that is less well known but, in my opinion, just as good if not better than its more famous counterpart: Captain on Acid. It is typically served as a shooter (2 oz. glass) but can be served as a cocktail. Here's the recipe as I initially encountered it (and the way I was required to make it in bartending school. The correct glass was a highball glass (about 10 oz. capacity) 1/2 oz. Captain Morgan 1/2 oz. Malibu Rum 1/2 oz. Blue Curacao Pineapple juice (enough to fill the glass; about 3 oz.) The result was pretty good. When I practiced making the cocktails required for the course at home--with real booze in the bottles rather than dyed water--I would make the drink, take a sip to get an idea of the taste and mouth feel, and dump the rest down the sink. (Oh, the humanity!) The Captain on Acid was the first cocktail where I couldn't resist drinking the whole thing. But it really...

  The Painkiller is a legendary, supposedly sublime tiki cocktail that happens to be trademarked by Pusser’s Rum, and if you own a bar, and don’t follow Pusser’s recipe, you cannot legally call it a Painkiller. So to avoid getting sued for trademark infringement (which Pusser’s has actually done), here’s how you have to make it: 2-ounces (60 ml) Pusser’s Rum 4-ounces (120 ml) pineapple juice 1-ounce (30 ml) orange juice 1-ounce (30 ml) cream of coconut Freshly grated nutmeg I faithfully followed this recipe and guess what? Mediocre is a charitable description of the result. So I went to YouTube and watched several videos in which cocktail aficionados offered tutorials on the Painkiller. In each case, they selected a rum other than Pusser’s, usually a spiced rum (although they acknowledged that in doing so they were departing from the ordained recipe). Next, I visited the Huli Huli Tiki Lounge in nearby Powell, Ohio, to see how they made their Painkillers. They too u...

  National IPA Day was actually yesterday (the first Thursday in August), but whether you knew that or not, here’s the origin story. In the beginning, Ashley Routson had an idea. Well, it was a riff on a friend’s idea. But she was going to steal it because craft beer needed it. Lost a bit in the ubiquity of social media in today’s world,  Routson was the first social media influencer in the beer space . She was an influencer long before that word attracted both cachet and ridicule. Armed with a background and talent for marketing, Routson built her own brand, The Beer Wench, into a powerful and well-placed voice in an industry long dominated by men. She blogged, posted on social media, and wrote a book called  The Beer Wench’s Guide to Beer: An Unpretentious Guide to Craft Beer . In addition to gaining followers, the social media maven and author also promoted craft beer as a self-described “evangelist” at every opportunity. And she saw a chance to do just that with a day...

  View from the legendary Soggy Dollar Bar in the British Virgin Islands. So named because you can access only by sailing up to it and wading the last fee yards to the shore. And famous for its connection to the Painkiller cocktail, about which enthusiasts wax rhapsodic but, having made several, leaves me unimpressed. (See "Outlaw Painkiller" post.) Notwithstanding that, I’d kill for a chance to visit the Soggy Dollar.

  Kurt Sima, a high school classmate of mine, came up with an ingenious application of his business acumen: He created Epic Beer Trips (EBT) to combine three things he enjoyed: traveling the globe, drinking beer and having fun! (Nearly as ingenious as a colleague of mine who researched and wrote a history of the tourist industry on Maui.) Anyway, if your bucket list includes boozing it up in Ireland, then faith and begorrah, you’re in luck. https://www.epicbeertrips.com/

    Odell Brewing Company's 11.1% ABV triple IPA, Fee Fi Fo Fum . I’ve gotten to like IPA’s okay, although for me they were an acquired taste. I still prefer a good pale ale. Micro-brewers apparently do not—in part, I suspect, because the extra “hoppiness” of an IPA obscures imperfections that would not escape detection in a pale ale. That’s as may be. But what has struck me as a stunt is the double IPA. They’re not bad, as far as they go, but they don’t really offer an improved experience, just a higher ABV pitching in pretty much the same league as Belgian beer (which, for the benefit of the uninitiated, usually has the same ABV as wine and sometimes north of that). So the double IPA is dubious enough. But a triple IPA? Come on. It makes Fonzie jumping the shark seem like a scene from “The Cherry Orchard.” Don't believe me?  Then believe this a takedown of the Triple IPA.