Professor of Cocktail Studies

  The Sidecar. Cocktail Codex , written by the key players at the famous Manhattan bar Death & Co., maintains that there are only six cocktails: the Old-Fashioned, the Martini, the Daiquiri, the Whisky Highball, the Flip, and yes, the Sidecar. All others are simply variants on these “root recipes.” The Codex recipe for the Sidecar was so tart that I won’t bother reprinting it. But this version was terrific…. Here are the ingredients: 1 1/2 oz. cognac 1 oz. dry curaçao 1/2 oz. lemon juice First, you’ll want to take a coupe glass (preferably) and put it in the freezer until it is well chilled. Then remove the glass, rub the rim with a lemon wedge, and place the glass upside down on a plate dusted with a thin layer of sugar. Technically this is optional but I wouldn’t do it any other way. After that, briefly return the glass to the freezer while you build the drink. Pour the ingredients in a mixing tin, fill the tin with ice, and shake for 6 to 10 seconds. You want to get t...

  Invented by "Trader Vic" Bergeron, the Fog Cutter follows a recipe that at first blush is hard to believe. It involves rum, gin, brandy, and sherry. (Also dry curaçao, if you go with the version I prefer.) But it's the best Tiki cocktail I've made so far.  Here's the original recipe:  2 oz light Puerto Rican rum 1 oz brandy 1/2 oz gin 2 oz lemon juice 1 oz orange juice 1/2 oz orgeat 1/2 oz sherry  Shake with cube ice, strain into a glass, and fill the glass (preferably a Zombie glass) with crushed ice. You can also use a Fog Cutter mug (yes, it has its own Tiki mug).  Smuggler's Cove , considered an authoritative source for authentic but slightly updated Tiki cocktails, uses this variant:   2 oz lightly aged rum 1 oz pisco (a Peruvian brandy) 1/2 oz gin 1 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice 1 1/2 oz fresh orange juice 1/2 oz orgeat 1/2 oz oloroso sherry  Combine all the ingredients except the sherry in a mixing tin with 12 oz of crushed ice and 4-6...

  James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) with a Vesper Martini, named for his doomed girlfriend, Vesper Lynd: “Three measures of Gordon's [gin], one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?" Although I don’t think the cinematic James Bond ever ordered one—or rather invented it seemingly on the spot—until Casino Royale (2006), the drink was created by Ian Fleming and appears in his novel by the same name (1953). Kina Lillet was discontinued in 1986, so the nearest approach is now Lillet Blanc. For those disinclined to buy a bottle of Lillet Blanc just to experience a Vesper Martini, dry vermouth apparently works fine, especially when a dash of sweet vermouth is added. The recipe for a Vesper Martini is typically rendered as 3 ounces gin, 1 ounce vodka, and 1/2 ounce Lillet Blanc. Just the thing if your life is in constant danger, you need to think fast and cunningly, and move with spe...

  Spent last evening making a Mai Tai and thinking about Donn Beach; "Trader Vic" Bergeron; whether I really needed to drop 20 bucks on a bottle of Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao; and oh yes: cultural appropriation. I'll have much to say about the cultural appropriation aspect of Tiki in future posts--the short version is that I think it's something not lightly to be dismissed, and at the same time that merely getting offended about a Tiki mug is a missed opportunity. A Tiki mug can and should be an opening for dialog: Come for the cocktail, stay for the de-colonization. But for now, let's talk about the Mai Tai. The Mai Tai is the ur-cocktail of Tiki. There are two great figures in the founding of Tiki: Donn Beach (1907-1989); and Victor Jules "Trader Vic" Bergeron, Jr. (1902-1984). I talked about Beach in my last post; I'm sure I'll be talking about Trader Vic in several future ones. Essentially the two entrepreneurs were friendly rivals. Be...

If you’ve spent any time in a bar, you’ve probably noticed that bartenders use an oversized bottle opener. The term of art is “bar blade.” Almost every bar blade looks like the one at bottom: Bottler opener on the right, circle on the left. For months, I’ve quizzed bartenders about what use they make of the circle. Without exception, they have said that a) they don’t use it, or b) they use it to twirl the bar blade the way a gunfighter twirls his six-shooter. Now take a look at the bar blade on top. Bottler opener on the right side, check. But what’s going on the left side ? I’ll tell you what’s going on. Bartenders commonly replace the caps of liquor bottles with speed pourers—which is how they’re able to turn a bottle vertically downward and rapidly pour the liquor into a mixing tin, or glass, or whatever. Speed pourers are awesome but frequently difficult to remove at the end of a shift. The gizmo on the left is designed to slip under a speed pourer and give the bartender en...

About 18 months ago I visited the Huli Huli Powell , a Tiki-themed bar and restaurant in Powell, Ohio, about 10 miles north of Columbus. I was enthralled as soon as I entered the place, I suspect because as a kid growing up in the 1960s, I must have been exposed to Tiki culture, which was then in its heyday. I say “Tiki culture.” The term implies a connection to a real-world culture, which is decidedly not the case. One can call it a crude caricature of Polynesian culture, but I don’t quite see it that way. I see it as a crude caricature mashup of two cultures: Polynesia, yes, but also the Caribbean. The liquor most associated with Tiki is rum, which originated in the Caribbean, as does the pineapple, the fruit most associated with Tiki, which is indigenous to the South American regions along the fringe of the Caribbean. (Only in the 19th century did large-scale cultivation of the pineapple begin in Hawaii.) Essentially Tiki creates a fantasy world that I doubt many regard as a r...

  Liquor.com offers a tutorial on making beer syrup. The recipe is basically the same as making simple syrup, but instead of a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water it’s a 1:1 ratio of sugar and beer. And the process is the same: put liquid and sugar in a pot, place it on low heat, stir slowly until the sugar dissolves, and remove before the liquid comes to a boil. The fun is matching the type of beer to the type of cocktail you plan to make. One bartender likes “super-flavorful beers” like IPAS, sours, and tropical goses (not that I have the slightest idea what a tropical gose is). Another prefers stouts, specifically a double chocolate stout with touches of cherry and vanilla extract, “rendering a rich and decadent drink.” The only ironclad rule is, make sure the beer goes flat (no carbonation) before using it. Well that, and never use a beer you see advertised during a football game.