Professor of Cocktail Studies

This cocktail is called the Blood and Sand, after the 1922 film of that name starring Rudolph Valentino. He portrays an impoverished lad who becomes one of the greatest matadors in Spain. (The ceramic bull and matador in the pic, by the way, were a gift from my paternal grandmother, who made and sold ceramics for a living.) The Blood and Sand is a somewhat bewildering cocktail that involves 3/4 oz. Scotch whisky, 3/4 oz. cherry liqueur (preferably Heering), 3/4 oz. sweet vermouth, and 3/4 oz. orange juice. It’s tasty but has a “just miss” character because three of its four ingredients are sweet. Lemon or lime juice would offset the sweetness but neither really works in the cocktail, so you either have to live with it or—and this is ingenious—add citric acid so that the orange juice retains its flavor but becomes more tart. Yet another example of better living through chemistry. To make a Blood and Sand (sans citric acid), pour the four ingredients into a mixing tin filled with ic...

Among the most famous cocktails in literary history is the Vesper, a Martini variant created on the spot by James Bond at the bar of the Casino Royale (which in the novel is set near Dieppe on the English Channel, not Montenegro as in the excellent 2006 film with Daniel Craig). Bond names it for his ravishingly beautiful partner, Vesper Lynd. It’s a good cocktail—Robert Simonson, for many years the bar and cocktail critic for the New York Times—pronounced it “a damn fine drink.” But as a Martini it’s kind of strange. Bond initially orders a “dry martini. One. In a deep champagne goblet.” “Oui, monsieur,” replies the barman. “Just a moment,” Bond says. “Three measures of Gordon’s [dry gin], one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it is ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?” “Certainly, Monsieur.” Notes the narrator, Ian Fleming: “The barman seemed pleased with the idea.” Personally, I would have thought the barman would be pu...

Early in Ian Fleming’s “Casino Royale,” the novel that introduced the world to James Bond, Agent 007, Bond walks into the sumptuous Hermitage Bar near the casino, takes a table by one of its broad windows, and orders a cocktail. It is not, as one might expect, a Martini, but rather an Americano…. As always, his taste was impeccable. It was a warm afternoon, too early for a Martini but precisely the time for something crisp and refreshing, and the Americano was nothing if not crisp and refreshing. An Americano, Bond knew perfectly well, consisted of 1.5 oz. Campari and 1.5 oz. sweet vermouth, poured over ice into a Highball glass and then filled the rest of the way with seltzer water, stirred lightly—if the barman knew his business—just enough to make sure the ingredients were mixed but not enough to affect the carbonation. And garnished with a lemon or orange wheel. Bond did not specify which to the waiter but made a bet with himself that it would be orange, and it was—a good omen ...