Professor of Cocktail Studies

On this date in 1775:  General George Washington prohibits sale of hard cider in camp. “The Use of such poisonous Liquor will inevitably produce Disorders of the most fatal Tendency to the Soldiers.… Those Persons who are found in this Camp selling new [hard] Cyder to the Soldiers will be considered as Enemies to America, and be treated accordingly.”

  Sure, there are more sophisticated summer drinks, but for sheer petit bourgeois pleasure, nothing beats the Piña Colada. In a flash, it transports you to one of those Caribbean islands wholly owned by a cruise line. Recipes abound. Here’s mine: 2.5 oz. light rum (what the hell: Bacardi is fine 0.5 oz. Malibu Caribbean Rum with Coconut Liqueur (optional) 1 oz. Cream of Coconut 1 oz. coconut milk 6 oz. pineapple juice Pour into a mixing glass or any suitable container that's handy . Fill your intended glass about 2/3 of the way with ice cubes. Put the glass in the freezer to chill. Take the ice and using a Lewis Bag and mallet, crush it into small pieces. Put the ice in a blender, pour in the ingredients, and turn the blender on high for a few seconds. (The blender will crush the ice cubes without your assistance, but helping it along makes the process faster and smoother.) Open pour into the chilled glass. (I use a hurricane glass.) if you filled the glass with ice cubes 2/...

  Where do international waters begin? Historically, a country could claim as its own the waters from its shoreline out to a distance of three nautical miles—supposedly because it was the farthest that a cannon ball fired from land could reach. During Prohibition, the three-mile limit was still recognized under international law. But as far as the United States Coast Guard was concerned, it did not apply to rum runners, who were subject to U.S. jurisdiction as soon as they came within 12 nautical miles. (Fun fact: In 1982 the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea made the 12-mile limit the norm.) The Prohibition-era 12-mile limit accounts for the otherwise bewildering name of the Prohibition-era Twelve-Mile-Limit Cocktail, a seemingly bizarre but delicious blend of rum, brandy, and rye whiskey. Here’s how you make it. First, chill a coupe glass, because your cocktail is going to land in it. Then, in a mixing tin, add the following ingredients: 1/2 ounce fresh lemon j...

  On this date in 1794, President George Washington called out 13,000 militia from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to suppress a revolt by farmers in western Pennsylvania who widely distilled corn into whiskey and ran off federal agents attempting to collect an excise tax on the product (as well as all other distilled spirits) passed by Congress in 1791. Washington took personal command of the militia. The prospect of potentially being attacked soon caused the collapse of the tax protest, known to history as the Whiskey Rebellion. It was a crucial first test of the ability of the new, Constitution-based federal government to successfully maintain internal order.

  Chances are you’ve heard the phrase “the real McCoy.” It derives from William McCoy, one of Prohibition’s most famous illicit importers of booze. (I’d say “rum runner” except that he also dealt in whiskey.) McCoy carried out his business by sea, first loading his cargo at Nassau in the Bahamas, then conveying it to the U.S. coast, initially in a vessel called the Henry L. Marshall and, as he grew wealthy, adding a second vessel, the Tomoka. The booze he brought into the United States became known as “the Real McCoy” because unlike other bootleggers, McCoy never diluted or adulterated it. In some circles, this made him a folk hero, but it did not impress Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the assistant attorney general charged with enforcing Prohibition and deadly serious about her job. She set her sights on McCoy and never wavered in her determination to bring him to justice. McCoy began his career as a nautical bootlegger in early 1920, shortly after the ratification of the Eightee...