I am a big fan of cocktails made with equal proportions of ingredients, such as the Golden Dawn and my signature Last Word, so I was really excited when I learned that Sam Ross had created a series of cocktails with equal proportions. His most famous is probably the Paper Plane, but he also created a group of four, all containing sweetened ginger juice, that became known as the “bug cocktails”. The first is the Mosquito.
Continue readingPresenting the Eagle’s Dream:
- 1 egg white
- 2 ounces London dry gin
- 1 ounce Creme Yvette or Creme de Violette
- 1 teaspoon simple syrup
- Juice of 1/4 Lemon
Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, strain and serve in a cocktail glass with a brandied cocktail cherry
This recipe comes from the 1927 cocktail book Barflies & Cocktails and through the magic of the Internet you can read it.
When I started making cocktails I was limited by the ingredients I had on hand. Now that I have one of the best stocked liquor cabinets between Atlanta and DC I can make a lot of things.
This drink out of the Prohibition Centennial Edition of Dr. Cocktail’s book is another equal portions drink, so I decided to give it a try.
The first cocktail I’ve made out of the Prohibition Centennial Edition is Eve’s Apple.
- 1.5 ounces Applejack
- 1.5 ounces Swedish Punsch
- 1.5 ounce fresh grapefruit juice
Combine equal parts of the ingredients in an iced cocktail shaker, strain, and serve in a cocktail glass.
In the new edition of the book there are a number of additional cocktail recipes, but many don’t have much back story, including this one. When I did a search on “Eve’s Apple Cocktail” I found a lot of references to a drink called the Eve’s Apple Daiquiri and even one from my friends over at Fair Game Beverage Co. but this one was from a 1929 book by Judge Jr.
Continue readingIt took me longer than expected to make this cocktail. I was introduced to the idea of the cocktail while watching the Peacemaker television series by James Gunn.
I really wasn’t expecting much from it, as the Peacemaker character in the Suicide Squad was a singularly unpleasant guy, but I like the shows Gunn makes and I figured I might enjoy this one. I really did, and I gained a new found respect for John Cena, who is much more talented that I used to give him credit.
Continue readingI recently took a new job which requires travel, so I’ve been out and about a lot more than in the past few years. One stop took me to Austin, Texas, where I was introduced to the Ward 8 cocktail.
According to Wikipedia, the Ward 8 was invented in 1898 to honor a section of Boston that was key to electing a particular government official. Politics aside, it is a tasty drink.
Continue readingI used to travel a lot, and perhaps one day I will again, and in every new town I would often seek out a cocktail bar.
Looking at the menu, I’d try to pick out something that matched my mood at the time and often something I had never had before. If it was really good, I’d ask the bartender for the recipe, which I would write down on whatever scrap of paper I happened to have handy.
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