2070 Swizzle

• 1 oz Angostura 1919 Rum
• 1 oz 151 Demerara Rum
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz rich simple syrup
• 1/2 oz honey syrup
• 1/4 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
• 4 drops Pernod
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 pinch freshly-ground nutmeg

Add all ingredients to a glass. Fill with crushed ice. Insert barspoon and swizzle until frost forms on the glass. Top with extra ice if needed. Serve with a straw.

The honey syrup is a simple 1:1 honey-to-water combination that is stirred over heat until all of the honey is fully dissolved and it lends a fabulous backbone to this drink that everything else hinges to. This is, I’m sad to say, the first swizzle I attempted and it was highly rewarding. So much so that at my mother-in-law’s birthday party, after a good number of Sazeracs and Lion’s Tails and John Collins and you-name-it, I made a couple of these and shoved them in everyone’s face demanding they try it, NOW!, and sing the praises of Martin lest I limit them to the slightly-warmed Heineken mini-keg I had in waiting. Needless to say, I had many takers, with many smiles. I must say, I can be an intense host when serving drinks.

Martin Cate notes the Twenty Seventy is influenced by the classics, and soon after making this, I found the 151-Swizzle in Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log to be closely-related though I have yet to try it. Of course, upon entering the Mixoloseum Bar and lauding the 2070 I was met with a knowing, and accurate, analysis by Craig who said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Ah! The honey and lime or grapefruit combination or a punch of pastis and bitters is classic in Don the Beachcomber-style drinks.”³ See, I told you I left these things up to better people than I.

The final word on this, for me, is that the rums are critical (another sign of a well-constructed tiki drink). I’ve tried several iterations of this and none match the Angostura 1919 (one of my favorite rums right now) and 151-Demerara combination. In the interest of saving my 151-Demerara, which I can’t replenish here and should tell you just how many of these I’ve downed, I have replaced it with a split of 151-Bacardi and 80-proof Demerara rum. But, as you’d expect, it’s not quite the same. Barring any Demerara at all, well, the Barbados rums are the closest I’ve gotten. A dark Jamaican rum just kills it entirely I’m afraid. I’d be interested in any thoughts any of you have on rum replacements absent Demerara. Also, in my first attempt at this, I dumped a bit too much Pernod and really went heavy on the nutmeg – I didn’t, and still don’t, regret it one damned bit.⁴

I’ve become such a fan of Cate’s creations that I featured the Dead Reckoning in my November Oklahoma Magazine article and find the architecture of his drinks to be extremely-well done. You can almost taste the time and care he spent in constructing them, and that’s always a great and rewarding thing. Too bad he makes for a terrible Elvis.

And, for the record, the second swizzle under my belt, which is surprisingly good, is the Cilician Voyage that came out of the 10/02 Thursday Drink Night! via the addled brains of Rick and Marshall⁵ . If you have Strega, check it out.

Last Night's Dogbite: 2070 Swizzle is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. god bless you, Paul
2. Martin, I only got to meet you briefly on the Saturday night of Tales gallivanting about with Jeff Berry, but you were a fine, and tired, gentleman
3. see the Test Pilot, Montego Bay, or Never Say Die as object lessons
4. however, this does lead most people to look at the drink oddly the first time and wonder, based on my usual taste, why I like it
5. good work gentlemen
6. I kid, of course. Paul is a prince among kings.

Hendrick Cocktail²

• 2 dashes syrup
• 2 dashes bitters (used Angostura)
• 1 dash absinthe (used Mata Hari)
• 1 jigger old Kentucky bourbon³
• 1 slice of lemon

Fill an old fashioned toddy glass 2/3’s full with ice. Stir, and serve in the same glass without straining.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a total bourbon bomb but it hits a peak after about 5 minutes of sitting that is divine. Joana, upon tasting it, noted, “It’s somewhere between an Old-fashioned and a Sazerac,” and that’s a pretty fair assessment of its charms. However, if you let it sit for more than 10 minutes it starts to deteriorate rapidly, so be mindful of your progress and take heart.

The bitters are really forward in this and their spiciness calls for a sweeter bourbon such as Woodford Reserve. Blanton’s also worked wonderfully. I was tempted to add more absinthe to the drink but in retrospect am glad I didn’t as I can see it easily reaching a tipping point that masks any of the light citrus and may conflict with the bitters too much.

A note on the absinthe: I used Mata Hari because its profile, less fully anise than most, seemed better suited alongside the bitters. As Darcy used it in the Green Swizzle, I see it being used here. And, yes, there’s an ad over there and it makes a really awful absinthe frappe, but I think it suits this drink very nicely.

MxMo XXXI: Hendrick Cocktail is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. Knob Creek, Blanton’s, Bulleit, Eagle Rare, Booker’s
2. From Christopher Lawlor’s “Mixicologist”
3. 2 ounces

I selected the Monkey Gland cocktail, an ill-named but interesting cocktail because it combines several of my favorite things; gin, a chance to use homemade ingredients (grenadine), a chance to feature a monkey (see right), and absinthe or an absinthe substitutes. It also features the mundane in: orange juice. Maybe that’s the ‘gland’-ish part, hmmm?

Ted Haigh, in Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails, cites this as his quinessential Prohibition cocktail given its roots in a flapper-inspired frenzy of drinking and behaving in, obviously, uninhibited monkeylike fashion. There are two basic variations on the Monkey Gland, one involving the aforementioned absinthe and the other replacing that with Benedictine. I don’t have any Benedictine…yet, but rest assured I will give the variation a shot once I do. However, that left plenty of experimenting for my eager palate to do as there are various interpretations of the appropriate ratios for the drink.

Monkey Gland Cocktail ver. 1 ¹

• 1 1/2 oz dry gin
• 1 1/2 oz orange juice
• 1 tsp real pomegranate grenadine
• 1 tsp pastis plus 1 dash pastis (or substitute)

Shake vigorously in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass.

Tasting this, it was a surprise. It’s sort of the reverse effect of the Last Word cocktail; instead of blending everything into a homogenous, and new-flavored, whole, it brings a bright anise flavor layered on top of a pleasant herbal sweetness brought by the gin, juice, and grenadine. The pastis (I used Absente) was like a bright splash of expressionist color swathed against a mild impressionist background. Perfectly pleasant and a really nice drink to feature absinthe. Given the low volume of pastis to the two main ingredients it stands out very well and, while not truly balanced, it retains a nice character all its own in which the pieces fit together if a little apart. Let’s try the other version which is the second version provided by Gary Regan (who, according to Ted Haigh, prefers the Benedictine version) in The Joy of Mixology.

Monkey Gland Cocktail ver. 2

• 2 oz gin
• 3/4 oz orange juice
• absinthe to taste
• grenadine to taste

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I’m always nervous about reading ‘to taste’ in a cocktail recipe because, well, if I’ve never tried the drink before or I’m a novice at mixing drinks, how do I know what the drink’s intent was and what the impact of more or less of these ingredients will be? In other words, to have one ingredient listed ‘to taste’ seems a misfortune, to have two seems like carelessness. And, in this version, that shows. The gin comes all brawny and muscle-bound to take over the drink and, from that, the absinthe gets muddled into the background with the grenadine. And, the orange juice? Well, it’s left weeping at the altar wishing it had been engaged to a fine simian instead of a gorrilla. Which is to say, go with the first. And, once I get my Benedictine, I’ll let you know how Regan’s preference holds up.

Beware, however, of too many of these. Apparently the name derives from the practice of transplanting monkey testicles into men to “rejuvenate” them (read: make them horny). And, I can’t exactly say the cocktail doesn’t avoid achieving the desired effect completely without unwarranted surgery² .

Next up, a ‘Spotlight On!: Zubrowka’ post, a ‘Fight Night!: Cachaca’ entry, and a little navel-gazing about MxMo XVIII: Fizz!, hosted by yours truly.

Last night's dogbite: Monkey Gland Cocktail is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. from Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails
2. this sentence structure brought to you by overwrought.com

So, I present to you, To Have or Have Not, a movie that discovered Lauren Bacall at 19 (!) and brought she and Humphrey Bogart together during and after the filming of it (he would divorce his wife soon after and marry Bacall, much his junior) and is essentially a poor man’s Casablanca. Not to say it isn’t a great film, but beside Casablanca it falls well short; though Bacall and Bogart’s chemistry is mesmerizing. In this case, a bottle of whisky is used to underline the burgeoning tension in their relationship, and the exchange of the bottle between them, after she’s swindled it from an unsuspecting French Naval officer, underlines how they are vying for both information about each other as well as control over the dynamic between them. After he’s left her at the bar with the naval officer we get this:

She’s brought a bottle of whisky (or rum, he uses water with it, but because they’re in Martinique it may well be rum) and she goads him about her behavior at the bar though he denies it bothered him. Finally, once he makes them both drinks and he asks her about her ’story’, because she took a slap in the face from the Vichy gestapo without flinching, she gets upset and leaves; him, literally, holding the bottle.

It takes him all of about five seconds to beeline for her room across the hall – wouldn’t you? -where, once again, the bottle is treated as currency; neither of them willing to commit to its ownership but both using it as impetus to see more of and learn more about one another. 

Soft mood music begins playing as he knocks on her door and she, distraught and upset about his challenging her to expose herself, invites him in. The bottle continues to be used as an excuse to connect with each other as he says, ‘You left this.’

The discussion continues to escalate their emotional gamesmanship and she begins to divulge details about her life, how she brought the bottle to Bogart’s character to embarrass him, and her possibly sordid past. Finally, after the climax of the scene, captured in the image at the top of this post, he leaves, her looking forlorn and lost, and once again, looking to use the booze as a pretense to join him.

‘There’s that bottle again,’ Harry says when he finds her at his door again, mentioning what a ‘problem’ the bottle is becoming. However, the third time is the charm as in this exchange and ‘gifting’ of the bottle between them the interaction culminates in their first kiss as the critical moment in the film arrives; when Harry decides to help the French Resistance and, in the process, Bacall’s character ‘Slim’. The tension released, the bottle disposed of in their thoughts, and Slim remarking that they must simply try the kissing again (but next time with Harry shaved), she leaves Harry’s room with the immortal line:

Slim: You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and…blow.

So, you’ll have to pardon this lengthy and self-indulgent post all in the name of my recognizing more and more how drinking is used in classic films as a stand-in for emotional development, again, as shorthand for social dynamics and character depth or dimensions (see: Bogart’s soliloquy in Casablanca, ‘Of all the gin joints, in all the world…’ with his lonely drink in hand). Mind you, not a drop of alcohol is actually consumed in the scenes I’ve outlined, but it’s an ever-present calling card to the universal appeal of alcohol in its ability to bring people together and be used as a catalyst to connect strangers. Whereas, with the mores of today’s cinema, as I’ve mentioned, it’s almost exclusively portrayed as a self-destructive element or to quickly, and lazily, outline a characters’ major character flaws. In To Have or Have Not it’s treated as a great companion to an affair of the heart, and I couldn’t agree more. Cheers, Harry and Slim.

And just so you don’t go away empty-handed, here’s a cocktail developed in the name of Humphrey Bogart called the ‘Bogey Cocktail’.

Bogey¹

• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz dry vermouth
• 1/4 oz Bourbon
• 1/4oz Pernod
• 1 dash lemon juice

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled then strain into a cocktail glass.

A minor variation can be found here. And as the man himself said, ‘I should never have switched to martinis.’

On a side note, Jay at Oh Gosh! did a nice (and much more concise) piece on drinking and classic films with Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows. Check it out here, good stuff.

Drinking in Film: 'To Have and Have Not' is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. from Stan Jones’ Jones’ Complete Bar Guide

This is a drink that, like the Aviation, is a great introduction to how gin can be used to wonderful effect for the ‘But I don’t like gin!’ crowd, is a fantastic example of how the true cocktail craft can create something far greater than the sum of its parts, and exemplifies just how damned much we’re missing in the insipid and limp cocktails served in most bars and restaurants today.

I’ve found only a couple of variations on this drink and I greatly prefer one over the other:

Corpse Reviver #2 – ver. 1¹

• 3/4 oz gin
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 3/4 oz Cointreau
• 3/4 oz Lillet (blanc)
• dash Pastis (Pernod, Herbsaint, or Absente to substitute)

Place all ingredients into a mixing glass, shake with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a destemmed maraschino cherry (optional).

You are met first with a slightly tart but herbal scent from the drink and, upon the first sip, find a distinct sweetness to it that is tempered with a dry and clean finish. And, occasionally, especially when holding the sip in your mouth, you catch drifts of the anise come through the drink in a very gentle way. If I’m writing in a precious manner regarding this drink it’s because I can’t help myself, it just lends itself so well to an overwrought description. It’s not as deep or complex as ‘The Last Word’ cocktail but it serves its purpose exceptionally well and, again, demonstrates how close to alchemy this blending of ingredients to create a greater whole can be. One last note on this version, you can use traditional Triple Sec but I wouldn’t recommend it; if at all possible use the Cointreau as it seems to sit down and behave in the drink a bit better.

Now for the next trick:

Corpse Reviver #2 – ver. 2²

• 1 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Lillet (blanc)
• 1/2 oz Cointreau
• 1/2 oz Pernod (or other anise-flavored liqueur)
• 3/4 oz lemon juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This is a great exercise in seeing how you can invite all the same dance partners to a dance and get a completely different result; version 1 is Foxtrot, version 2 is Quickstep – both are ballroom but only one of them is for me. The greater emphasis on the gin and lemon juice (proportionally) causes the elegance of the Lillet and the sweetness of the Cointreau to get covered up and lost. The far greater volume of Pastis (I tend to use Absente for its stouter and drier character) changes the overall tone of the drink significantly, and for my money, tramples over a good thing. Stick with the first one (but try both) and you’ll have a wonderful example of how slight modifications in drinks make a world of difference.

A great name, a great balance of flavor in ver. 1, and as Harry Craddock notes in ‘The Savoy Cocktail Book’, “Four of these taken in straight succession will unrevive the corpse again.” So, be careful, and enjoy.

Corpse Reviver #2 – ver 1 Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Corpse Reviver #2 – ver 2 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Last night's dogbite: Corpse Reviver #2 is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. Found in ‘The Joy of Mixology’, ‘The Savoy Cocktail Book’, drinkboy.com, and other various and sundry places
2. Found in Dale DeGroff’s ‘The Craft of the Cocktail’ and other various and unsundry places