At the violet hour, the hour when eyes and back and hand
Turn upward from the desk, the human engine waits–
Like a taxi throbbing waiting at a stand–
To spring to pleasure through the horn or ivory gates.¹

The Violet Hour is a drink that was submitted and featured at Tales of the Cocktail…2008. Yes, sometimes it takes me that long to trudge through a deck of 300 recipes to find ones that show some promise and don’t require my traveling to the plateau of upper Tibet in search of Witches Bane root to be steeped in Unicorn saliva for 20 years under the shade of a Wispwillow tree. I am remiss in taking so long to get to it, as it’s quite dandy.

Toby Maloney opened the Violet Hour in 2007 and it has received accolades as one of the best bars in America. And, certainly, when one visits Chicago, it has become a must-visit attraction for cocktailians. And while I’ve not seen the Violet Hour cocktail on their current menu, Toby apparently featured it at last year’s Tales of the Cocktail as a means of honoring his bar and honor it he has.

The Violet Hour

• 2oz Bourbon (used Bulleit)
• 3/4oz Sweet Vermouth (used Carpano)
• 1/4oz Dry Vermouth (used Cinzano)
• 1/10oz Cruzan Blackstrap
• 3 dashes Fee’s Old Fashioned Bitters

While very much like a Brooklyn that’s been inverted and is using Blackstrap instead of maraschino as a sweetener, the Blackstrap and heavy dose of bitters makes different enough to warrant its own place in a cocktail rotation. The Violet Hour starts with a very Manhattan-esque flavor and then a caramel back with just enough cassia and cardamom from the bitters holds sway to give you something else to think about and consider. Using Fee Old Fashioned is critical in this one. Having tried several others, the rest not quite giving the baking spice zing of Fee’s and allowing the drink to fall off, Fee’s is the order of the day.

The other note I have on this drink is the Blackstrap. 1/10oz is around 1/2 teaspoon and I believe it could use a touch more. And by “touch” I mean about twice as much. The caramel character blending with the spice of the bourbon and the bitters at the back-end of this drink is, to me, what makes it special. Even if you up it to 1/8oz (3/4t) you’ll have an improved drink. So, my recommendation is to use 3/4t or 1t Blackstrap in the drink and move back from there if you find it overly tacky or aggressive.

Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the violet hour, which usually falls around 8:00pm this time of year. A perfect time for a drink, don’t you think?

Last Night's Dogbite: The Violet Hour is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. this is a line prior to Eliot’s revisions to the first draft of “The Waste Land”, and I prefer it still to the folderol re: Tiresias and his bloody “throbbing”

Upcoming TDN: DOM – B&B and Benedictine

B&B and Benedictine are classic and elegant ingredients used in a host of cocktails from the Singapore Sling (ok, *some* versions) to the Widow’s Kiss to whatever you decide to make at this Thursday’s TDN. THIS week’s special feature will be a LIVE! broadcast of the goings-on at the Monkey Hut where Craig, Blair, Rick, and special guest star Jeffrey Morgenthaler will be mixing and waxing poetic the whole evening. As always, festivities begin at 7pm EST in the Mixoloseum Bar.

TDN Vermouth Wrap-up

It was going to be tough to follow TDN: Mata Hari what with its awesome live action at the Tabard Inn and mocking of Oklahoma and sinking of such glorious failures of drinks as the Cannibal Curse (1.5oz Batavia Arrack, I rest my case) but TDN Vermouth came close. Vermouth, in many ways, gave birth to the modern cocktail and opened up endless possibilities beyond the simple “spirit, sugar, bitters, and water” make-up of the earliest cocktail form. The Manhattan, Martinez, and, in turn, the Martini, of course, being the primary examples of the explosion that happened after vermouth was introduced and popularized in the U.S. Whether our contributions will reach that same level of global appreciation and ubiquity remains to be seen, but at least it wasn’t for lack of trying:

Winning Drink

If I had no shame I would award it to my own drink, The Right Stuff, because the use of Pisco and how it came together was really sexy. However, the Financial District was a widely-tried and very well-regarded drink submitted by drink-well of LA who needs to get ahold of me to pass along his information to get his prize to him. Congrats, sir¹ .

Financial District

• 1.75oz Bourbon
• .75oz dry vermouth
• .25oz coffee liqueur
• dash orange bitters
• dash peychaud

Stir, strain, and garnish with a lemon twist

Other drinks you should try:

By beautiful wonderful, me.

The Right Stuff

• 2oz pisco
• 1oz bianco
• .5oz grapefruit juice
• .25 simple
• .25 curacao (used Grand Marnier)
• 2dash old fashioned bitters

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Submitted by Paul who warns, sharply, do NOT use McClelland’s Islay single malt for this drink, gabe.

Ex

• 1.5 oz sweet vermouth
• .5 oz cask-strength rye
• .5 oz Campari

Stir & strain in glass rinsed with Islay single malt

Offered up by Rick who will claim it’s the greatest drink ever made, and is dead wrong. But it is awfully damned good.

Jaynestown

• 2oz Firefly sweet tea vodka
• 1oz Dolin blanc
• 2 dashes lemon bitters

Stir and strain over ice

R.W. APPLE’S ORCHARD

• 1.5 oz apple brandy
• 1.5 oz Dolin blanc²
• dash peach bitters
• dash Decanter bitters³

Stir/strain and garnish with a lemon twist

Offered, presumably with affection, by Rick and Craig.

Tiki Antica

• 1.5oz Carpano Antica
• 1oz Appleton Extra
• .5oz dark Jamaican rum (used Coruba)
• 1oz Licor 43
• .5oz lime
• .25oz falernum
• float 1oz ginger beer and .5oz Blackstrap Rum

Kick Rick and Craig’s collective asses with a swizzle stick for throwing in the kitchen sink where it’s not likely needed, and then make think and probably enjoy it.

Submitted by John, a surprisingly good drink that I would cut back on the orgeat with if made again.

Well Stocked Bar

• 2oz gin
• 1oz lillet
• .5oz cynar
• .5oz dry vermouth
• .75oz orgeat
• 1oz lime
• 1 egg white
• 2 oz soda

Shake, strain, top w/ soda

NOTE: In the future, TDN judging will be handled in a new and exciting way. YOU can be part of selecting the winning cocktail each week. The host(s) will select a group of 4-5 cocktails they feel are worthy of consideration and post them on Friday in a poll on the Mixoloseum blog. Then, over the next few days, try the drinks and vote on your favorite and it will be declared in Tuesday’s wrap-up. Viva la Democracy!!

Original Vermouth Recipes: TDN Vermouth is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. or ma’am, you never can be sure
2. I used Cinzano Bianco
3. I used Fee’s Old Fashioned

In going through my Tales of the Cocktail recipe cards I find so many obscure liquors and spirits I can’t come near to acquiring³ here (Rain Organics Honey Mango Melon Vodka? I mean, C’MON!)⁴ or esoteric and arcane ingredients such as Bauman’s unsweetened Spice and Sassafras Apple Butter that I just begin to throw my hands up at the byzantine morass I see ahead of me that would make drinking a slog and turn to a nice classic Attention or Jack Rose cocktail and call it a night.⁵ Maybe I can be accused of not being serious or devoted enough, I don’t know.

But, this is why I get so delighted when I see a drink such as the Elan Vital, by Daniel Shoemaker, featured towards the back of the magazine’s July/August 2008 issue. “Alas,” I say, “a drink I can make this very instant, and it looks divine.”

Elan Vital

• 2 oz Full-bodied Dutch-style gin
• 3/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz Dry vermouth ⁶
• 1/4 oz Creme de Violette
• 1/4 oz orgeat

Fill a mixing glass halfway with ice. Add ingredients and stir well to chill. Strain liquid into a saucer and garnish with freshly grated orange peel.

I heard many wonderful things about Daniel Shoemaker and the Teardrop Lounge while in New Orleans and this drink definitely gives them some measure of credibility if it’s any indication of the quality of drink they’re producing there. I love all of these ingredients on their own but the 3/4 oz of Yellow Chartreuse made me skeptical that this drink would work given all of the floral and botanical flavors that would be vying for prominence. However, they came together extremely well. Joana and I both likened this to a deeply-honeyed herbal tea. Just delicious and well worth its cost in hard-to-find ingredients. This is a drink that’s sweeter than expected but welcome in its complexity. “Vital impetus” indeed.

My only issue is that the dry vermouth gets lost in the shuffle and deserves to be featured more, at least if you’re using Martini & Rossi as I did. Now that I have a bottle of Vya Extra Dry I’m curious how it will change the make-up of this drink and how much a homemade or higher-quality orgeat syrup would deepen it and subdue the sweetness a bit. However, it’s not the slightest bit tacky or cloying, so don’t get me wrong; it’s just on the sweeter side of the scale for an “up” cocktail.

T. Marshall Fawley III of Scofflaw’s Den jiggered up a variation of this he called the “Elan Witch” that replaced the grated orange peel with a drop of orange flower water and added Strega in place of the Yellow Chartreuse. It sounds like it would dry it out a touch and, by his reckoning, kick up the vermouth’s influence on the final product.⁷

If you have these ingredients handy, give this a shot. If not, turn to Imbibe! where…ummmmmm, well, maybe not.⁸

Note: To be fair to Imbibe!, the ratio of straight-forward to “fussy” drinks is about 2:1 and it seems, more often than not, to keep its mission in mind with the drinks it chooses to feature. So, please Hammer, don’t hurt ‘em.⁹

Last night's dogbite: Elan Vital is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. Anita at MWD made a good point that Food & Wine may be a worse offender than Imbibe! about this. When a publication hunts out recipes and features bar/bartender’s “house ingredient” it becomes a barrier to entry to trying, and enjoying, it
2. I’m paraphrasing, but it was refreshing to hear the same “Dammit, I want to be able to make the drinks I discover.” sentiment
3. or wanting to acquire, how many damned specific types of vodka do you expect me to have or invest in, bastards?
4. GOB of “Arrested Development” reference here…
5. I understand the difference between having a bar where these ingredients can be made in large quantities and used to differentiate your cocktails and make them unique flavors not found elsewhere, that’s awesome stuff
6. calls for Vya, I had to use Martini & Rossi
7. this sentence edited to reflect Marshall’s comment and additional detail in the comments
8. I’m trying not to be completely unfair to Imbibe as it’s an extremely good publication. It just gets frustrating to me at times and it’s the most visible example of this phenomena of fussy and labor-intensive cocktails-maybe I’m lazy or in the wrong part of the country, it remains to be seen
9. also, I think Joana disagrees with me on this entire point which is usually a sign I’m deeply in the wrong

Vermouth is, obviously, best known for its role in the quintessential cocktail, the Martini. However, as I explored classic cocktails and discovered what a prevalent role vermouth plays in so many vintage drinks I became more curious about what other charms this enigmatic liquid held. I also saw a very interesting piece on the Fine Living network (shut up, my wife has to have the TV on to go to sleep) where Cinzano Rosso vermouth was featured and how vermouth is appreciated as an apertif was heavily covered. Hmmmmm, while I’ve always been a, ‘as long as I have a white and a red, I’m good, right?’, kind of guy, this intrigued me. This interest led me to purchase a good number of apertifs and vermouths on my last outing to Denver liquor stores, but let’s get to what sweet vermouth entails and what qualifies an aromatized or “fortified” wine as vermouth first.

Antonio Benedetto Carpano developed the first vermouth in 1786 and named it vermouth in honor of a German wine using wormwood (‘Wermut’ am Deutsch) as a primary herbal. Initially, vermouth was developed as a means of flavoring wines of poor quality while also lending them a dubiously ascribed ‘medicinal effect’. As vermouth came into its own, both as an apertif and as a cocktail mixer, higher-quality vermouths were produced in all variations of dryness, sweetness, and character. In brief, though, white (or bianco) vermouth is called ‘French’ style vermouth and red (or rosso) vermouth is called ‘Italian’ style. As you would expect, both styles, red and white, are produced in both areas with little regard for consistency in herbs used, alcohol content, or character of dry and sweet between manufacturers.

It’s important to acknowledge vermouth vermouth as an aromatized, versus strictly fortified, wine product. Fortified wines, such as brandy or port, typically have alcohol added to increase their potency whereas an aromatized wine has often as many as 40 or so botanicals and herbals infused into the wine itself. The types of grapes used in the initial wine distillation also has a significant effect on the vermouth’s final flavor profile. In France, the primary grapes used in vermouth production are Picpoul and Clairette grapes varietals and in Italy the Trebbiano (Italy) and Parellada (Spain) grape varietals are frequently used. While nearly all vermouths begin their life as a white wine, sweet vermouths are sweetened with sugar and given their ruddish coloring through the addition of caramelized sugars.

In this tasting I’m looking at four vermouths; Noilly Prat Sweet Vermouth, a French version of sweet vermouth; Martini & Rossi Rosso (which also produces the Noilly Prat product), Cinzano Rosso, Carpano Punt e Mes (a drier product), and Carpano Antica. I tried each in the apertif style versus a cocktail to be sure I was getting the purist flavors from each product possible. Each was served in a highball glass full of ice with a lemon twist and a single stirring straw. This one was fun, folks.

For the past 6 months or so Noilly Prat has been my sweet vermouth mixer of choice (and Martini & Rossi my dry) though I’d never tried it on-the-rocks as an apertif. Noilly Prat is a French product that is produced by the Martini & Rossi company (which is in-turn owned by Bacardi) which bills itself as ‘Original French Sweet’. I didn’t expect much out of this, to be honest, but it turned out to be quite nice and hold its own against the competition. It starts out very sweet with a gentle herbal backbone that doesn’t ever push itself to sickly-sweet territory and avoids that tongue-smacking quality of overly sweet products. It finished cleaner than I expected, and while not best-in-class, it surprises in all the right ways and is a good value at the price. You could do worse, much worse, as we’ll see.

This stuff is crap. And it means I’m going to have to change the dry vermouth I use in cocktails because I don’t trust a Martini & Rossi product to serve in drinks any longer. This starts out with a front-end of sickly-sweet sugary and one-dimensional flavoring and then proceeds to turn in a brackish mire of bad aftertaste. I was surprised at just how much this distinguished itself from the others in the group. I mean, yeah; it’s cheap, but does it have to show it off so poorly? Considering the price difference between Noilly Prat and Martini & Rossi is so marginal and that your getting at least a 4x higher-quality product in the Noilly Prat I’m surprised it remains a successful product. Remember that part earlier where vermouth was a method of taking poor quality wine and improving it? Martini & Rossi, keep working on it…seriously – this is shameful.

This, like the Noilly Prat, is a pleasant surprise. It’s a notch more dry than the Noilly Prat and provides a rich but not overwhelming flavor. For me, this is just about the perfect everyday sweet vermouth for mixing. It’s not something I’d go to for a straight apertif, primarily because I have other options, but if I were stuck with only readily available vermouths to choose from to do so, this would be it. This is an affordable and widely available option that gets best in class in that category¹ . The Carpano products, as you’ll see, are superior, but aren’t had as easily. I appreciate Cinzano’s body, fullness of flavor, and balance, especially compared to Martini & Rossi.

Punt e Mes has right around the same level of sweetness and body as the Cinzano Rosso with a slightly more woody taste and a blast more bitterness as it finishes. I’ve called this a ‘gateway Campari’ in the past for a reason. If you manage to slug this and avoid having it lie on your tongue overly long, you’ll have a tough time telling it apart from a simple sweet vermouth, aside from its slightly more woody nature (wormwood is prevalent in this). However, the longer it sits in the mouth and swills about the more pronounced the bitter tone becomes and it builds in complexity over time. Very good stuff and I think it makes a nice Campari replacement in a Negroni for those of us who have friends who won’t go within 20 yards of a Campari bottle.

Carpano Antica is purportedly the ‘original’ Italian sweet vermouth as created by Anthony himself² . Whether or not it’s the original recipe or not, this is not your Uncle Rico’s sweet vermouth, folks; this shit has a cork, a box, metal seal, the works. A lot of hoopla for an apertif that’s fairly difficult to find but not outrageously expensive. But how does it taste, you ask? It’s terribly good, and I use it strictly as an apertif. I’ve heard rumors of heathens mixing it in Negronis as the sweet vermouth component but I wouldn’t dare. It’s more dry than these other contenders but also more rich and flavorful. This pours an almost chocolate color and has the body of Guinness in its thickness and mouthfeel. Best of all, and the reason I find it such a fantastic apertif, it finishes clean as a whistle. All of the others leave some sort of finish lingering behind, from herbally sweet in the Cinzano to brackish horror in the Martini & Rossi, but the Antica just leaves the palate wanting more…of anything, just as an apertif should. If you can find this, grab a bottle, be sure to use a good stopper to recork it, and enjoy. And I’m sure I’ll break down and pour some of this heaven into a mixed drink, but not quite yet.

Some of you eagle-eyed viewers will notice a lack of Vya products here, which I understand to be fantastic. If you know of a distributor or agency through which I can acquire these, I’d love to have them to compare. Otherwise, I’m SOL in OK. Though if you’ve tried them I’d like to just hear your impressions as well.

For additional information and takes on Sweet Vermouth, visit these and other fine locations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermouth
http://thespiritworld.net/2007/06/04/vermouth/
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=79770
http://marriedwithdinner.com/index.php?s=carpano

Fight Night!: Sweet and Rosso Vermouths is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. though I’ve not tried Stock’s or Kedem products
2. we’re on ‘buddy name’ terms like that, you see

For the end of Summer I wanted to explore a tall drink, and while the Punt e Mes Negroni was nice, it just wasn't different enough to get me excited enough to write about. So, I went back and thought about the Tart Gin Cooler I wrote about a couple of months ago for inspiration and came up with the 'Point and a Half Cooler' (get it? 'Punt e Mes' = 'Point and a half'… Hah!). It turned out very nicely, even if Joana did say it tasted like 'moldy wood'.¹

Point and a Half Cooler

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Punt e Mes
• 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3-4 oz soda

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and pour into a highball glass filled with ice. Top with soda and a twist of lemon peel. Garnish with lemon twist.

This actually reminds me very much of drinking a highly herbal grapefruit-based drink. It's highly refreshing and while, obviously, not for everyone, I think it's a nice "starter drink" for someone interested in Campari, bitter apertif cocktails, and/or moving into Negroni territory. I suppose you could add a dash of Angostura or Peychaud's bitters but in my opinion, what would be the point? This features Punt e Mes very nicely and the gin, lemon juice, and sugar provide a nice balanced platform on which the Punt e Mes can strut its stuff.

The big question for me is how does Punt e Mes (produced by Carpano) differ from the Carpano Antica I also purchased? With all the apertif-style spirits I now have at my disposal, especially in the red variety, I'm thinking I might need to commit an evening to pondering and answering just such weighty and pithy questions… Indeed…*grabs pipe importantly, smokes it*

*coughs and gags*

MxMo XIX: Punt e Mes Cooler is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. I didn't have the inclination to tell her wormwood is a primary component of Punt e Mes' flavoring

Parfait Amour (or Parfait d’Amour if you’re feeling particularly Continental) is produced by two manufacturers; Marie Brizard and Bols, from France and the Netherlands, respectively. There is some variation between the two apparently, but since I have no access to Bols I can’t speak specifically to what they are. As for the Marie Brizard its nose is heavy on the orange (in a curacao, not a triple sec, sense) with a floral and marshmallowish back end. It smells like it looks, sweet and purple. In tasting it I can see how this would overpower a drink as its flavor profile isn’t unpleasant but is very distinctive and heavy. Not to mention the sheer sweetness of the liqueur; it’s pretty unabashed in its syrupy quality. Ok, then, on with the Jupiter, which appears to be a wet-ass Martini with additional nuances.

Jupiter Cocktail¹

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 3/4 oz dry vermouth
• 1 tsp Parfait Amour
• 1 tsp orange juice

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, shake with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The first thing I want to note is that Robert Hess’s version keeps the ratio of gin:vermouth the same but increases their volume (2 oz and 1 oz) and leaves the Parfait Amour and orange juice at 1 tsp. each. I would tell you to go with Ted Haigh’s first. Even in this recipe where the volume of Parfait Amour is higher, its character got lost in the drink. The orange juice and Parfait Amour did sweeten the drink and give it more depth but it wasn’t until I made a second version using 1 1/2 tsp. Parfait Amour that I noticed a distinct difference that made it a unique and more complex cocktail.

The drink comes out a slightly gray color that isn’t altogether pleasant but clears up as the drink settles. As much as you’d like to use Parfait Amour to make a drink purple, it seems to not be a good idea. That much Parfait Amour and you’re in ‘must go brush my teeth now’-land. As for the flavor profile it is very much like a Martini that has several high notes tinkling at the top end that come through the longer you allow the sip to sit on the tongue. Certainly the vermouth and gin are heavy at the front, but then a light sweetness comes through with citrus and marshmallow tones. It’s very pleasant and a good refreshing variation on a straight gin:vermouth Martini. I recommend this drink, especially Haigh’s version, and would challenge you to play with the volume of Parfait Amour gently until you strike the right balance for you. Too little and you might as well make a Martini with orange bitters, too much and you might as well make a Martinez.

Anyone else found a great use for Parfait Amour? A teaspoon at a time and I’ll be in my fifties before I get through this stuff.

Jupiter Cocktail Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

PS: If you’re a frequent visitor you’ve noticed I’ve started playing with my images in the past few days, and, essentially, I’ve been trying to reverse-engineer Rick’s process over at Kaiser Penguin in terms of the curve and drop-shadow. I like the look and will come up with my own style in short order. But I certainly wanted to give Rick his props for inspiring me to do more with my photo processing. Now for a better damned camera…

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

1. from Ted Haigh’s, ‘Vintage and Forgotten Cocktails’

The drink I’ve selected is from a blog of the old guard that isn’t updated as frequently as it used to be, but still has plenty of value in visiting and perusing its archives, and, when it is updated, always has an interesting take on cocktail or bar culture as well as any drink it posts. Plus, it’s a little ranty, which endears it to me all the more. I selected the ‘Golden Age Martini‘ as created by Brad Ellis, self-proclaimed ‘Bar Mix Master’ at www.barmixmaster.com. Brad hails from New Orleans, has a deep love of Manhattans, and has a wonderfully designed layout and feel on his site; the photos are always top-notch and it’s obvious he has an eye for design, something I always appreciate in a blog.

The Golden Age Martini is a call back to the days when Martinis weren’t served nearly as dry as they are now (what with their 6:1, 8:1, or even 15:1 – god bless whoever named this the ‘Montgomery’ – ratios of gin to vermouth) as it more evenly splits the amount of gin to vermouth and adds a twist on it in the inclusion of simple syrup and orange bitters. While I love a Martini (I use a 3:1 ratio) it’s not something I go to very often as there are other, and more complex, drinks I’d like to spend my time with. The Golden Age Martini makes a nice call back to the classic and treats the imbiber to some subtle flavors that make it a good ‘gateway drink’ to straight-up honest-to-god Martinis; not to mention it’s a damned fine excuse to use orange bitters.

Golden Age Martini¹ 

• 2 oz gin
• .5 oz simple syrup
• 1 oz dry vermouth
• 3 dashes of orange bitters (used Regan’s No. 6)
• 1 twist of orange or lemon

Stir the ingredients with ice for 20 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the twist and enjoy!

The addition of simple syrup and the heavy dose of orange bitters create a Martini that still has the same buttery and herbal character of your old pal but adds a dimension of sweet and spiciness which gives it greater depth. It retains its balance as the vermouth and syrup lay in the background creating a smooth mouthfeel and the gin and bitters come together and generate a dry and light tone that stays through the finish of the drink and long after the drink’s left the palate. It’s worth a try and well worth revisiting from time-to-time. I will say that the almost mulled spice nature the amount of bitters gives the drink recommends it more to the Fall (or Autumn, for you across the pond) and Winter seasons.

MxMo XVII: Let the Golden Age Begin is a post from: cocktailnerd

1. by Brad Ellis of barmixmaster.com
2. that sentence structure brought to you by the dehydrated hangover I’m experiencing

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

Bijou Cocktail ver. 1

• 3/4 oz gin (the Savoy recipe specifies Plymouth Gin, so I used it)
• 3/4 oz Chartreuse (green)
• 3/4 oz Gancia Italian Vermouth (used Noilly Prat sweet vermouth)
• 2 dashes orange bitters (used Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6)

Mix well with a spoon in a mixing glass (read: stir), strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry or an olive (I chose cherry), squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top and serve.

The first thing I always do when trying a new cocktail is inhale it deeply (much to my wife’s amusement, mind you) since, as you know, so much of taste involves olfactory goodness. Well, in this case I get a big ol’ whiff of Chartreuse and nearly only Chartreuse; herbal and bright. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it makes me immediately suspicious of the drink’s balance. The taste of the drink is a very strong and bold front of Chartreuse with only gentle teasings of anything else behind it. The vermouth does bring a sweetness to it, which is welcome, but the gin is almost completely lost and the finish of the drink is almost exclusively of the Chartreuse. A disappointment.

However, as I get further into the drink and it returns closer to room temperature, a pleasant surprise. It actually starts blending and melding much better than after it’s initially poured. Suddenly the sweetness of the Plymouth and vermouth come more to the front and all of the herbals come together more harmoniously. From halfway through on down it’s a much better cocktail, just as allowing wine to breath gives it more complexity and depth. Pretty damned nice there at the end.

Bijou Cocktail ver. 2

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Chartreuse (green)
• 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters

Stir in a mixing glass with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Well, one thing’s for sure, the Chartreuse is definitely less prevalent but instead of having the sweetness of the vermouth tamp everything down and act as a catalyst between the gin and Chartreuse it gets lost and you’re left with a very dry and gin-prevalent drink. Again, not a bad thing, but I have a dozen or so other drinks I’ll go to if I want to feature gin so strongly. So, while this version has a more consistent character and stayed true throughout the drink I find it less complex and interesting than the first. Also, if I tried this version again I would up the orange bitters to two dashes and add the touch of lemon twist from the first. Both of those steps, absent in this version, seem to have contributed more than I expected and I felt their absence in this version.

So, for a drink to feature Chartreuse and how it can be used to wonderful effect I still recommend the ‘Last Word‘ cocktail, but the Savoy version of this drink (ver. 1) is a very nice pre-dinner cocktail as it has an herbal and slightly spicy nature that acts as a good and clean palate cleanser. Not quite the jewel the name implies, but not bad either.

Bijou Cocktail ver. 1 Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars (but let it breathe a bit)

Bijou Cocktail ver. 2 Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

There is a very nice entry on the Bijou at The Spirit World here as well.

03/25/09 Update:

Rachel Maddow featured the Bijou cocktail on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and rightly calls him out on needing a more manly drink than a Bud Light with Lime¹ :