Category Archives: Cocktails

MELTING…Melting…melting

The cocktail before you tasted wonderful when the bartender first made it.  Now it’s fading, getting weaker, watery, losing its appeal.  The ice is melting and diluting it to a shadow of its former self.  Time to order another but, … Continue reading

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A Night at the Dakota

I’m sitting at the Dakota Jazz Club bar staring at soft, amber lights.  My thoughts wander.  Soon I’m standing at the end of Jay Gatsby’s dock seeing lights across the water.  That green one, that’s on Daisy’s dock.  Daisy…she wasn’t … Continue reading

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Hangover

SYMPTOMS – But I had Such a Good Time Your head pounds, you’re desperately thirsty, you ache like you’ve been tackled by Roosevelt Grier.  Bright lights and loud noises hit you like harpoons.  You’re sweaty, shaky, sick, crabby, and so … Continue reading

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A Dozen Classics

MOJITO:  Muddle four lime slices, two teaspoons granulated sugar, eight fresh mint leaves, and a dash of lime juice in a highball glass.  Add ice and 1-1/2 ounces light rum.  Fill with club soda and top with a dash of … Continue reading

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Alcohol in the Movies

Beer, wine, whiskey, and cocktails in movies illustrate everything from people having a boozy, brawling good or bad time, to the affectations of high society, to the ravages of alcoholism.  In some cases a particular drink is identified with a certain … Continue reading

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Cocktail Mathematics

Published books and smart device applications offer cocktail collections, some 500, some 5,000, some more than 10,000 individual recipes.  Trying even a fraction of these would be — fun, interesting, expensive, decadent, mind-altering — you choose.  But just theoretically, how … Continue reading

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Stars of the Bars

Here’s a selection of innovative bartenders from today and times past who have helped shape the classic library of cocktails.  JERRY THOMAS “The father of American mixology” learned bartending in Connecticut then went to California to work as a bartender, gold prospector, and minstrel … Continue reading

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Who Was…?

The exact origin of the cocktails listed below isn’t known and there are many stories for each from which to choose.  These are the most plausible and interesting. BLOODY MARY Fernand “Pete” Petiot was an American bartender working at Harry’s New … Continue reading

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Manhattan Melodrama

The Manhattan originated in the late 1800s.  Various stories attribute its creation to different people or events but it is likely more than one person came up with it at the same time.  Italian vermouth was new to bartenders then, … Continue reading

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Martini Worship: Is It Wrong?

HOPE FOR CIVILIZATION? “The Martini is the supreme American gift to world culture.” — Bernard DeVoto “A man must defend his home, his wife, his children, and his Martini.” — Jackie Gleason “I am prepared to believe that a dry … Continue reading

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