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Brandy-based

The Tulip Cocktail

The Tulip Cocktail

I was looking for a preprandial cocktail when I came across the Tulip in Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book.  It looked like a interesting combination of a few oddball things I had. Being straight out of a vintage cocktail book (ca. 1930), I figured it might need a bit… Read More »The Tulip Cocktail

Crux

Crux

B and I were thumbing through several of our cocktail volumes looking for a suitable tipple to kick off 2017, when we came across the Crux in Robert Hess‘s The Essential Bartender’s Guide.  It looked promising.  Nice classic cocktail structure; at least one odd-ball booze.   What’s not to love. I got to… Read More »Crux

Vieux Carré

I just realized that it’s been exactly six months since my last post.  Wow.  I knew I had been putting this off a bit, but this is even more serious procrastination that I’m normally capable of.  I definitely planned on doing this one for Fat Tuesday, but as you can… Read More »Vieux Carré

Tantris Sidecar

I think we stumbled on a really good one this time.  B and I were trying to decide what we wanted for our cocktail on Sunday when the discussion drifted to a daiquiri made with rhum agricola that was mentioned in Imbibe magazines interview with Rachel Maddow a while back.… Read More »Tantris Sidecar

The Stinger

If last week’s post was an afternoon’s light hearted frivolity, then this would be pretty much be the opposite. The is one of B’s standards for polishing off an evening or the otherwise somnolent task of digesting a heavy meal. As with a good number of cocktails (drinkers make lousy… Read More »The Stinger

Delmonico’s No. 1

Well, this is just quick one. First the recipe from David Wondrich’s Esquire Drinks: 3/4 oz. gin 1/2 oz. brandy 1/2 oz. Sweet Vermouth 1/2 oz. Dry Vermouth 2 dashes Angostura Bitters Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Part of what makes this post short is the… Read More »Delmonico’s No. 1

The Pisco Sour

This all starts with a stocking stuffer my father-in-law gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago, the July/August 2007 issue of Imbibe Magazine.  They had an article pisco, on the brandy of Peru and (though highly disputed by Peruvians apparently) Chile.  This intrigued me, an so begins a… Read More »The Pisco Sour

The Sidecar

It’s as American as Mom, apple pie and lemonade (well, as I like to think of lemonade anyway). To quote David Wondrich, “The Sidecare is often singled out as the only good cocktail to come out of the long national nightmare that was Prohibition.” Seems only fitting to celebrate the… Read More »The Sidecar

Why they all can’t be winners

East India Cocktail 3 oz. brandy 1/2 oz. raspberry syrup 1 dash Angostura bitters 1 tsp. orange Curacao (Cointrea) 1 tsp. maraschino liqueur from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh. We might just have to file this one under “Seemed like a good idea at the… Read More »Why they all can’t be winners

Harvard Fizz

B here. It’s hot today here in the Central Valley of California, and I assisted M while he changed the oil in our truck. After that it was cocktail time. But what to have? I wanted something light but not overly summery. I wanted to go into my air conditioned… Read More »Harvard Fizz