Sorry. One Per Customer.

I have a regular who likes the Mai Tai. He used to come in and have a few. After a while he decided he'd like it if he could have his entire nights supply of Mai Tai in one glass. A traditional Mai Tai is a potent drink, but Bobby's Mai Tai is definitely "one per customer."











Bobby's Mai Tai.

2 oz Bacardi Superior Light Rum
2 oz Appleton Extra Jamaica Rum
1 oz Grand Marnier
1 oz Orgeat Syrup
1 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz Lemon Hart Demerara Rum

Build over ice in a pint glass, saving the Lemon Hart rum to float on top. Garnish with a large lime wedge.

Sip this one slowly. Don't forget to stop by Kaiser Penguin to see this months posts. Remember, you can only have one.

A tribute to Jerry Thomas

I was looking for some recipes in the DrinkBoy forums when I came across this in a post that was made back in January of 2002:

"There's so much useful stuff here in this forum, at your site, Robert, and at Martin's site, on 19th-century ingredients, techniques, lore, etc, that one could put it all together and start systematically exploring all the old families of drinks--scaffas, flips, cobblers, daisies, sangarees, fixes, crustas, etc. etc. I've made a few here and there, but as we know every kind of drink has its secrets."

That was over five years ago, and the post was made by excellent drink-writer David Wondrich.
When no one grabbed this idea and ran with it, as it usually happens with these types of things, it was left to Dave. It was his idea after all.

Today, it looks like more than five years of research and writing has paid off.

Wondrich's new book Imbibe! is an excellent guide to classic cocktails as well as an homage to the the first celebrity bartender, Jerry Thomas. The book includes over 100 classic recipes from Jerry Thomas and his contemporaries. Before now, a problem with the oldest cocktail recipes has been one of interpretation. Different recipes used different measures and different terminology. Through exhaustive research, Wondrich has decoded and interpreted these classic recipes for the modern mixologist. All the recipes also include fascinating contextual information that explains their place in history and their cultural significance.

Another interesting aspect of this book is a chapter called "Channeling the Professor - New Drinks From Sixteen of the Top Mixologists of Our Time." This chapter features, you guessed it, a collection of original recipes by some of the best mixologists and bartenders of today. The only rule was that the recipe be inspired by Jerry Thomas or his drinks. The diversity and creativity in these recipes is inspiring.

This book is a must have for mixologists, bartenders, cocktail enthusiasts and history buffs. This book is good in so many ways. It's a great, fun read on it's own, the cocktail recipes are good, and even more interesting for the historical context provided.

I'll include a drink here just to whet your appetite. I started with the original "Brandy, Gin, Santa Cruz, or Whiskey Fix" recipe.

(Use small bar glass)
1 table-spoonful sugar
1/4 lemon
1/2 a wine-glass of water
1 wine-glass of spirits
Fill a tumbler two-thirds full of shaved ice. Stir with a spoon and dress the top with fruit in season.

And interpreted it thusly:

Barbados Fix

1 TSP sugar
juice from 1/4 lemon
1 TBSP water
1 oz Mount Gay Eclipse Rum
1 oz Mount Gay Extra Old Rum
Build over crushed ice and garnish with fresh berries and a small sprig of mint.

The simplicity of this classic recipe really shows off the complex flavors of the Mount Gay rums. The information in Dave Wondrich's book helped me pull it together perfectly.

Go out and get this book today. It's a classic. See if you local bookseller has this book or get them to order it for you. Amazon also has some deals going where you can get this book along with Eric Felten's new book How's your Drink? (more on that one later) for a special price.

Imbibe! From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar.
By David Wondrich.
Published by Perigee Trade
ISBN-13: 978-0399532870

Oxford University Hot Rum Punch

The theme for this month's Mixology Monday is winter warmers. I was thinking of coffee drinks, but since we already did coffee in an earlier Mixology Monday, I wanted to cover something else. I wanted to go old school.

I was looking for a good recipe when I came across this one in Charles Baker's Gentleman's Companion. I thought this would make a great winter warmer, and Baker says it is “most excellent for anyone coming down with anything...” That sounded just about right for the cold weather we've been having.

Oxford Universiy Hot Rum Punch

1.5 bottles barbados rum
1 bottle cognac
3 quarts boiling water
2 cups lemon juice
brown sugar to taste
handful of cloves
Garnish with a spiral of lemon peel.

If you don't need to drink 25 of these, and you don't have a party coming up, you could reduce the recipe like this to make one mug:

1.5 oz barbados rum
1 oz cognac
3 oz boiling water
.5 oz lemon juice
1 barspoon brown sugar (or to taste)
a few cloves
Garnish with a spiral of lemon peel.

I wanted to see how old school this recipe was, and I found a reference in one of the original cocktail guides, Jerry Thomas' How to Mix Drinks (A Bartender's Guide), from 1887. That is old school. The recipe is a bit complicated, and I imagine that the recipe that Baker ran into on his travels was just a simplified version of this one:

Oxford Punch.

(The Punch patronized by the Students of the University of Oxford.)

Take 1 pint of Cognac brandy
1 pint of old Jamaica rum
1 quart of orange shrub*
½ pint of sherry
1 bottle of Capillaire†
2 quarts of boiling water
6 glasses of calfs-foot jelly‡
6 lemons.
4 sweet oranges.
Sufficient loaf-sugar, dissolved in some of the hot water.

Rub the rinds of three lemons with sugar to extract the essential oil. Cut the peel very fine off two more lemons and two of the oranges. Press out the juice of all the oranges and lemons. Place the whole, with the jelly, in a jug and stir well. Pour on the water, and let it stand for twenty minutes. Strain through a fine sieve into a large bowl; add the capillaire, spirits, shrub, and wine, stirring well.

I'm sticking to the simplified version, but if anyone goes for the Thomas recipe, please let me know how it comes out. Keep warm all winter long with the full list of all the winter warmers over at Imbibe Unfiltered . They'll have all the links in the wrap-up.


* Orange Shrub was a potent cocktail made with oranges, sugar and rum.
† Capillaire was a sweet syrup with eggwhites and flavorings like orange-flower water or bitter almonds.
‡ Calf's-foot jelly was a gelatin made from calves feet.

Predictions for 2007

New Year's has come and gone. 2006 was a good year for the cocktail. We saw increased interest in good cocktails and premium spirits. The cocktail's 200th birthday. The start of Mixology Monday, and many, many new drink blogs. The rediscovery of rye whiskey started to get mainstream atttention. And vodka (don't ask me why?) was still number one in volume sales.

Here are some random predictions for 2007:

Vodka still number one in sales.
I can't even think of a classic vodka cocktail but this one is still number one.

More Flavors.
The insane drive for more flavors will continue. What's next? Peach and pear flavors? Coffee flavors with caffeine go after the 'energy drink' mixers? Grape flavored vodka?

Cane spirits.
Cachaça growth continues. We'll see more premium cachaça on the market.
Rum stays hot and we'll see more new flavors from Bacardi. New brands of rum and line extensions will become available in the states . Fake Havana Club in The States?

Interest in rye whiskey grows.
Prices continue to rise as more people discover rye and supply stays tight this year. Just think, in five to ten years, they will probably be a glut. (Until then keep your hands off the rye and go get some vodka).

Malt Whisky innovations.
This year we'll continue to see some new whiskies from Scotland that are targeted to new markets. Jon Glaser at Compass Box probably has a few more brilliant ideas in whisky.

More drink and cocktail blogs.
I predict we'll see more drink and cocktail blogs, and continued success with Mixology Monday. Could we have a Mixology Monday with 60 posts?

More posts here at the Cocktail Hour.
I'm going to try to get on the ball this year and post more. I've got some more cocktails recipes. Some great old and new cocktail books to show, and plenty of spirits to taste and review.

Post your predictions in the comments. I'd like to see what you think. What have I got right? What have I got wrong? Have a good 2007. Thanks for supporting this site in 2006.