As a tribute to the recently celebrated International Women’s Day, we thought we would give today’s cocktail, the Hanky Panky cocktail, a whirl. It’s creation was credited to one Ada Coleman, the head bartender at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel from 1903 to 1925 and one of only… Read More »Hanky Panky Cocktail
With the start of the new year, it’s time to resume blogging. Last year was not an epic year for the blog, though we had some good moments. To kick the new year off, I decided (B actually told me) to change the theme. We’ll see if this one has… Read More »Satan’s Whiskers
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 32 trips to carry that many people.… Read More »2015 in review
This weeks post is a bit of a departure from the usual cocktail recipe and discussion. Instead I want to discuss something essential to so many great cocktails, which would not be terribly hyperbolic to call it the essence of a cocktail. What, at least in my opinion, distinguishes a… Read More »A bitter edge
I have to confess that I found this one looking for something with Calvados in it. In looking at it, it had pretty much everything I love. It’s old. It’s chock-full of screwball booze. Also, it turns out to be really good as well. David Wondrich gives credit to a… Read More »The Widow’s Kiss
This twist on the classic involves one of my favorite things… quirky booze. This time it’s rhum agricole. All rum is originally fermented from sugar (it’s what makes it rum instead of say brandy, which uses fruit, or whiskey that uses grain). Most rums use molasses. What makes rhum… Read More »Agricole Daiquiri
One of the problems with the history of cocktails, is that the people most qualified to write it would rather be drinking. Those that are writing, tend to be prone to indulging in a bit of self aggrandizement. Case in point, one Harry Johnson. According to cocktail historian David Wondrich… Read More »Bijou
Tonight is one of those great summer evenings. There’s a cool breeze blowing in off the Sacramento River delta. The blackberries in the sorbet are at their sweetest. The perfect cocktail to round out this evening, a Kir Royale. The first time I ran across this drink was a tweet… Read More »Kir Royale
B & I are actually mid cocktail right now (a Blackthorn to be specific). We’ve begun discussing our ten greatest cocktails of all times. There are a lot of tipplings, that when confronted with, you wouldn’t object to drinking. What we are talking about are those drinks so epic and… Read More »On the way to ten…
I was looking back through the cocktails that I wanted to write about and found this one from back in May, 2007. Okay, curious. Why hadn’t I written about this one yet? I looked back at the cocktail hazed notes that we jotted down at the time and they seemed… Read More »The Emerson