If you're into thinkin' and drinkin'


Not Just history of cocktails, but history through cocktails. Currently in reproduction with a new format and cast of characters set at the Ward Eight in Evanston near Chicago.


Every drink in your favorite movies and TV shows


Recap of Monster In A Glass episodes with additional content to flesh out the story and understand the cocktail better


Our friends in Chicago whip up a drink and tell us what they think

Episode 61: A Little Diki-Diki – The...

The Diki-Diki cocktail sounds just dirty enough to make the 12 year-old boy in you giggle. Grow up! This is a sophisticated podcast. Hee-hee, it sounds like dick. The ingredients are definitely not the usual suspects, featuring the infrequently used grapefruit juice, the Normandy-based apple brandy, Calvados, and finally Swedish Punsch, an arrack-based liqueur. Wait […]

Episode 60: Derby Town – The Derby Co...

So having done the Mint Julep, what more is there to say about derbies? We take a look at the Derby Cocktail which poses a few problems when trying to talk history about it. First, there are numerous recipes for Derby Cocktails, and none seem to be related to the others. Second, derby could be […]

Episode 59: Hitting a Delicious Sour ...

        The Delicious Sour. I like a cocktail that tells you all you need to know right in the name. Sours are a family of cocktail going back a long way, with notable features of putting a lime or lemon peel in the glass and an egg white. We also dive into […]

Episode 58: Leaving a Sour Taste – Wh...

The Whiskey Sour is, er, well, whiskey with sour stuff in it. Sooo, good-bye? Just kidding, when there is nothing to talk about, we make something to talk about. This is another really, really old cocktail that is simple and has stayed relatively consistent with the ingredients until current day. It is definitely not the […]

Episode 57: When Life Gives You Larah...

The Curacao Punch is generally attributed to Harry Johnson, and if you spell it the correct way of “Curacao” it is the earliest it shows up in a recipe book. However, if you spell it “Curacoa” then Jerry Thomas printed it first in his recipe book. I thought he might have just spelled it wrong, […]

Episode 56: Two Men and a Cocktail &#...

The Crimean Cup a la Marmora is a punch with a whole lot of ingredients. Rather than being dreamed up in a bar, this one was the work of Alexis Soyer, a famous 19th century chef. Soyer took an interesting path for someone who served as the chef to nobles in England. A culinary innovator, he […]

Episode 55: A Communist Party – The C...

We are going to go out on a limb and say that the Communist Cocktail is probably named after Communists. Nothing states it definitively, but…Communist. This drink calls for Cherry Bounce in the original recipe, an old cordial made from sour cherries, the pits, sugar and spices. Cherry Bounce: the 19th century’s answer to Kool-Aid! […]

Episode 54: No Sleep Til Brooklyn – T...

In this episode we take a look at the Brooklyn cocktail, which looks to be the product of Jack Grohusko from the early part of the 20th century. Most cocktails take some wondering and digging and guessing in order to figure out why a bartender gave it a particular name. With the Brooklyn, we go […]

Episode 53: Fool’s Paradise ...

Episode 53: Fool’s Paradise – The Blue Paradise

  The Blue Paradise, like many cocktails with blue in the name, is not blue. The ingredients must be blue then, right? Nope, purple, red and brown and we can pretty much guarantee that the mixing of these colors do not make blue either. This non-blue drink is credited to a Belgian bartender by the name […]

Episode 52: The Best Part of Waking U...

The Coffee Cocktail is unusual in that it does not contain any coffee in it, and if you go by the strict rules of what makes a cocktail, it isn’t that either. Jerry Thomas, who seems to be the first person to write the recipe down, calls it a “misnomer” because of the lack of […]