Not just history of cocktails, but history through cocktails
Posts in category Monster in a Glass
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Episode 3: Meeting Tom Collins –...
The Tom Collins got me. The Tom Collins is another one of the old classics that is still around today and because it has been around so long…the history has become muddled and essentially lost. Jason found the earliest recorded instance of the recipe was a version in Australia called the John Collins. Now, traditionally […]
Episode 2: The Big Guns – French 75
I think this episode is a great example of what we mean when we say “…history through cocktails”. It would be easy to think that every cocktail origin story is precise and worthy of storytime. As it turns out, we’re pretty excited when we discover a cocktail that is directly and causally correlated to a […]
Episode 1: Manhattan Project – Manhat...
We’re kicking off the series with the cocktail that I think of as THE cocktail of cocktails…the Manhattan. At the front of the show, Mr. Jason Kruse, our researcher, and I sat and discussed what he discovered while tracking down the origins of the Manhattan. First of all, the Manhattan’s claim to fame as the […]
Episode 50: On the Fence – The ...
And we are here at episode #50. Now we’ve done other episodes in between, fun little experiments and tastings, but the full fifty represents fifty classic cocktails we’ve learned about and enjoyed. This one is extra special because it’s one of those really old ones from the American colonial era: The Stone Fence. This drink […]
Episode 42: A Fiery Blonde – Mi...
It was Cinco de Mayo, a much celebrated date in Chicago, and Bobby decided to introduce me to my first beer cocktail, the Michelada. I did the research and the images of the Michelada concerned me. It looked a lot like a Bloody Mary. If you recall the Bloody Mary episode, I was not a […]
Episode 39: Floats Like a Butterfly &...
You know that age when you’re old enough to drink but haven’t quite conditioned yourself to the taste of alcohol. That’s how the Stinger happened. The origins of the Stinger are unclear but the first written reference to the cocktail is in 1917. Whatever its origins, the Stinger became a kind of upper crust cocktail […]
Episode 37: Knickerbockers Everywhere...
Episode #37 is about Knickerbockers. Besides being a really fun word to say, Knickerbockers are a real thing that has significance in American history. In 1809 Washington Irving wrote a satirical history of New York under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker. That’s where the term is born. That name became synonymous with the Dutch elite […]
Episode 36: Movin On Up — Park ...
Classic cocktail #36 is the Park Avenue. Aside from its origins being the 1940s, we have no other history behind this one. It seems like just another product that garnered fans by virtue of its name. How many products, recipes, etc. have relied upon the symbols of success to gain attention? I suspect that before […]
Episode 35: Even More Shakin Goin On...
Episode #35 features the Ramos Gin Fizz. I know we did fizzes already, but one can never get enough shaking. Apparently Henry C. Ramos really couldn’t get enough of the shaking. His drink required 12 minutes of non-stop shaking to be properly fizzed. In 1888 Ramos created his fizz which became a sensation at his […]
Episode 34: Licensed to Swill –...
Episode 34 introduced the Vesper. The unique thing about the Vesper in our menagerie of cocktail monsters is that it was fabricated entirely in a story by an author of fiction. We have encountered a cocktail whose origins come from a movie title, but it was created by a bartender in honor of the movie. […]
