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 […]
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! […]
Clearly the Blue Moon is named after the song, right? Nope, and if you run through the other references to blue moons it probably isn’t any of those either. Don’t try to figure it out, just drink it. The first place it is printed in a cocktail book is in Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1917) […]
Episode #45 I convinced Jay to come to the Brixton and record the history portion of the show. We sat down and Michael made us a couple of Bebbos. Our book tells us the word comes from an Indian dialect and means “toad”. If that’s true, there better be a reason, however, there is […]
Episode #44 features a popular personality from the cocktail era: Mr. PT Barnum. The name of the cocktail refers to Barnum’s supposed famous saying that a “sucker is born every minute.” But even as we look into this cocktail we can’t verify much of anything and even the attribution of that phrase seems off. Given […]
Initially we all figured that this cocktail history would be a slam dunk. It has a name of a person…it’s named after someone. It has to be easy to find out. We couldn’t have been more wrong. This drink was a complete mystery. Jay could not find any references to it anywhere prior to our […]
Putting the word “corpse” in anything you are going to consume is probably a mistake, but Corpse Revivers seem to have weathered any associations with dead stuff. When you look at the name closely you pick up right away that this cocktail is intended to clear out the cobwebs and get you right up out […]
The Pimm’s Cup is obviously a cup, right? I mean it is in the name. So why was it advertised as “the original gin sling?” Or is it actually a punch? Is Pimm’s No. 1 a cup? Or is Pimm’s Cup a cup? And just what are cups, punches, and slings? All these questions will […]
It pleases me to present the next Monster Summoning episode wherein we feature new cocktails born from the minds of liquid genius. The Brixton is where we record our Monster in a Glass series, wherein we discuss and taste classic cocktails both popular and forgotten, and Michael Donnelly, the bartender we work with, always knows […]
Cocktails are all about crafting, sipping, and enjoying the experience. To many, creating a cocktail is equivalent to cooking a fine meal. Raw ingredients carefully mixed to generate a taste that is to be savored, to be discussed for the nuances of the flavors and the way the ingredients play off one another. And then […]
