Mixologist: Journal of the American Coc-ktail

Mixologist: Journal of the American Cocktail

I belong to a small group of people who have, in very short order, pulled together a cocktail museum down in New Orleans. It has all be quite exciting, and there are several different projects that are related to this musuem that are currently at various phases of completion. One of them is an annual "Journal" that we will publish that will contain a collection of essays and papers that provide detailed information that we think bartenders across the nation would be interested it, or at least "should’ be interested in. Our first edition has just rolled off the presses, and we’re pretty excited about how it all looks.

Here is a list of articles from this first edition:

A Brief History of Punch
David Wondrich

The Rise and Fall of the Martini
Robert Hess

History and Character of the Gimlet
Paul Clarke

The Genealogy and Mythology of the Singapore Sling
Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh

The Bellini
Lowell Edmunds

If You Like Piña Coladas
Jared Brown

Antoine Amedee Peychaud
Phil Greene

Down to the Sea in Ships
Anistatia Miller

The Definitive Guide to Simple Syrup
Darcy O’Neil

Twenty-First Century Cocktails
Audrey Saunders

The Long and Winding Road
Gary Regan

To order your own copy, you can find it up on Amazon.com, or you can order it directly from the special publishing arm of the Museum here: http://www.Mixellany.com

It’s hard to believe that it was just about 8 months ago that I was discussing with Anistatia Miller the "idea" of doing something like this. And here we are with an actual book, fully published, and taking orders from all over the world.

We are already in the planning stages for the next edition, and so far it looks like we’ll have to double the size just to get all of the great article ideas in that are already coming in. If -you- think you’d like to send in a submission for our next issue, you can get the details here: http://www.mixellany.com/guidelines.html

IACP : The Coc-ktail: An American Original

The Cocktail: An American Original

Last week, the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) held their annual conference in Dallas Texas. I’ve known about the IACP for quite a while, but never joined, or participated in any of their events. This year however was different. Janet Zimmerman, the forum leader of the "Fine Spirits and Cocktails" forum on eGullet (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showforum=88), had organized a cocktail session at the conference, and invited myself and David Wondrich to participate.

WS-11
The Cocktail: An American Original
Tasting

For more than 200 years, cocktails and bars have played a crucial role in American gastronomy and social life. This session will outline the history of the cocktail from the "Golden Years" through the ironically creative Prohibition era to the present, when, it seems, many of the top bars and best drinks are now found in London. The panel will examine the cocktail as cuisine, focusing on the importance of high quality ingredients; explore the role of the cocktail in American culinary life; and discuss the various components of a successful cocktail lounge, including the menu, ambiance and bartenders. The session will end with a tasting of classic and new cocktail creations.

Janet A. Zimmerman, moderator, writer
Robert Hess, bar consultant
David Wondrich, drink historian

I of course always enjoy talking to people about cocktails, and to talk with folks well versed in culinary topics just makes it that much more fun.

The session went wonderfully. David started out by talking about the history of the cocktail, starting at 1806, even pausing briefly to go further back in time to describe some of the proto-cocktails that were around in th 1600’s and 1700’s. During his session he served up a "Whiskey Cocktail", made from whiskey, sugar, water, and some home-made "Stoughton" bitters. This is a form of bitters that was available in the 1800’s, but is long gone. Various "possible" recipes are floating about, one of which David chose to mix up and use for this session. It worked quite well, producing an excellent cocktail that was amazingly similar to an Old Fashioned (gee… wonder why? :-). David left off around 1860 or so, and passed the baton on to me.

During the switch-over, some folks got a chance to ask a few questions… which was probably a mistake, since from then on it seemed like the floodgates were open. It would have been fine if they asked questions that were relevant to the topic currently being discussed, but most of the questions were the random questions that the audience brought in with them, and so I had to work hard to keep the discussion on-topic so I could get the points across I wanted to focus on.

During my portion I served up a "dry Martini", made the classic way, 3 parts Plymouth gin, 1 part dry vermouth, and a dash of orange bitters. While the bar-staff was making up the Martini’s for the audience, I demo’d the process on-stage. I chose to "shake" my Martini instead of stirring it, because this way I could clearly illustrate to the audience how a shaken Martini will "cloud up" in the glass, while the drinks being served to the audience were crystal clear.

I had hoped to use some of Gary Regan’s recently released "Regans Orange Bitters #6", but unfortuantely my shipment didn’t arrive in time, so I used Fee Bothers instead. After the session, many people came up to tell me that this was the best Martini they had ever had… and many of them said that they normally didn’t like gin.

I explained to the audience about the culinary awakening of the cocktail which happened in the later half of the 1800’s, and was really picking up steam as we crossed into the 1900’s. I covered the Temperance movement, and how this brought about Prohibition, and some of the good and bad ramifications cocktail wise that we were to be saddled with during these 13 "dry" years.

I then explained how coming out of prohibition we behaved as if we were just turning 21, and could finally "legally" drink (after already having been drinking illegally for years), and how this shattered the soul of the Martini in ways that we are still dealing with.

I then passed things over to Janet, who mixed up a Sidecar for the audience, and briefly described the history of the drink, the process by which it was made, and the importance of using quality ingredients.

Throughout all of this, the audience was trying to pepper us with questions, and now that we had basically finished our presentation we could let the questions fly. So for almost half an hour the audience was able to ask all of the random cocktail questions that had probably been bothering them for some time.

• What is the shelf-life of liquor?
• Where do you find sour mix?
• Should martini fixings be stored in the freezer?
• Why are they called marashino cherries?
• Are glass shakers better than metal?
• Why does absinthe taste so bad?
• What bartender schools do we recommend?

And many others that I now forget.

Overall it was a great session, and based on the resposes that we recived from folks we would run into the rest of the day, it appears that the audience really enjoyed it.

Next year, the IACP conference will be in Seattle, so assuming I get a chance to do this session again, it will be a lot easier (and cheaper!) for me to attend. I can’t wait.