whiskey cocktails

Bourbon, rye, Canadian and Scotch.

Whiskey and Barspoons: the Brainstorm Cocktail

The Brainstorm Cocktail, photo © 2017 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved..

There is a tongue-in-cheek reference to something called a Brainstorm Cocktail in a 1906 issue of a trade magazine called “The Northwest Druggist”:

The “brainstorm” cocktail is the latest. It consists mainly of cracked ice set aside to thaw.

Druggist humor, I guess.

The real Brainstorm Cocktail came along about ten years later; it’s one of Hugo Ensslin’s pre-Prohibition classics, first published in his Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916).

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April 27, 2017 16

Cynar and Scotch: The Choke and Smoke Cocktail

Choke and Smoke Cocktail, photo © 2017 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

I’ve always had trouble with Scotch whisky when it comes to making cocktails. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this—the long history of cocktailing has only managed to come up with a handful of Scotch-based cocktails that have any semblance of balance and finesse.

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January 13, 2017 10

Whiskey Sours and Embittered Last Words: the Paper Plane Cocktail

The Paper Plane Cocktail, photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

The first cocktail I learned to make was the Whiskey Sour. I made it with Scotch, which was a very poor choice, but I was just out of college and didn’t know better. It’s gratifying to discover, in retrospect, that even then I had enough wits about me to think that tinkering with the mix might lead to a worthwhile improvement in flavor. It took forever to realize that the problem was the Scotch. Well, it was too much lemon, too, but at least I finally figured it out.

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December 3, 2016 2

Hair of the Dog: the Morning Glory Cocktail

Morning Glory Cocktail, photo© 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

Hangovers have been around forever, so it’s not surprising that one of the most popular branches of amateur medicine is the hangover “cure.”

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November 18, 2016 3

Dark Horse: The Preakness Cocktail

The Preakness Cocktail, photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

I’ve never been a follower of American horse racing, but I do enjoy the hype and pageantry of the three-race set known as the “Triple Crown” — in the US, it’s the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes.

The Kentucky Derby falls near my birthday, so for decades my birthday partly has been a Derby-watching event, replete with fancy outfits, good hats and, especially, whiskey juleps. The Mint Julep is the universally accepted symbol of the Derby, and the Run for the Roses starts the ice-crushing season right.

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May 21, 2016 5

What’s Wrong with the Blood and Sand Cocktail?

Blood and Sand Cocktail (detail), photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

I wouldn’t normally write about the Blood and Sand Cocktail.

I don’t like it. I’ve never met anyone who likes it. The flavors make no sense to me. Four ingredients, all fighting with each other.

Harry Craddock must have seen something in it when he first published its peculiar formula in his 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. And drinkers with palates different from mine must like it, as evidenced by its continued presence in highly respected bar manuals more than eighty years after its creation.

(And, of course, there’s the theatrical value of that lurid name, riding the coattails of Rudolph Valentino’s 1922 movie. I’ll admit, that’s really good.)

But from my palate’s point of view, the Blood and Sand is really broken. So what makes this cocktail worth writing about?

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January 29, 2016 13

Sazerac Variations: the Cooper Union Cocktail

Laphroaig and St. Germain labels (detail), photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

In abstract terms, you could think of the Sazerac as an Old-Fashioned with a strongly aromatic rinse on the glass. Typically, it’s made with rye whiskey or cognac, but Phil Ward’s Cooper Union cocktail, though it looks like a Sazerac, is all about malt whiskey.

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January 8, 2016 6