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Sours

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.

Continue reading “Whiskey Sours and Embittered Last Words: the Paper Plane Cocktail” →

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Mixing the Pisco Sour

The Pisco Sour, photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

We don’t often encounter the Pisco Sour, mainly because we don’t often encounter the Peruvian brandy called Pisco these days. (For that matter, we don’t seem to encounter very many brandy cocktails of any sort, but that’s another story.)

The Pisco Sour is a classic brandy sour, differing little from what we might call the Jerry Thomas brandy sour template. It uses lime juice (instead of lemon) to provide the sour component, but its hallmark difference is an ostentatious eggwhite foam.

Continue reading “Mixing the Pisco Sour” →

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Rum and Falernum — the Corn ’n Oil Cocktail

The Corn 'n Oil Cocktail, photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

Drinks are named for places, religions, sweethearts, politicians, even political parties. Some drinks draw their names from song lyrics, some reflect ideas and aspirations. And some have names are utterly inscrutable, like the Corn ’n Oil Cocktail.

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The Olympic Cocktail

Olympic Cocktail (detail), photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

The Lusitania, the Kaiser Wilhelm, the Titanic—before World War I, the great ocean liners were the peak of traveling adventure, luxury, and technology. It was the age of the “greyhounds of the seas.”

Their British and German owners competed for speed, for luxury, and for bragging rights; the twenty years between 1895 and 1915 saw the launches of ever-larger ships, each more lush and decadent than its predecessors. The story of the Titanic provides one of the world’s best-known cautionary tales about the dangers of overweening pride in technology, but, oh, that was a handsome, luxurious, and well-fed ship—for all of the five days it stayed afloat.

As it turns out, the Titanic had a sister ship; Continue reading “The Olympic Cocktail” →

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Tequila and Grapefruit — the Paloma

La Paloma: grapefruit, lime and tequila. Photo © 2016 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

It’s May of 1862, the early days of the American Civil War. Mexico had a war on its hands, too; they were fighting the French, and it was going poorly.

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Another Round of Whiskey Sours: the Ward 8 Cocktail

The Ward 8 Cocktail, photo © 2015 Douglas M. Ford. All riights reserved.

As the saying goes, “myth and legend are the kudzu of history,” and cocktail history is as much overgrown as any.

Today’s case in point: the pre-Prohibition Ward 8 Cocktail, one of the most famous of classic whiskey sour variations.

Continue reading “Another Round of Whiskey Sours: the Ward 8 Cocktail” →

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An Old-Fashioned the hard way: the Brandy Crusta

The brandy Crusta, photo © 2015 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

Brandy what?

I would wager that most people have never encountered a crusta, or even heard of one.

So what is that thing? And why should we care?

Continue reading “An Old-Fashioned the hard way: the Brandy Crusta” →

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A return to Havana: the Airmail Cocktail

The Airmail Cocktail, photo © 2014 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

Some months back, I made a passing reference to the Airmail Cocktail. The Airmail deserves more attention, and what better time to talk about champagne and rum than New Year’s Eve.

Continue reading “A return to Havana: the Airmail Cocktail” →

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The Gold Rush Cocktail

Gold Rush Cocktail, photo © 2014 Douglas M. Ford. All rights reserved.

The Gold Rush is a modern cocktail with a definite old-school classic vibe. With a more complex flavor than the whiskey sour on which its modeled, it is a simple combination of bourbon, lemon and honey. Continue reading “The Gold Rush Cocktail” →

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