The Beachcomber Cocktail

 

Chill out with this charmer from Trader Vic

We’re reaching peak heat in our part of the world. Time to trek to the beach or plant ourselves beside the pool.

But after an hour or two in the sun, we get mighty hot and thirsty.

Enter the Beachcomber Cocktail, a refreshing combo of rum, Cointreau, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice. It’s a nice afternoon sipper – and dry enough for a predinner drink.

Liquid perfection, we call it.

The Prado Cocktail

Like a Margarita on steroids

Margaritas are luscious. But maybe you’re ready for advanced imbibing?

Enter the Prado Cocktail, which takes Margarita magic to the next level. It substitutes maraschino liqueur for triple sec, making for edgier flavor. And it incorporates egg white, which adds a great-looking foamy head to the drink.

Looks good. Drinks better.

The Mother-in-Law Cocktail

This New Orleans charmer features complex, spicy flavor

Looking for a new twist on Mother’s Day? Try this tasty tipple.

It features bourbon at play with some spicy, jazzy companions (because New Orleans, you know).

Serve it and toast all the maternal spirits in your life. It’s the right thing to do.

The Brooklyn Cocktail

Spicy rye and bitter orange usher us into autumn

We’re starting to notice the change of seasons. The sun slants lower in late afternoon, the breeze seems to be freshening.

So let’s sip something autumnal. The Brooklyn Cocktail hits just the right note of spicy and astringent (much like its New York City eponym).

Meet you across the Manhattan Bridge.

The East India Cocktail

A 19th century classic with smooth (but complex) flavor

As summer fades into fall, we’re looking for weightier cocktails – but ones that still remind us of sunny summer days.

Enter the East India Cocktail. Its name reflects the glory days of the British Empire, when India was the jewel in the crown.

And the drink’s flavor? Well, that’s the real jewel.

The Hemingway Daiquiri Cocktail

Born in Cuba, refreshingly citrus

Ernest Hemingway liked to drink. Often. In quantity. And long into the night.

He inspired some drinks, too. Including this one, most likely. It features grapefruit juice – one of his favored cocktail mixers.

So Hemingway loved this drink. We predict you will too. But watch that quantity thing.

The Martinez Cocktail

The Mother of all Martinis?

The Martini is the most iconic of cocktails. But it hasn’t always been the crisp, almost austere drink we know today.

Back in the 19th century, when the drink was growing up, it was much sweeter. And it probably was made with sweet vermouth (the red stuff). Which just happens to be a key component of the Martinez Cocktail – from which the Martini may have developed.

The Martinez has an old-fashioned vermouth-forward flavor that fits well with today’s craft cocktail scene. Although definitely sweeter than a Martini, it’s not cloying, so it works as a pre-dinner drink.

So mix up a true ancestral tipple. And tell your dinner party guests that you’re researching cocktail genealogy.

The Opera Cocktail

One sip, and you’ll be singing its praises

The Opera Cocktail was a classic in pre-Prohibition days. And no wonder—its lightness and clean, crisp flavor make it the perfect palate cleanser before a summer dinner.

We’ll be drinking it to celebrate the opening of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, a summer opera festival that runs from late May through late June. Tonight marks their second performance (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), and in June they’ll be presenting the world premiere of Gordon & Vavrek’s Twenty-Seven. More about all of this later.

Even if you can’t make it to a performance at Opera Theatre, you might want to celebrate another opening: This post marks the beginning of our Summer Sippin’ and Snarfin’ Series. And the Opera Cocktail makes an excellent opening number. It’s a celebration in a glass!

The Bridal Cocktail

A great apéritif for wedding season

Now that Memorial Day has come and gone, summer is officially here in the US.  And with it comes our Summer Sippin’ Series:  We’ll feature a different summer-appropriate drink every week from now through Labor Day.  (But we haven’t lost interest in edibles!  We’ll still feature at least one food post a week.)

June marks the high season for weddings in the US.  So what drink could be more appropriate to launch our series than the Bridal Cocktail? 

This drink is actually a take on the original, 19th century Martini, which was much sweeter than today’s version (more about that in the Notes).  The modern Dry Martini (a mix of gin and dry vermouth) puts some people off, but the Bridal will appeal to a wider audience. It has as much booze as the Martini, but it contains sweet vermouth, which tames the gin and makes for a smoother drink.

Still, this cocktail is dry enough to serve as an apéritif — its crisp flavor stimulates the appetite and won’t overwhelm the food that follows. So it’s perfect for pre-dinner drinking at engagement parties, rehearsal dinners, or wedding receptions.

Even if you don’t happen to be attending one of those events, this drink is well worth your attention. Its softer flavor is better suited to warm weather than better-known drinks like the modern Martini or Manhattan Cocktail, and it’s a nice change of pace from traditional summer drinks, such as the Classic Daiquiri or the Gin and Tonic.

Best of all, it has a seductive flavor that will make you glad to embrace summer — now that it’s finally here again.

The Aviation Cocktail

Celebrating Flight’s Romantic Past

Traveled by air lately?  Not really an inspirational experience, eh?  After spending what seems like forever going through security (where you have to remove your shoes, and maybe have security people poke you with a handheld scanner), you finally get to board an overcrowded plane.  Assuming your flight hasn’t been cancelled, of course.  If you get hungry, good luck.  Maybe they’ll sell you some stale peanuts.

Harried travelers may find it hard to believe, but flying once seemed daring and romantic.  When the Wright brothers made their first flight at Kitty Hawk in December 1903, they unleashed the imaginations of would-be adventurers everywhere. 

The Aviation Cocktail was invented not too long after that — perhaps to celebrate humanity’s conquest of the skies.

The drink has a clean, sophisticated flavor that evokes a glorious past. And unlike air travel, it still seems fresh and exciting. Not to mention civilized.

The Last Word Cocktail

This “Lost” Drink Is a Favorite with Aficionados

The Last Word Cocktail has had an erratic history — which is fitting, I suppose, for drink that was born (surreptitiously) during Prohibition.

It was created sometime in the 1920s at the Detroit Athletic Club — by a vaudeville performer, not a bartender — but didn’t become particularly popular (maybe because of that bathtub gin they used?) The drink was all but forgotten until 1951, when Ted Saucier described it in a book about cocktails called Bottoms Up, reintroducing this cocktail to a whole new audience. But most of his readers promptly forgot about it, and the drink was lost again.

It was rediscovered about 8 years ago, when Murray Stenson (of Seattle’s Zig Zag Café) saw the recipe while flipping through Saucier’s Bottoms Up. He put it on the cocktail menu at Zig Zag, where it became an instant hit. After its successful (re)launch in the Pacific Northwest, The Last Word made its way to New York — and then to cocktail glasses around the globe. It’s still not widely known to the general public, but it’s a drink that cocktail aficionados cherish for its pungent, rich flavor.

The Last Word is a refreshing drink with a bit of a bite — pleasant in warm weather, but with enough substance to stand up to crisp fall evenings. And because it helps sharpen the palate, it’s one of the best pre-dinner drinks I know.

Give it a try, and I promise it won’t be the last one you have — you’ll return to it again and again.