The Alabama Cocktail

Alabama

The ALABAMA is the only beverage in its session without “special” in its name. Humility is important in a cocktail, we are discovering, but it’s also the death knell if you’re a cocktail trying to survive amongst an ocean of self-aggrandizing, self-promoting millennials. A cocktail that has really mastered SEO and branding is the Alabama Slammer, which dominates the results at a popular search engine when “Alabama cocktail” is entered into the handy search bar. The Alabama Slammer is made with amaretto, sloe gin, Southern Comfort, and orange juice, and is reportedly ex-quarterback (and Wrangler spokesperson) Brett Favre’s favorite cocktail. But we won’t be making that today, thank God. Instead, we are happy to be spending time with our humble and reclusive ALABAMA, a drink for introverts.

ALABAMA
¾ oz. brandy (Hennessy)
¾ oz. curaçao (Pierre Ferrand)
1 oz. lime juice
½ tsp. sugar

Combine with ice; shake. Strain. Add ice, and a twist of orange. Drop in the peel.

Andrew: Wow, this could cure scurvy.
Brian: Not a high score for me.
Andrew: I like it. It’s definitely a refreshing sipping cocktail. It’s not something you would polish off in 3 minutes.
Eric: How much lime is in there?
Brian: Ounce. You could go half ounce and probably be fine.
Jesse: Nah! That lime is great! I could drink these, on the reg.
Eric: (drinks) Way too much lime.
Andrew: But it finishes orange. It’s limey in the middle but it finishes orange, and that’s what’s good about it!
Eric: I like that you’re taking a stand on this one, Andrew.
Andrew: I would order that. That would be a drink that I would order.
Jesse: Even with the amount of lime, I like it. I think it’s good.
Eric: It’s boring and sour. Who wants the rest of it?
Brian: It’s gone!
Andrew: Sure sign of a good drink…

SCORES: Brian 6 ½, Eric 5, Jesse 7, Andrew 8.



Eric D. Anderson came to appreciate cocktails late in life and is trying to make up for lost time. He finds that crafting drinks involves the same precision, creativity, sociability, and ritual as baking—another passion—and believes that it brings people together in the same way. Eric is the director of Way of the Puck, a feature-length documentary about professional air hockey, and the editor of Stories of Quitting (storiesofquitting.com), an online collection of true stories that celebrate giving up. His writing has appeared in AGNI, Painted Bride Quarterly, Perigee, Giant Robot, and Wild Quarterly, among other publications. In his free time he works as a camera operator on commercials and motion pictures.


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Always drink responsibly!