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.
KITCHEN SINK: A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS ACT III “AMERICAN BEAUTY” A cold feeling of hopelessness descends upon the two men in the kitchen. Or maybe it’s just the advancing chill of night as the sun retreats behind the earth. The counter is littered with bottles and spent fruit. One man recites the next recipe…
KITCHEN SINK: A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS ACT II “AMER PICON COOLER” Passage of time. The sun clicks downward in the sky. The two men in the kitchen, Brian and Eric, address the next recipe in the ancient bartending manual. This is what it says: AMER PICON COOLER 1.5 oz. Amer Picon (substituted Amaro CioCiaro)…
KITCHEN SINK: A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS ACT I “AMBROSIA FOR TWO” A warm summer afternoon. A kitchen. Two men in early middle age make cocktails while their wives consort in the living room. One man, Brian, consults a bartender guide. A recipe awaits. AMBROSIA FOR TWO 3 oz. brandy (Pierre Ferrand cognac) 3 oz….
In the Trenches at St. George Spirits St. George Spirits occupies a large airplane hangar on a former naval base in Alameda, California. It is the oldest craft distillery in the United States and one of the most experimental. To get an idea of its range of expression, one only need to take inventory of…
Hard to believe, but the Rituals is one year old today. Happy Birthday, Rituals! Where is the smash cake? Yes, our fiscal year begins and ends on April Fools Day—appropriately enough—and so should yours. We had hoped to create a stylish, inventive annual report along the lines of Nick Feltron’s Report, the Warby Parker Year in Review, or the…
Pop Quiz: Which of the following are not cocktails we are making today? All-White Frappe Partially White Frappe Flat White Frappucino The New Zealand All-Blacks Allen Woody Allen Ethan Allen GG Allin The Alan Parsons Project Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold Alien Answer: Well, if you read the title to this post,…
This week’s recipes require two new ingredients: blackberry flavored brandy and Russian kümmel. Both of these items have the potential to sit ignored on my shelf for years to come and it’s no surprise I can feel my feet dragging behind me these days. Can’t we just skip these drinks or make some intelligent substitutions…
One thing this Rituals project has taught me is that a cocktail’s name is actually important. Previously, it didn’t matter much whether the drink was called an Attaboy or a You’re Gonna Get It or a Ronda Rousey (all fictional, by the way). The ingredients were there to speak for themselves, right? Who cared what…
The Brandy Alexander has its roots in the 19th century but it really came into its own in the 70s. The Brandy Alexander—cognac, cocoa liqueur, and cream—just sounds like the 70s: . You can picture smoke-filled living rooms in which this drink was consumed; you can see the glassware and the chunky jewelry and the…
Depending on one’s personality, a new year can represent a new start or a chance to really dwell on the past. Let’s be realistic for a second, okay? January is an excellent month to analyze all of the delusional (and unrealized) resolutions of years past—all of the misguided hopes and broken dreams. Pay attention! If…
Lately I’ve been biking to Brian’s place when he hosts the Rituals. This seems like a safe and effective way to bookend cocktail tasting with a workout, and it is. The laws on drinking and riding your bike vary from state to state, but in California it is definitely illegal so I always make sure…
Salt Lake City has quietly become a fantastic place to drink. Who would ever have expected these words to appear in print? The city’s restrictive and byzantine liquor laws have historically made Utah a tough place to imbibe, but these codes are slowly relaxing and a solid core of legitimate cocktail programs have emerged over…
In Part 1 of this post, Brian and Eric (and guest tasters Jesse and Andrew) blundered through a frail cocktail called the Airmail Special. The recipe may have been compromised by an atypical lack of lime juice measuring precision, but the disappointing results felt very familiar. In Part 2, the guys lumber forward toward the remaining two drinks…
Previously on the Rituals: My childhood friend Jason came to Los Angeles to help us deconstruct some weird cocktails (the AFTER DINNER, AFTER DINNER SPECIAL, and the AGGRAVATION) and offer his opinions. It was good to have a different perspective around—to keep Brian and me in check—and this success encouraged us to include guest tasters…
An upcoming recipe requires something called Swedish Punsch, and being Swedish (I don’t know about Brian, but I am if you go back far enough) it seems culturally appropriate for us to make this beverage from scratch instead of resorting to the only commercial version available in the U.S., Kronan, and only using a measly…
36 HOURS OF MAYHEM “I’m scared, Brian.” This is not the first time I have uttered these words and it probably won’t be the last. But it is a very real fear this time and it is potent. We are attending our first liquor convention, the San Francisco Craft Spirits Carnival, and we have no…
Melaney Schmidt manages the restaurant bar at the Standard where she has created the White Duck (Aperol, Ford’s gin, grapefruit), the Smith & Crossing (Caña Brava rum, Smith & Cross pot-still rum, lime, mint, pineapple, absinthe), and other delicious concoctions. Her focus is on using fresh kitchen ingredients and pairing these culinary flavors with boutique…
Tonight’s session is a low-stakes affair, with only three cocktails on the schedule: the ADONIS, the AFFINITY, and the AFFINITY COCKTAIL. There is port to be purchased and there is dry sherry to be purchased, and once again we are confronted with the utter foolishness of this endeavor. We buy bottle after bottle of obscure…
If you live in Seattle a craft distillery might not seem like a big deal—there are 24 to choose from. But if you live in Los Angeles, like us, you have nothing—or you had nothing, at least, until 2011 when Greenbar Craft Distillery ended a 95-year spirits-making drought for L.A. by moving downtown. The company’s story reads like a…
I arrive at Brian’s thinking how grateful his wife Amanda must be now that we have finished the cooking and bottling portion of the Rituals (at least for awhile). The ACADIAN MEAD is aging in his closet, sure, but it’s out of sight and out of mind. We’ll be using our homemade ANISETTE today and our DIY CRÈME…