AMERICAN BEAUTY .75 oz. brandy (Pierre Ferrand cognac) .75 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin) .75 oz. orange juice .25 oz. white crème de menthe (Tempus Fugit) 1 oz. port (Taylor Fladgate 10-year-old Tawny Porto) A few drops of grenadine Brian: Check out this laundry list of ingredients: vermouth, brandy, orange juice, port, grenadine! Eric: That sounds…
AMER PICON COOLER 1.5 oz. Amer Picon (substituted Amaro CioCiaro) 1 oz. gin (Bombay Sapphire) .5 oz. cherry liqueur (Cherry Heering) 1 tsp. sugar syrup 1 tsp. lemon juice Club soda Combine with ice; shake well. Strain. Add ice and club soda. Eric: Amer Picon is no longer available so we’re using a substitute, Amaro CioCiaro….
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. apple brandy (St. George California Reserve) Several drops of raspberry syrup (DIY) Champagne…
The name AMBER CLOUD does not invoke any good images for me. Thoughts of Agent Orange or…I should probably just stop there. Cognac and Galliano sounds like someone had too many AMBASSADORS and started to play around in the liquor cabinet. Nothing like taking a beautifully aged brandy and mixing it with an herbaceous anise-vanilla…
For some reason whenever I hear the word ambassador I think of the movie The Man Who Knew Too Little, one of Bill Murray’s underrated masterpieces. In the movie, which is a spoof of the Hitchcock classic The Man Who Knew Too Much, Murray plays a video store clerk visiting his brother in London who is mistaken for a…
Amaranth is derived for Greek amarantos meaning unfading. Amaranth is a genus of annual or perennial plants. Most Amaratus species are referred to as pigweed. To me it sounds like a Dutch sailing ship from the 1600’s. Looking at the recipe however does not make me think of the golden age of piracy or pig fodder. No, looking at…
AMABILE BEONE is Italian for “amiable drunk.” The definition of amiable is having or displaying a friendly or pleasant manner and we all know what a drunkard is, so how could you go wrong? AMABILE BEONE 1 oz. Drambuie 2 oz. Green Crème de Menthe A few drops of Pernod Sugar Combine with ice; shake…
The ALLIES cocktail relates to World War I with the English, French, and Russians representing the Triple Entente. The recipe uses English gin, French vermouth, and Russian kümmel. The naming of this cocktail works wonderfully but does it taste good? ALLIES 1 oz. gin 1 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin) 1-2 dashes kümmel (Combier) Combine with ice;…
The desserty ALL-WHITE FRAPPE seems like it would dominate with fans of chocolate chip mint, who, of course, are legion. There’s also a full ounce of lemon juice and the opportunity to rediscover one of our homemade anisettes, of which we made two (many months ago). For those who are playing along, we made an…
Next up is the ALICE COCKTAIL, which uses our hard-earned bottle of kümmel. Punch magazine has a nice write-up of new things people are doing with this old spirit, but we aren’t doing anything particularly modern, of course, so never mind about that. Redbird in Los Angeles does an Alice, Mine cocktail which also uses equal parts…
Many sources reachingly attribute the ALLEGHENY cocktail to the brave-hearted pioneer slog over the great Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. Along the way these pioneers picked blackberries and lemons and then added them to the glorious bourbon they distilled after they settled. Or something like that. By the way, my father loves to ridicule people from…
Let’s consider the ALGONQUIN, named after the Manhattan hotel that hosted the celebrated gang of literary drinkers Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Harold Ross, Edna Ferber, Harpo Marx, Heywood Broun, and others, for most of the Roaring 20s. The Algonquin Round Table is the subject of the underappreciated 1994 Alan Rudolph art film, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious…
The ALFONSO SPECIAL has some good things going for it in the naming department. Brian may disagree—he has written about cocktail naming before—but I think it the Alfonso Special gets points for having an interesting person or place featured in the name and I like the traditional nature of the “special”, which of course makes one…
The Brandy Alexander is sometimes referred to as an Alexander No. 2, which makes one wonder if there is an Alexander or an Alexander No. 1. And if so, how come we have never heard of it? Turns out there is an Alexander cocktail that has been largely lost to history—buried by its own shiny…
Alexander Young turns out not to be a distant relative of Brandy Alexander at all, yet still shows up at the party. This thing has bourbon, OJ, pineapple juice, grenadine, bitters, and lemon juice in it. Not even close! Oh, we are stupid, so stupid—why are we noticing this list of ingredients now? We scramble…
I would like to talk a little bit about the ALEXANDER WITH PRUNELLE, which first means talking about prunelle. I stated earlier that one of our drinks used a now defunct ingredient. I was referring to prunelle. I say defunct because it is not something that you can get in the states, at least we couldn’t…
If you are thinking that a sangaree sounds a lot like sangria you aren’t far off. We have quite a long discussion on the etymology of the word then turn to the Internet and Dave Wondrich’s book Imbibe for clarification. A sangaree is generally a wine drink with port or possibly sherry, but Jerry Thomas had recipes for brandy,…
FIRST ATTEMPT by Eric D. Anderson: As you might be able to tell, we at the Rituals love to dwell on failure. Our failure. It certainly has more entertainment value (at least for us) than relentless positivity. This week’s beverage is emblematic of this passion. The fact that the ALE FLIP has its roots in Medieval…
The very promising ALBERTINE requests equal parts Cointreau, Yellow Chartreuse, and kirsch (cherry brandy), with a dash of maraschino bitters. This is unusual combination of strong-willed liquors—each is capable of dominating its own drink—and we are curious to see if each ingredient will try to play well with others. Then again it could be a street fight. After…