The most common references you will see about the Green Swizzle, are the recipe that incorporates creme de menthe, or the quote from "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy". It has been said, many times, that the creme de menthe version is not the original recipe and that the original "has been lost in history" or that "it never existed". These two statements I do not agree with, and I've managed to dig up a number of articles that prove the Green Swizzle did exist, and that the original recipe may be right in front of our eyes.

This particular cocktail ingredient has had a significant amount of discussion in the old blogosphere. Many of the cocktail luminaries, if there is such a thing, have researched the origins of this flavour syrup from the Barbados. None more than Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh. In a now defunct Martini Republic post, the good Doctor made a couple of statements about Falernum that I have been able to clarify, and improve upon his research. These documents also have a recipe for Falernum that dates back to 1896. There is also a reference to drinking it with Wormwood bitters. Curious?

I am addicted to caffeine. There, I said it, but I think anyone that knows me would just yawn at that statement. Nothing feels quite as good as the warm, glowing, hug of caffeine in the morning. But, some killjoys have attempted to besmirch my good friend. They say that it causes heart disease, dehydrates you, hypertension, cancer and bone loss. All those things are crap and not true. Don't believe me? We'll here are some stone cold scientific facts.

This month, Mixology Monday is on local drinks, either a drink that originated in your area, or one based on local ingredients. I doubt that any good, or interesting, cocktail has ever come from the city I reside in, but local ingredients are abundant. At this time of year blueberries are the fruit to be picked and I, with some help, picked 22 pounds of the these little berries. It is a job that requires patience, but these farm berries are nothing like the puny wild blueberries, so I'm not complaining.

When you browse through vintage books, you occasionally come across some interesting drinks. One that caught my eye was a drink called Six Penny Crank from The Vintner's, Brewer's, Spirit Merchant's, and Licensed Victualler's Guide; Containing the history, theory, and practice of manufacturing wines, By a Practical Man (1828). It is more the name, than the actual recipe, that caught my eye. We've heard of flips, swizzle's, smashes, punch, etc., etc. but where did the term "crank" come from?

Christine Sismondo has written an article for Gremolata discussing the many sessions, at Tales of the Cocktail, that combined science with cocktails. It is a good assessment of how things are changing in the cocktail world and how were perceive what we drink. Of course Jamie Bourdreau gets his time in the spotlight, but I make an appearance. Check it Out.

Well, I finally had some time to sit down and put the presentation onto the Art of Drink. I wanted to format it in the style of the website, since having just the point form presentation leaves a lot of knowledge gaps. So, down the road I'll be adding "context" to each topic and hopefully for those that didn't attend, or couldn't make it to Tales of the Cocktail, will get some useful information. For now, the basic presentation can be found here: Sensory Perception & Mixology

In my previous post I spoke about the original of the word cocktail and posted a couple of old scanned newsprint articles discussing the topic. My opinion was that it came from horses, and that got me thinking about a couple of results I received while searching for the word cocktail in Eighteenth Century Collection Online (University access only, sorry). I found the term cocktail used in a horse's name ("No Cocktail") in a book from 1800 detailing the winning horses for 1799.

This topic has been debated a lot and nobody really knows where the word came from, but every once in a while somebody comes across an old newspaper article discussing this topic. Well, as I was researching through some archives of old newspapers, I came across a couple of articles discussing the origin of the word "cocktail". I decided to share them. The articles are interesting in that they are from a fairly early time period (1910, 1924, 1976). Some of the stories don't jive with other historical accounts (like the third story about Angostura and Cockfighting). But, they are pieces of history.

On an absolutely beautiful Friday morning I decided that going to a library was a better option than heading off to the beach. But, this isn't any old library, it is the University of Waterloo library that houses the collection of the former Seagram Distilling Company. This collection has over 1200 books on all things related to the production of spirits, wine and beer. The oldest book in the collection is from 1554. There is a good selection of books from the 1600's, 1700's and 1800's. With such a large collection of books, only an hour away, how could I resist.