I recently had the wonderful opportunity to taste a gin sour made with acid phosphate, and compare it to one made without. Very cool. The acid phosphate gives it this sourness that’s just a bit different that any other sourness I’ve experienced before.
(I must tip my hat to Philip Duff, for introducing me to this awesome vintage ingredient and mixing up those drinks for me. I may just have to procure a bottle of the stuff for myself.)

Reminds me of the craft beer naysayers, Darcy, the guys—and they were almost always guys—who would bemoan the fact that “fancy” beers were replacing good ol’ American—and they were almost always American - beers, manly beers that you drank straight from the can or bottle. Anything different was, for them, sissy beer.

Come to think of it, those types are still with us, if perhaps a bit less vocal than they were a decade or two ago. I expect their cocktail equivalent will, as you note, become noisier as cocktail programs continue to improve.

Really, people still drink Screwdrivers?

I like to think that there’s a middle ground between the complex cocktails with half a dozen hard-to-find ingredients and simple, yet tasty, cocktails with a new twist here or there.

But is the bar the focus anymore? Are we, perhaps, moving to a time when more people are drinking in their home? Either because they enjoy experimenting with the drinks themselves or they want to cut down the extra costs involved with drinking out.

How does one become a “brain worker”?

1-800-ASK-COKE would deny it when we called in the late 80s or early 90s.  They apparently thought they could re-write history.

Personally I feel that this profession is ever evolving, ever changing, whether it was at the time of the mere begining of the word “cocktail” or the last few years when bartenders like myself have been stripping drinks back down to the basics, the classics. Now personally I feel the tide is possibly turning more molecular, similar to the way the best kitchens have evolved, the cocktail world has mirrored this. There are always going to be people who look backwards instead of forwards, who are not interested in the future hold and are purely hanging onto their old ways… either old fashioned men (not referring to the drink) deciding cocktails are for fags or bartenders who are happy with the way things have been over the last few years and are against molecular development etc. The people who make the most impact and are remembered are the one’s who led the way, not the one’s who got left behind! Cheers!

The notion in that article that egg whites in cocktails was a newfangled trend just about made my head explode.

I feel a little dumb for never having realized the name “Italian” soda was meant to imply having come from Italy. I thought it was just some naming convention, perhaps related to flavors commonly enjoyed by people of Italian ancestry, or some such vaguery. Nobody called it that when I was a kid. It was just called “old-fashioned” then, as there were only a few real soda fountains left.

I suppose this means that people think “French” soda came from France? That used to just be called cream soda in my parents’ day, but maybe there’s an actual French connection I never knew.

Yeah I still remember the first time I ordered an Italian Soda, thinking I was going to get something interesting only to see a few pumps out of a torani bottle, some carbonated water out of a gun and my wallet $5 emptier.

Who cares? I`m not gonna buy your book anyway ^^

This used to be an interesting cocktail blog…

G`vine stuff was kind of interesting thou.

Raymond summed up my one and only Italian soda experience perfectly.

I think part of the problem is that we Americans have largely discontinued the traditional soda. While we moved from handmade sodas to mass industrially produced sodas, Italian/French style sodas stuck with, at least, some of the older handmade methods (or at least less chemicals in the product). So the idea of old-school soda was somewhat abandoned by Americans, leaving it open to others.

As an Italian-American, I think it is important to note that there was a particular meeting point between the ice cream parlor/soda fountain business and Italian immigrants.  It seems that this link is played up to create the appearance of Italians creating the soda. While it can be argued that Italians took on a distinct approach (say in flavor selections like espresso), Italians, on either side of the pond, were not responsible for the original creation.

Coming from the software development world, it’s actually kind of a relief that cooking/bartending recipes and techniques can’t be protected statutorily. Trying to make sure copyrights and patents are enforceable and then protecting them when necessary is an enormous time and money sink, which us creative types would just as soon ignore.

Thanks for raising this issue!  This is one of the reasons we created Classic Mixology. We populated the site with recipes sourced from classic books (Thomas, Johnson, Kappeler, etc.) but it’s also where bartenders can document their new creations.

Recipes can’t be copyright protected, but a mixologist still deserves full attribution.

Register an account and contact us to get started:
http://www.classicmixology.com

I’ve always been a little amazed at the division between a patentable formula versus a wholly unprotectable recipe just because it’s a food or beverage.

There will always be folks out there who don’t care 2 pins about giving credit where credit is due… then there’s the rest of decent society. Unfortunately, I fear that latter group is shrinking.

Great article!  I’ve found that mixologists who don’t like to share their ideas and concepts are usually those that are newbies.  There is so much work and creativity out there - no reason to hoard.  The more you share, the more it comes back round.  I get ripped off all the time - in fact, I encourage it.  Take my ideas - run with it!!!  The more we can get mixology out there into mainstream, the more it will benefit everyone. 

Yes - shame on those that take an idea from someone else verbatim and claim it as being originally theirs.  But, with that said, it’s really impossible to give credit when you’re not sure who really came up with it first.  Case-in-point, fat-washing, I first saw this from a couple of other mixologists in NYC (not Eben) - maybe I would have been giving credit to a mixologist that got it from someone else who got it from someone else and so on ... Bottom line - give credit where it’s due and when you can.  It comes back around.

I had the opportunity to taste a Sarsparilla Fizz made with Acid Phosphate at Anvil in Houston.  It was really incredible.  Bobby Hueger, the mixologist, basically made a homeade root beer soda using a Jamaican rum.  The acid phosphate really accentuated the natural flavors of the rum - the vanilla and spice were really strong and delicious.  It would have lost some of its flavor if just using lemon or lime juice.  I’m a fan!

The idea of an “Italian / French soda” only came about 60 years after Americans introduced the the concept. Even then, Europe didn’t take to the idea of soda until the Great War.

The Italian part really does come from the Toroni syrup company, and it was just some fancy marketing back in the 1920s.

Good post. But as you say, the fat washing process was (probably) patentable, so you can’t really blame someone for taking an un-patented idea. Also, as bar staff, I imagine it would bring up all the classical I.P. problems faced in any creative/science interface. I’m sure you know all about the problems faced by people working in labs who come up with novel products. Your boss usually gets a share, and your workplace usually gets a share. So even if cocktails were patentable, if you invent a cocktail at work, you’ll loose your strong I.P. claim.

Personally, I think we should all be grateful that cocktails aren’t copyrighted. Imagine not being able to serve Cosmopolitans, Margaritas, Singapore Slings or any other cocktails invented during the last 100 years or so (since IP laws normally protect approx. 75 years, or 25-50 years after the inventor’s death) without paying royalty fees?

Besides, the point you bring up about infringement is very valid. Since fat-washing is an age-old technique in perfume production, IP for cocktails would, if anything, have made it even HARDER for Eben to get recognition. If anything, he would have been required to state that fat-washing is not his invention, rather than the current state of affairs where he actually does get a lot of credit.

Actually the french version may have some legitimate origins. They also had a soda fountain craze. A chocolate french soda made with cream was called something like “chocolate et crem” (sic) and that may be the origin of the brooklynese mispronunciation of the french drink “chocolate egg cream” that is in effect a “french” soda with milk instead of cream. So the french connection seems fairly accurate. Monin started in this world as a soda syrup manufacturer in France. When the soda fountains died out they sold their syrups for coffee, years before it became popular in the USA. They now have a plant in Clearwater, FL making the syrup for Americans.

While I agree the Italians have little connection with this, I would not immediately discount the french.

Any way, a french soda is just an ice cream soda without the ice cream

-GReg

www.loftypursuits.com
The best soda fountain in the south.

The French actually came later to the game than the British and that was still in the early 1900s, long after America had gone through pretty much every iteration of soda style known.

Now this isn’t to say the Europeans didn’t drink soda, they did, but usually as plain soda / mineral water. The idea of flavouring carbonated water with non-alcoholic syrups was a little alien. Their preferred flavourings were the traditional alcoholic liqueurs.

Do you know when he “invented” fat washing?

I had a friend who made a variety of food Martinis including infusions made with bacon, mushroom, radish, KFC, Taco bell beef burito, pork, and the like.  One for each party he threw (and some he took to other people’s parties).  He did the bacon one somewhere around 2002 or 2003.

I can search his LiveJournal, but the nacho cheese/dorito/cheese dip series was done and drank in Feb 2003 (google only has some of his posts indexed).

And if my friend did it—and he’s no professional chef or bartender—I’m guessing that people did it long before he or Eben ever did.

Not sure Fred. In the US, when someone files a patent the rules are “first to file” not necessarily “first to invent”. Not that it matters in this case, but many times people develop creative ideas that don’t make it very far, other times people like Eben push their creations which get usurped by others. That’s more of his concern.

Fugggedddaboudit!  Point number one, there must be a law that says the opinion of anyone born outside of the five boroughs on this question is suspect at best.  Point number two, you are from a foreign country, so what can you possibly know about New York egg creams?

All kidding aside though, some good scholarship here, and frankly, disappointing information.  I grew up thinking (knowing!?!) the best egg creams were made in Brooklyn at the corner candy store/pharmacy/soda fountain.  You got the Fox’s UBet syrup right, though once my family moved out to the Island (pronounced Lon-Giland) the distro on Fox’s was limited and we were forced to use Bosco…but I’m tellin’ ya, it aint the same.  the other thing that made the Brooklyn egg creams great is that they used seltzer water that came delivered in big blue bottles and worn wooden crates.  Even the soda fountains used them…this was way before anybody had “guns”.

For those yearning for the old style egg cream (old style as defined by my generation), you can still get them…in vanilla or chocolate…at Katz’s delicatessen on Houston St.  Most other NY deli’s make them, but at Katz’s the ambiance hasn’t changed since WWII.

Oh, but Rittenhouse 100, Carpano, and Fee’s Whiskey Barrel bitters makes such a fine, fine beverage.

I’ve come up with a compromise between the standard Manhattan and the Perfect Manhattan, and in a fit of geekery I looked at the proportions and deemed it a Golden Manhattan: a+b:a::a:b. That is, 2 parts whiskey to 1 part vermouth, and 2 parts dry vermouth to 1 part sweet. So for a large pour,  3 oz of whiskey (and I like rye, myself), I’d use 1 oz dry vermouth and 1/2 oz sweet. I’m not too particular, as I’m usually broke, but Noilly Prat works just fine for me. A dash each of Angostura and orange bitters, and a cocktail cherry, and that’s my variant.

Now that I’m looking at getting going with a better job, perhaps a bottle of Vya is in my future.

I ran out of sweet vermouth (damn 375 ml bottles) and, out of desperation, substituted a bottle of Lillet Rouge.  I prefer the spiciness that Rye adds to my Manhattans, so the sweetness of the Lillet produced a wonderful contrast.  Of course, the Marasca cherry added considerable sweetness, too.

I like a fairly traditional perfect Manhattan with Rye. However, I like a splash each of both peychaud’s and angostura bitters. Sometimes for a change of pace I’ll use some dubonnet rouge instead of sweet vermouth.

you make some very good points here, but personally i’m all for the full flavored whiskey and full flavored vermouth pairing (2 parts rye: 1 part vermouth. rittenhouse 100 proof and punt e mes are my favorites. but if i’m feeling flush, i like a bottle of templeton rye. with a small dash of fee’s aromatic in the winter, and homemade cherry bitters in the summer). but i do realize that its a bit of a powerhouse.

when i serve this to manhatten fans who aren’t used to my house variant, i do something very similar to what you suggest. i usually sub in makers mark for the rye. or if my guest is a rye fan, i sub in martini & rossi.

Great read! The way I see it.. this whole copyright/patent/credit issue is the problem with these “superstar bartenders”, they all want credit for fame and status in the business yet they have no customer service skills at all, they’re usually the same bartenders stealing ideas and concepts from the original creators. Everyone seems to forget more and more each day what bartending is really about, it’s become almost like one big reality show competition. I think credit should definitely be given when ideas and concepts are shared but feeling personally fulfilled using my own creativity is more important to me than others recognizing it.

Thanks for some fascinating information. I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Voorhees, New Jersey, where I asked for an Italian Soda a few minutes ago. The staff as usual looked a bit uncertain, but one of them volunteered that they could make one for me if I would buy a small bottle of unflavored Pelligrino (fancy fizzy-water). As I reached over to pick up a small bottle from the display, she continued, “I can just add the syrup and cream.”

Because my idea of an Italian soda comes from having lived in Berkeley and San Francisco for a few magical years in the 1960s and ‘70s, when cream was not part of the mystique, I quickly said, “No cream!”

The response from behind the counter was, “What’s an Italian soda without cream?”

Now if you could just put out Fix The Pumps as a Kindle book, I can carry it around as a reference in case any more tricky drinks-related questions—or bets—arise in commercial establishments!

So I sat down to research the thing on my iPad, and luckily found your discussion. Now I suddenly know enough to run a little seminar on the topic here and now.

Thanks Ralph. I do have Fix the Pumps as a PDF eBook, which works really nicely on the iPad. If you’ve bought the print copy of Fix the Pumps let me know and I’ll send you the e-copy for free.

Fix the Pumps ebook can be ordered at www.mixthis.ca

It would be nice if you could put out a Kindle edition too. Is that possible—or does publishing an ebook preclude publishing the same ebook in a different format later?

A nice run through of Manhatten components. I have a preference for Bulleit bourbon which has a slight dried cherry aroma which I think really complements a delicately made Manhatten perfectly.

The best Manhattan I ever had was at The Violet Hour in Chicago and it uses Amaro Nonino. Michael Rubel created what he calls the Dogwood Manhattan because it has a floral character reminiscent of strolling through a forest of dogwoods. Anyway I’ve tried to recreate and I can get pretty close:

2 oz Woodford Reserve
.75 oz Amaro Nonino
.25 Noilly Prat
3 dashes house peach bitters

It’s a bit like a perfect AMARO Manhattan with the dry vermouth, but not bitter at all since Nonino is pretty mild and makes an excellent sub for sweet vermouth. The tricky part is the bitters. Without their house peach, Toby suggested using a bit of Fee’s Peach mixed with Peychaud’s and a drip of Ango! I know, it’s a crazy mix of bitters, but it works: 8 drops Fee’s Peach, 8 drops Peychaud’s, 1 drop Angostura. FANTASTIC.

Here is a Manhattan story that Iam sure some of the professional bartenders have run across.Last night I had a customer whom I had several times before made a Woodford Reserve Manhattan for.But this time while I was making it,he told me to shake it,because “X,(the senior bartender there)had spoiled him and been making him Manhattans like that.“So I did,although one of the other patrons there commented to the guy that he certainly wasn’t from the North drinking a Manhattan like that.(We are about as Deep South as it gets here…for better and for worst.)

To me a shaken Manhattan is like cooking a perfect omelette then running it through the blender or cooking a soft shell crab and smashing it up with a hammer….but what to do? You give the customer what he wants,...even if it doesn’t look or taste like what he ordered.
As for the senior bartender,he is a good guy a friend of mine,VERY intelligent,and has a lot of excellent ideas,but he is also a ‘self -taught’ bartender and one who caters to the nice little old ladies whom like to get buzzed off of cocktails that they can’t taste the alcohol in. I’ve had this conversation with him before about the general rule of stirring just spirts cocktails, not shaking them,but to no avail.
Interestingly enough, we both make a transparent Chocolate Martini,with basically the same ingredients and proportions,but I stir and he shakes.A good portion of my guests comment to me that they perfer mine a little more than his,and I notice that they tend to drink mine slower than his, I guess because the alcohol is more noticible in mine.
Well, I guess I wrote all of this to remind us that the ingredients in a Manhattan isn’t the only aspect of the cocktail up for debate.

Thomas, interesting story, but Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh once told a crowd that he prefers to shake his Manhattans “because he’s a savage’.

Stirred drinks are mostly for ascetics.

I never thought of myself as an ascetic or a even a bit conservative….I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t mindleely adhere to rules,but there is something beautifull about a stirred Manhattan,that I just can’t find in a shaken one.30 years in the food service business,that was the 1st shakened Manhattan I ever made or served. It was colder ,more watery, with a thin layer of foam on it,and lots of air bubbles in it ...looked like an ‘off ’ whiskey sour or something.Seems like a totally different cocktail than the stirred type that was 1st created over 140 years ago.

But yeah,time and fashion changes,plus a quickly shaken one is faster to make than a properly stirred one.

So what is your opinion on shaken Martinis?
Vodka ones I’ll shake if I have a sprayer to spray vermouth in the prepared Martini glass, but gin martinis, I just stir.

As always, an insightful read Darcy. Of the many crimes committed against Manhattan cocktails, I think the worst one is being misunderstood.

I’ll be honest, the drink terrified me at first. Where’s the fresh fruit juice? Where’s the liqueur? This isn’t happy sour land! But as many a cocktail commentator has said, it’s a great way to discover vermouth and whiskey.

I can only think the world would be a better place if the Manhattan was more popular, but perhaps it’s near endless permutations (as shown above) means that it’s always going to be a tricky drink to order. At the very least, it will be a drink that involves an interrogation dance with a bar tender.
bourbon, rye, whiskey?
vermouth type and amount?
bitters?
garnish?

A sensible fellow might ask the bartender to mix it their preferred way, but as you pointed out, these days, that could find you a long way from the promise of a great balanced drink.

Seems almost similar to the hop wars that are happening in the craft beer scene.

FYI

2 oz russels reserve rye
1 oz vya sweet vermouth
2 dashes angostura bitters
1 luxardo cherry scooped up with a fork

Great post.  We do a drink with Genever added to an Egg Cream (called a Dutch Cream).  The maltiness of the Genever really marries well.  Can’t leave well enough alone, I guess.

Quite partial to:
2oz Wild Turkey 101 Rye
1oz Carpano Antica
2-3 dashes Fees Whiskey Barrel or Angustura bitters
1-2 “Svanso cherries in rum”, with a bit of the liquid (Danish brand that you can get here in Scandinavia)

I tried googling “Vodka Mojito with triple sec” to see if it was a real thing, and I stumbled upon this lovely html file:

http://www.salsbeverageworld.com/Martini_Recipes.html

An entire page of martini recipes, not a single one using gin and/or dry vermouth. I think you have a point.

“Garnish, glassware and brands are inconsequential to the final name. “
Re:garnish - what about Martini VS Gibson, then? yes, olives have some influence on the taste, but they serve mainly as a garnish…

The “Vodka Mojito” is a “ready-to-drink” (RTD) made by Smirnoff.

Yes the Gibson breaks the “rule” but it has an interesting story, but really it shouldn’t have a different name.

Nice piece, Darcy

Naming is, sometimes, the most fun of coming up with my weekly cocktail but other weeks its like pulling teeth without anesthesia. You make some good points (esp. kudos on the derivatives… I think I’ve done that for a few of mine) and some might actually help me out of a naming block in the future!

Still, a lot of my names are silly and meant to reflect the state I’m profiling at the moment. I truly hope no one ever goes into a bar and orders one!

Well said my friend, Well said

Great article, A name is important, but a name will not sell a cocktail if it has ingredients that you cannot fine or two many. A bar/resturant is in business to make money, so watching the percentages is very important!. A good bartender knows that! Ray Foley
www.bartender.com   call me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

I remember my first Italian soda, it was at an old fashioned soda and ice cream parlor in a tourist trap in a remote part of South Carolina. I was a teenager and it was the best thing I had ever tasted. I had been to Venice Italy, and I saw the word ‘Italian soda’ and was immediately intrigued. I tried it because I wanted to see if it would taste like the blood orange soda I had there. It was not exactly the same, but it had that fresh clean favor that I remembered from Italy. After reading this blog and learning more about American sodas, I now know that sodas of the 1990s are a lot different that what we drank fifty years ago. Maybe that is what I like about ‘Italian sodas’ and the soda I drank in Italy, that classic taste.

UBet and seltzer that was delivered in blue glass bottles!  And NY egg creams need to be served in paper pointed cylinders that are inserted into a metal holder.

This is an excellent article. I often struggle to name my original creations. This was very helpful.

Curious to this discussion and the example given, I’ve just come across what could be the earliest recorded reference to fat-washing, a 1669 recipe:

TO MAKE COCK-ALE

Take eight Gallons of Ale; take a Cock and boil him well; then take four pounds of Raisins of the Sun well stoned, two or three Nutmegs, three or four flakes of Mace, half a pound of Dates; beat these all in a Mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best Sack; and when the Ale hath done working, put these in, and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and a month after you may drink it.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16441/16441-h/16441-h.htm#Page_111

Even considering the first-filed vs first-invented, could something be trademarked/patented that was an (arguably) well-known process for 300+ years?

Yes,great article. It is good to have some basic rules reinstated every once in awhile.Our cocktail culture is such a helterskelter one,but fortunately it is one in which the practice of liberternism ( no outside enforcement of rules) doesn’t do much harm,unlike in the oil drilling industry for example.

Try and hit the ‘Noodle Box’ while you are in Victoria!  It is a bit of a Victoria/Vancouver establishment (and its fairly fast when you are in a rush and want a halfway decent meal).  Whenever I am in Victoria for a long stay, one of my traditions is to get the Spicy Peanut Noodle Box, take it back to my hotel and then eat it in bed while watching bad television.  If only they served cocktails to go.
http://thenoodlebox.net/

So what was the outcome? Were you persuaded in your views about the monkey gland being a great cocktail? It would be a pretty brave call to exclude it from the classics. I’m just not sure it’s all that enjoyable or that works particularly well. That, and waking up the next morning with the absinthe aftertaste is not to recommended under any circumstances…

Or am I opening a can worms?

Yeah, that restaurant is actually called Brown’s Social House and those slushy “belinis” are unfortunately very popular in the greater Vancouver area.  Although I did notice a couple of the bartenders at Art of the Cocktail, so maybe there is hope for them yet

i want to give a shout out as a *girl* that likes amaro, which i had for the first time in italy. i drink it straight.

Great stuff Darcy. I am linking you as our official correspondent to Canucktail

http://canucktail.blogspot.com/

hope you don’t mind.

John

Rob Roy is probably my favorite, but Tavern Law has a certain appeal too. Worth adding if you’re making a list

All great places for a cocktail. Though when I go, I never see any cocktail celebs like you saw. In the last few weeks, I’ve been to Zig Zag, Vessel, Tavern Law, and Tacoma’s jewel, 1022 South.

All of them offer something different.

Zig Zag - classic
Vessel - modern
Tavern Law - hipster
1022 South - neighborhood

Darcy, it was great to see you last week!  It was definitely more than a one-note experience

Portland Cocktail Week was amazing and it was great to see you there, Darcy. I too was dismayed that a large contingent of cocktail bloggers bailed during the most strenuous of our “navel gazing” sessions.

We’ll be more mindful of overlapping programming next year; it’s hard to compete with Mezcal.

So, tell us, have John the Bastard clicked through his RSS feed to your site today?

Sounds like a great event to have attended! I am with you when it comes to ordering things that aren’t on the menu too, and I love asking the bar tender to ‘surprise you’ as well, you can try some real treats that way!

What do you think of Monkey Gland? Sounds like a wonderful event.

Man, I miss Zig Zag.  This makes me miss Murray and friends even more.

I found this blog through Mr. Regan’s e-letter.

1.  The Canadian comment is laughable.  One, aren’t the Canadians the ones who want more regulation?  You don’t even have a guaranteed freedom of the press (or protection from prior restraint) in Canada.  Having a rule to prevent misrepresentation as a result of illicit compensation seems pretty mild.

2. If you want to ‘grow’ your blog, maybe you can learn the difference between the nominative case and objective case for pronouns.  “At 11AM Ryan Magarian picked Sean-Mike and I up for a quick tour of Portland coffee shops and a tour of House Spirits Distillery.”  Maybe Canadians have the freedom to murder grammar too.

Welcome aboard Varjak, glad to see more Tea Party members reading Art of Drink.

As for freedom of press, we have that. I know, Tea Party members like to point north an say how bad it is, but the facts are that Canadians have far more freedoms than the US, except for the “right to bare arms” (why you guys are into man waxing I’ll never understand) and freedom to say whatever you want, which isn’t always a good thing. Like your comment, which is generally a cry for help.

1.  I’m not a Tea Party member or sympathizer.  But of course, that’s the first response from a denizen of a nanny state.

2. When you can actually gather some facts (rather than gibberish and calumny) to support your laughable assertion about the state of freedoms in Canada, then maybe I’ll listen.

3.  Again, I don’t see guidelines for reasonable disclosure as a lack of freedom.  Rather, quite the opposite.

4. If the U.S. were the military state you seem to think it is; why is it that the most successful Canadians come here?  I know, because I have some in my family.  And all the ones I met abroad were clamoring to come here.  Frankly, most Canadians with ambition that I meet, have severe inferiority complexes with respect to the USA.  I guess you do too, if you have the need to take cheap shots in a blog ostensibly devoted to drinks. 

5.  I can list all the Canadians I know that have had to come here for medical care beyond cuts and scrapes; but I’m sure you have a word limit on your blog. 

6. It’s also quite ironic that a drinks blogger comes from a country where the majority of the alcohol sold is sold by state owned/controlled stores.  More ‘freedom?’

As a lover of mexican sugar cane Coke and a hater of HFCS, this is going to be a fun series to read! I have always been interested in this topic, just not daring enough to give it a go. Thanks for sharing your adventure.

Get story Darcy! Sucks to have missed drink.write and PDX cocktail week!
Wish you guys would post some of the thoughts on each of the sessions too. I´m sure there was some great ideas going around. Maybe the Mixoloseum blog could be the right place for this…

I do appreciate it when reading about an interesting cocktail online, when I get to the recipe, I can actually try to make it at home. It is so disappointing to see the pretty picture, read about the drinks pedigree and/or flavors, then read the recipe only to find out I am missing an obscure bitter, foam or liqueur.

But when out at a bar, or cocktail lounge, I welcome the obscure ingredients whole-hearted.

I don’t think the rum+coke is in any danger of extinction. I suspect the bemoaning of complexity is coming from the same people who reduced the martini to one ingredient.

Ouaou!! Always scientific but amazing! Thanks Darcy!

If you are talking about “Italian soda” meaning sparking water flavored with sweetened citrus simple syrup it was created by an Italian in Italy. Others just changed the flavor profile. If you are talking about flavored water it was invented by a French company I France in the 1800’s. No carbonation. So I don’t know wha
t drink you are talking about when you say American. US is very talented at adding sugar to everything so maybe you mean sugar water.

Hello Hadi,

Thanks for the comment, but your statements aren’t true. I’ve done extensive research on this topic for my book Fix the Pumps and Americans did in-fact create what we know as soda, including lemon soda.

If you have real proof of French or Italian soda being invented earlier I’d love to see it. I’m always open to new research, but it’s not good enough to just say it happened, you need to prove it.

Plus, I’m Canadian, so I’m not just trying to claim the soda title.

I’ll do it when I find Acid Phosphate.

These recipes look tasty. I would offer a recommendation, as a person who loves to cook and bake in my kitchen at home. When recipes that call for raw eggs come up, like most of these, maybe try pasteurized shelled eggs. Especially when you have sunny-side eggs, (fried eggs,) raw cookie dough, anything to that affect which leaves some part of the egg raw. Only reason I say this is because I am concerned with what I eat. With all these recent egg recalls and when your making alot of food for people during the holidays, it may seem like an appropiate alternative.

Inspired by this, I made this variation of the Aviation but with Saphire for the gin and Cherry Heering instead of maraschino.  It turned out quite well.  With my ingredients, I think it could have used a little more acid phosphate.

Any ideas on what ale to use in the “Hotpot? There are so many different kinds, I wouldn’t know where to start.

I’d just use a traditional english ale like Bass or Newcastle Brown Ale.

While I enjoy a cup of hot chocolate just as much as the next guy, I’d like to see some recipes that do not use milk, or any milk substitute.  For thousands of years chocolate was a drink, no milk.  Maybe we wouldn’t appreciate the original recipes, but I’d like to see some modern, updated versions of the original dark chocolate drink.  Any ideas?

This sounds delicious.  Winter gets pretty cold here in Michigan, and this looks like a great way to warm me up from our crummy weather.  I think I’ll try this out the next time the kids come back from sledding.  Thanks for sharing this delicious looking recipe.

Lovely photos.

@Dean

Go poke around the internet for xocolātl recipes until you find something that tickles your fancy. If you can find them, cacao nibs would probably be a good place to start, ingredient-wise. They have an incredibly rich but very bitter chocolate flavor.

I concur with much of what you have to say here, Darcy, and I have a few ideas about other topics in the cocktailian world.  I’m in the middle of finalizing my “101 Best New Cocktails” and I’ve noticed quite a few things as I’ve gone through the almost 2,000 recipes that have been sent to me:

Smoky scotch, usually in very small quantities, is being used more.
Same thing goes for mezcal, though the mezcal is used as a base as ofetn as it’s used as a modifier.
Potable bitters, Amari, and all manner of vermouths and aperitif wines, are all wildly more popular now than they were just a couple of years ago,

The most important aspect of our craft, though, is the service end.  And you pointed this out in your predictions.  I’m seeing more and more bartenders who are genuinely taking an interest in being of service to their guests.  Makes my little heart glad.

Great points, all.  Seriously though, don’t order a cosmo.

Darcy,

A great read. I am hopeful of #3 most this year.

I love where drinks trends are heading, I love the new tools and companies popping up to cater to a growing number of true bartenders and cocktailians alike. (maybe the same).

Keep up the great posts, I pass them along to clients frequently and seem to share a common perspective in most lights with you.

Great thoughts Darcy!
One thing I think might pick up even more in a larger scale is a palate towards savory cocktails.
This has been going on in a few places, but I see a lot more people even around my market swimming in these waters now than a few months ago.
If you ask me, I really like a good well balanced savory drink.
Happy 2011, may our glasses never dry!

Great post Darcy.

Yeah - bitters will [and need to] grow! Hopefully the varieties of bitters get more and more available in all markets!

Punches? I don’t see them as a growing trend in a bar - but in other environments, they are great.
Instead of having a mediocre [pre-prepared] mojito at a brunch - a punch would be much better…

Blogger revival? YES - I miss posts of my favorite bloggers [and yes my blog was also very quiet the last months].

No.3 is a bit more controversial. Yes - bartender are sometimes too self-important [and I don’t exempt me out of this; definitely not] - but on the other hand it really depends on where you live and how open your guests are.
A fine dining restaurant would not serve a hot dog - so why do we have to serve Long Island Iced Teas and similar [a Cosmopolitan can be a decent drink - but properly made, half guests are complaining, that they are too strong, not sweet enough etc]. I am proud on my craft and I still try to steer people away from stupid drinks…

5. Soda fountains? I am with you! Not only fountains - but artisan or homemade sodas will be definitely a trend - especially as products as grapefruit soda are not widely available worldwide [Paloma…].

I inadvertantly clicked the wrong link in the email telling me about new posting above, and I’ve been removed from getting further notifications.  Posting this in the hope that i get back on track,

Great to finally see a post on this, Darcy!
I remember talking at length about this subject enroute to Paris.. hope all is well, sir!

Great post and look forward to the series of these. Love the co-relation to the modern craft.

Great post Darcy! I am with you on bartender attitude, its important to the longevity of the cocktail movement in America!

I hope that bartender attitude improves (although most of my experiences have been mainly positive). My wife and I have spent a great year sharing as much of our knowledge as possible with friends and house guests and it has been an extremely fulfilling experience. And yes, I would make any of them a Cosmo if asked, before attempting to lead them to bigger, better cocktails.

Oh yeah—bitters rule, David W’s Punch book has been an interesting read so far, and the soda fountain thing has aroused my curiosity.

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the post.

I was visiting SF over the holidays and found myself sitting at the bar of the Burritt Room one evening. A nice young couple sits at the bar and the young lady asks the bar man “Do you have lavender bitters?” to which he replied “No.” (He had twenty other types available but not lavender.) 20 years ago there was no way a patron would be asking for product, which they have at home that we didn’t have behind the bar. I would have to agree that bitters must be a big deal.

If the trend is going to continue I think it is going to take bartenders who are willing to serve and educate their clientèle about their art. Not expect people to be able to understand it without any background.

Cheers.

Bitters are definately upand coming over the last year, and into the future, it is not suprising many of the predictions made, as people as a society are into the “vintage” items. at one time Bitters were an essential to the cocktail world, and now with people looking to educate themselves on the history of cocktails and getting into the classics there is becoming a need for a for a good stock of bitters behind all bars.

on another note Bartenders as professionals are once again beginning to educate themselves on Cocktail classic, and are finding them selves influenced by the “Rebirth” of Classic Cocktails.

with many of the classic bitter selections from the past no long being produced, and for some time now, people are creating there own home bar bitters concoctions.

The World of cocktails can only get better from here!

I’m in agreement with all of the preceding, and in a hat tip to the classics I’ll accept your claim about vermouth. HOWEVER, I prefer to coat the (chilled) glass with vermouth (every square inch covered), then dump the vermouth, then add the stirred gin. For me, this balance works well as long as I’m using good gin. You still get a fair amount of vermouth on the glass, but it’s not overwhelming.

You also didn’t mention garnish. It’s a little trendy, but I like cucumber with Hendricks. Thoughts?