Curacao

Browsing through some old newspapers I came a cross this article on the origin of Orange Curaçao (Kansas City Star - June 25, 1894). It is an interesting historical account of how orange Curaçao (spelled Curacoa in the article) or Triple Sec (Cointreau) came to be. The original grades of Curacao are detailed and the "green ribbon" variety deemed the best. The green ribbon is a reference… [Continue]

One area where this site has a glaring weakness is the photography. Most of the pictures on this site come from stock photographs, provided by the company making the product, or are taken quickly and without much thought. I shake up a cocktail, run outside, snap a photo and run back inside. Pretty boring stuff. Now Rick over at Kaiser Penguin knows how… [Continue]

A good drink can often be considered "moral suasion". A good one keeps you in your seat, but not by force, and a really good one can persuade you to happily open your wallet and order a second. When I came across this cocktail, in the 1873 Daily Picayune (New Orleans), it piqued my curiosity, partially because this was the very early years of the cocktail art, and it actually looked like a legitimate… [Continue]

While I was thinking about what to write, I glanced up and notices my collection of Food & Drink magazines from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). I decided somewhere in one of those magazines there must be something that would inspire me to write. The first issue I pulled out was from the summer of 2004 and had a recipe for the Mint Divine, a rye, mint and lemonade recipe. Basically… [Continue]