August 21st, 2007
Last Thursday at about 2:30 in the afternoon, a photo of me drinking a Jack Rose appeared on the homepage of Boston.com (the Boston Globe’s website) with an announcement that I would be available for an online chat at 3:00. The chat was an added feature of an article about me and drinkboston.com that appeared in that day’s edition of the Globe. When I recovered from the shock of sudden global fame, I hunkered down at my computer and got ready to type. “Don’t worry if you don’t see any questions at first. For the first 15 minutes, they just kind of trickle in,” a Boston.com staffer told me.
So, leaning back in my chair, I logged in at a fashionably late 3:01. Whoa! There were already five or six questions waiting for me. I started typing furiously and didn’t stop for a solid hour as the chat grew to 40-odd questions and answers. I had a blast. Many thanks to everyone who joined in, and apologies to those whose questions I didn’t have time to answer. If you missed it, here’s the transcript. (It’s free to view, but you have to log in to Boston.com with an email address to access it.)
Note: a couple of friends joined the chat to goof on me, and I goofed them back — hence the Zima cocktail recipe.
Permalink | No Comments | Filed under Boston bars, Cocktails, drinkboston in the news |
August 17th, 2007
One of the Chartreuse cocktails that the boozin’ broads of LUPEC Boston created for Sunday night’s Chartreuse Cocktails event at Green Street is a winner in Salon.com’s first summer cocktail contest. Congrats, ladies! LUPEC is Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, and the Boston chapter’s blog is here. The winning cocktail’s called the Irma La Douce. “Take a green French liqueur and a movie in which Shirley MacLaine plays a Parisian prostitute dressed in bright green stockings — and it adds up to a cocktail called the Irma la Douce,” the article reads. One Salon taster described the drink as “spicy and tart, like its namesake.” Santé!
Permalink | 3 Comments | Filed under Cocktails, drinkboston in the news, Liqueur |
August 16th, 2007
This just in: the Boston Globe thinks drinkboston.com is inkworthy … and stylish. It’s publishing an article on me and the site in today’s Styles section. Not only that, I will be available for an online chat about the article, Boston bar culture, cocktails, etc. from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. today on Boston.com. Check it out!
If you’ve landed here from Boston.com or the Boston Globe and are a first-time visitor, welcome. Take a look around. Post a comment. Have a drink. Cheers!
If you’re not busy this Sunday night, join me and the Boston chapter of LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) for Chartreuse Cocktails at Green Street in Cambridge.
Permalink | 11 Comments | Filed under drinkboston in the news |
August 16th, 2007
As a proselytizer for “classic cocktails,” I am often at a loss when I try to explain to people what I mean by that term. My mind gropes futilely, trying to single out that obscure recipe that represents the vast treasury of pre-Prohibition drinks. Then, one day, I was flipping through the Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book and noticed something that would astonish most modern drinkers: over one-third of the recipes in that book contain vermouth — either sweet (red/Italian) or dry (white/French), or both together. Ha, now there was a fact that would both grab the attention of the uninitiated and give them an example of what makes classic cocktails classic.
In the present day, vermouth is viewed as a relic from an era when people apparently enjoyed drinking poison. At least, that’s what you’d think vermouth was given the way modern Martini drinkers shudder at the notion of more than a drop of the stuff mucking up their chilled vodka with olives. That’s how we’ve all been conditioned for decades: the drier the Martini the better, so lose the vermouth. And while you’re at it, strip the drink of all remaining flavor by replacing gin with vodka.
When you think about it, that’s just weird. I mean, why did the Martini ever become popular in the first place? Because it used to be a great drink. Try this: two-thirds London dry gin and one-third dry vermouth stirred for a good minute over cracked ice and served straight up with a lemon twist. (Add a dash of orange bitters and an olive if you want to.) It’ll make you understand why vermouth is worthy of respect. Without a liberal dose of it, the Martini would never have achieved fame.
Not just in the Martini, but in many classic cocktails, vermouth adds roundness to the strong taste of spirits. It can also knit together other flavors. It’s kind of like the standard onion-celery-carrot base of many soups — you don’t taste those flavors up front, but without them the soup lacks savoriness and dimension.
Take, for instance, the El Presidente and the Scoff Law. Without dry vermouth, the former would be a forgettable, sweet drink, and the latter would be a disjointed combination of flavors. The Independent has a slight variation of the El Presidente on its current menu; it contains a little fresh lime juice, and it’s delicious and refreshing. The Scoff Law is a drink that’ll probably wind up on the menu for drinkboston’s upcoming Chartreuse Cocktails event at Green Street. The flavors balance each other out and create an entirely new taste. (There’s a Scoff Law variation, also delicious, with rye, dry vermouth, lemon juice and grenadine.)
Now that you realize vermouth is not poison, but instead an indispensible cocktail ingredient, here are the rules for stocking it in your home bar: buy small bottles, which take less time to finish; keep vermouth refrigerated after you open it; and choose decent brands like Noilly Prat or Martini & Rossi. The good brands are still cheap — a 375ml bottle of Martini & Rossi will set you back $4. Simply keep in mind that vermouth is essentially red or white wine that’s flavored with herbs and lightly fortified to an alcohol content of 16 percent (compared to 12-14 percent for regular wine), so it should be treated similarly to wine. That means throw away those bottles you last opened for a party in 1995 and start fresh. Then mix up a batch of old-school Martinis, invite your friends over, and change their lives.
Permalink | 9 Comments | Filed under Cocktails, Vermouth |
August 13th, 2007
Food & Wine magazine’s Mouthing Off blog featured a recent post about cocktail blogs and Mixology Monday, which Paul at Cocktail Chronicles started in April 2006. (Coincidentally, that’s when drinkboston.com started, too.) MxMo is “a monthly event for drink bloggers (and nonbloggers, too, using the drink forum at eGullet) to mix up themed cocktails and share recipes,” writes F&W’s Julia Bainbridge. I have to admit I’ve been a slacker, having only participated in MxMo once so far. The next one is tomorrow, August 13, at the Intoxicated Zodiac blog. The theme is orange (as in orange juice, orange liqueur, orange peel, orange bitters, etc.) Whether I’ll have my sh*t together to participate in that one is still an open question. Right now I just want to toot the drinkboston horn and mention the fact that I’m quoted at the end of the Mouthing Off post.
Permalink | No Comments | Filed under drinkboston in the news |
