Picture it: It's near the turn of the Twentieth Century and Americans are consuming about 7.1 million gallons of alcohol a year. Most of that is in hard liquor. Temperance groups are out en force all over the country. There were more saloons in the country than schools and by the first decade of the century, employers were shelling out great sums of money to pay for liquor related accidents that happened in the workplace.
Prohibition was one of the more interesting forays into the private lives of citizens by our government. But, Americans are enterprising people and solutions oriented when it comes to these challenges. Speakeasies popped up, doctors began writing prescriptions for liquor, and the bootlegger became a popular street fixture. By the time FDR took office and the banks started closing, the president thought it would be a good idea to let people have a drink to take the edge off what would soon become the Great Depression. Prohibition was repealed in December 1933.
The LUCIEN GARDIN
Named for an early 20th century French Olympic fencer, the Lucien Gaudin starts off in the manner of a Negroni by combining gin with Campari. With the addition of Cointreau and dry vermouth the result is a pleasantly bitter drink that is simultaneously rich and dry--a challenging flavor to create which is all the more enjoyable because of its rarity.
1 ounce gin
1/2 ounce Campari
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. A twist of orange peel is not out of place here.
The SAZERAC
The Sazerac hails from New Orleans, and is is the state drink of Louisiana. It is often mistakenly referred to as the oldest classic cocktail in existence. It most certainly isn’t, but it’s definitely an old one, or at least it’s basic structure is an old one…
Just like the Old-Fashioned, or the Whiskey Cocktail, the Sazerac is made according to the recipe laid down in the first official definition of a “classic” cocktail which is found in an 1806 edition of the news periodical The Balance and Columbian Repository from Husdon, New York. Here it clearly states that a cocktail: “is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters – it is vulgarly called bittered sling."
The preparation of a Sazerac, like the rich and varied history of the drink itself, is steeped in alchemic ritual and tradition. You need two old-fashioned glasses, one to prepare the drink in and one which you will eventually serve the drink in – which is first chilled and coated with absinthe. You then transfer the drink from one to the other. Don’t ask me why this is the way it’s done, it just is. I’m glad that this strange and archaic process still exists as it shows a degree of historical reverence and attention to detail that helps endow the drink with the respect that it most surely deserves.
If you can’t get hold of a decent rye whiskey, then bourbon will do. But try to get hold of a decent rye. Really try. Likewise with the bitters – you can use Angostura, but Peychaud’s are far more authentic.
50ml rye whiskey (or bourbon)
15ml absinthe (or pastis)
3 dashes Peychaud bitters (or Angostura)
1 sugar cube (or 15ml sugar syrup)
Glass: old-fashioned
Garnish: lemon peel
Muddle a sugar cube with a few drops of water in one of the old-fashioned glasses until the sugar is dissolved.
Add 3 or 4 ice cubes and half the rye whiskey, and stir for 30 seconds.
Add another 3 or 4 ice cubes and the other half of the rye whiskey, and stir for another 30 seconds.
Take a pre-chilled old-fashioned glass (either one from the freezer, or one that you have prepared by filling with ice and water, which you then discard), and pour in the absinthe.
Hold the glass so that it is almost horizontal and twist it around so that the inside is fully coated with the absinthe.
Pour the excess absinthe away. Strain the contents of the first old-fashioned glass (with the rye, sugar etc.) into this absinthe-coated glass.
Garnish with a twist of lemon peel, discharging the oils of the peel over the drink before dropping it in.
The JAPANESE COCKTAIL
The Japanese Cocktail was created in New York City in 1860 by “Professor” Jerry Thomas to celebrate the occasion of the first Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States.
One member of the Japanese delegation, their translator, Tateishi “Tommy” Onojirou, was a bit of a bon vivant, so it makes sense that he would have made his way to Jerry Thomas’s bar. Apparently Thomas whipped up this drink for him — thus the name, despite a lack of any ingredients that are even remotely Japanese.
The Japanese Cocktail was one of the first cocktails to have its recipe printed. It was found in Thomas’s seminal 1862 book, How to Mix Drinks, Or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion, the world’s first cocktail guide.
2 oz. Cognac
1/2 oz. Orgeat Syrup
2 dashes Angostura or Boker's Bitters
Stir ingredients with ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
The Legacy of Prohibition on Cocktails and the Art of Making Them
Before Prohibition, America had quite a reputation for a vast repertoire of cocktails. European bartenders used to travel to the United States to learn how to broaden their techniques and their knowledge of mixing more drinks. Ingredients were fresh and the art of mixing drinks was respected. With Prohibition, though, some of the country's finest bartenders were forced into other professions or they went underground to work in the best speakeasies. But, that didn't mean they were able to craft the same quality with their drinks than they did before America got religion over alcohol.
Drinking went from being a social event and the marking of them as artistry to surreptitiously getting a fix and drinks were cut with juice and made with cheap ingredients and liquors. The unfortunate consequence is that, by the time Prohibition was repealed. some of the best mixologists were gone or had forgotten much of their best crafts. American attention spans waned and the great cocktails that once took time to craft at the bar and serve made way for quick turnarounds and quick pours topped with soda or juice. But, fortunately the last several years have seen a resurgence in the interest of finely crafted cocktails with great ingredients. You can learn to make them on your own, impressing your friends, yourself, and your next date with your ability to sling cocktails of old in a new, more stylish era of social drinking.
© 2015 Haven Style. All rights reserved.