Author: Bob Westal

If you were a superhero-loving youngster in the 1970s, the pickings were pretty slim. Animation was limited, even if the character designs and theme songs could be pretty cool. Worse, as the 1970s progressed and concerns about violence on children’s television grew, the networks started to seek more “pro-social” messages for their superhero fare. While some might remember “Superfriends” through the rosy lens of childhood, if you were old enough to have any critical faculties, it was tough going and incredibly wimpy. No punches were thrown, and villains were misguided souls in need of a little rehabilitation. The complete lack of violence…

My habit of relating cocktails to current events has really gotten the bitter of me this week. Yuk-Yuk. I stumbled over Bitter in Brazil quite innocently via Difford’s Guide when I was looking for another cocktail featuring wondrously bittersweet vermouth Punt e Mes. The name  put me in mind of the ongoing political disaster in Brazil and the recent, bleakly hilarious, infuriating John Oliver segment about it. The idea that some people on the United States right think that the Christo-fascist is a better choice than ordinary corrupt pols, leftwing though they may be, makes me think that they should stop implying…

Punt e Mes has long been one of my favorite mixed drink ingredients. An extremely distinctive brand of vermouth, (possibly) blended with other ingredients found in bittersweet amaro liqueurs, with an edge that’s somewhere between coffee and Campari. I’ve had very good luck with it in Manhattans and Americano variations and what not. When I found myself with a large open bottle and a finite time to use it before it began to lose its vermouth mojo, it was time to look for some Punt e Mes cocktails, and that’s how I found the Slope. It’s a clever variation on…

Following on my experiments with genever on two separate Million Dollar Cocktails, and after doing a genever Old Fashioned some time back, I have now stumbled over/stolen the idea  of doing a genever Manhattan. Since the whiskey-based Manhattan and the sweet ancestors of the modern day gin-based Martini are already very close relatives, the idea seemed like a natural. Genever is kind of halfway between modern-day dry gins and whiskey as it is. There’s not much more to say about this. It’s a drink I found in a number of places and which all had pretty much the same recipe. I’m not feeling…

Last week, I provided you with the version of the Million Dollar Cocktail that appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930, though the drink itself is much older. As I said last week, it’s a fine drink if you stick with Plymouth Gin, not just a brand but a once common style of gin which disappeared until near the end of the last century. Today, we go back to a very recent variation on the cocktail which nevertheless calls for a style of gin that goes back to the Renaissance. Plymouth gin legally must be made in Plymouth, England; genever, which…

We don’t know how the Million Dollar Cocktail got its name. Moreover, if anyone tries to charge you more than, say, $17.00 for it, it better have a $5.00 bill as a garnish. Even so, it’s one drink that does teach us a valuable lesson. Regular readers will take note that the second half of these posts usually focus mostly on my choice of brands. That’s because they matter. Cocktail recipes from famed mixologists are often very specific about ingredients and, if you don’t use exactly what they say, the possibility of a disappointing outcome is always there. That’s even more true…

The Voyager was created by Robert “Drink Boy” Hess in the first decade of the century and later featured in his The Essential Bartender’s Guide. You can also seem him make the drink back in 2011 on his video blog. It’s both an homage to classic tiki and, arguably, TV science fiction since Hess chose the name not just because it evoked Polynesian style high-adventure, but also because he’s a Star Trek fan. I like it quite a bit because it’s somewhat less elaborate and less heavy-sweet than most classic concoctions in the Trader Vic’s/Don the Beachcomber tradition. It’s especially nice if…

Today’s drink was created by New York-based star bartender Jim Meehan and included in Robert Hess’s The Essential Bartender’s Guide. Mr. Meehan actually lists is as one of the drinks that made his career, but mainly just talks about its name. By any name it’s an intriguing and tasty tweak on the 20th Century Cocktail which, in typical bassackwards fashion, I’ll be doing later on. It’s a logical enough progression because tequila was essentially unknown to the cocktail crowd when the first drink was created. All in all, the 21st Century Cocktail combines some odd ingredients to create a remarkable result. If you have all of them handy, you very…

Last week we gave you the Planter’s Cocktail #1 from The Savoy Cocktail Book, so today’s mixed drink selection was the logical follow-up. That’s good because, to be truthful, the first Planter’s Cocktail was find but something of a hit or miss proposition. This one is a sweet delight that delights consistently, but is also transformed by the particular dark rum expression you go with. If you’re looking for something good, cool, versatile, and tasty-sweet this Labor Day weekend, this could be for you. I like this one a lot. The Planter’s Cocktail #2 1 1/2 ounces dark rum 3/4 ounce fresh lemon…

This week I”m taking a break from my fizz fixation and returning to the ways of old, DOTW style, with another selection from Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book. As Erik Ellestad noted almost exactly nine years ago, Craddock wrote that “This drink is greatly favored by Planters, particularly in Jamaica where Rum is good and cheap.” Don’t ask me what’s going on with the random capitalization of “Planter’s” and “Rum” but it’s impossible not to be a bit disturbed by the provenance of a drink. A planter, it turns out, is not someone who just plants things, but a manager of a plantation. Slavery…