As the creeping madness that is cocktailphilia gradually overtakes its victim, it’s not unusual for he or she to gradually become consumed with the pursuit of ever-more obscure ingredients. At first, depending on the victim’s location and his or her proximity to decent liquor stores, this obsession may focus on the hunt for maraschino liqueur,… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Spirits
Holiday Spirit Practically One Hundred Per Cent
Excerpt from “Dancing Dan’s Christmas,†from Blue Plate Special, by Damon Runyon, 1931 Now one time it comes on Christmas, and in fact it is the evening before Christmas, and I am in Good Time Charley Bernstein’s little speakeasy in West Forth-seventh Street, wishing Charley a Merry Christmas and having a few hot Tom and… Continue Reading
Milk Punch
It’s easy to think of this old chestnut of a drink as a lazy man’s eggnog — I do, in a fashion. But this relic from mixology’s mesozoic era has enough of its own character to deserve attention and respect, especially at this time of year. Now, I’m sure there are a number of people… Continue Reading
MxMoX: Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum
I can’t explain why I find it so satisfying, but in It’s a Wonderful Life, the grand holiday weeper that’s near-inescapable at this time of year, there’s a brief scene in a rough kind of barroom as Clarence the angel and Jimmy Stewart / George stop in for something to help them warm up: CLARENCE:… Continue Reading
Undoing the Damage
“Temperate temperance is best. Intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance, while temperate temperance helps it in its fight against intemperate intemperance. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky.” –Mark Twain, 1896 In case you haven’t wandered anywhere near a booze blog in the past couple… Continue Reading
