Hey,
Happy New Year! I hope this finds you well.
Well, that is it, ladies and gents, another year come and gone! The calendar has rolled back over to January, and we keep moving forward!
I’d like to say thanks to all the supporters of this newsletter.
I started this project on July 29th, a little less than half a year ago, and now this newsletter is almost at 300 readers.
I want to give a HUGE thank you to those who support this newsletter and podcast with a monthly or annual paid subscription. Your support pays the tab for the products I use on The Nightcap Show.
I would also like to give an even more enormous thank you to the two of you that went above and beyond when I first started this project.
Tanya and Julie signed up as “Bar Seat Benefactors” within the first few minutes of announcing this newsletter. You joined at the highest level of financial support before I had even made a post! That kind of support is truly remarkable and really helped me stick it out for the rest of the year. THANK YOU!
Let’s get to it!
The CD Review
Drinks From December
This month I had to pull the snow shovel out for the first time and that shifted my cocktail hours into a different pattern. A few more brown spirits started showing up around 5 o’clock! Namely the Manhattan. I like mine “perfect!”
Perfect Manhattan
In a chilled and iced mixing glass:
60 ml Rye Whiskey
15 ml Dry Vermouth
15 ml Sweet Vermouth
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Stir/Strain-Chilled Coupe/Lemon Peel
I have never had luck ordering a “perfect” Manhattan out. It is one of those drinks with a few too many moving parts and preferences, and I am already known as the picky Martini guy. At home, though, I enjoy mixing one up with the recipe above.
I have to mention another drink because it has become a staple around the house— the Quill cocktail. I will not get into the intricacies of making a Negroni (I don’t use equal parts), but all you have to do is mix up a Negroni on the rocks and hit it with a few dashes of absinthe right on top! It’s a game-changer. I love how the absinthe louches on the surface of the drink and it sings in perfect harmony with the bitter Campari. Oh, and have you met the Togroni yet?
Quill
Make a Negroni however you see fit
Dash with Absinthe
One thing that may come in handy tomorrow is an excellent Bloody Mary. My favorite recipe is listed in Kingsley Amis’ On Drink. Earlier this week, I started a small series focusing on the ten general principles Kingsley writes out in his book, starting with G.P. 1 Quantity rather than quality. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for the rest of his principles and my take on them!
This Bloody Mary is for a good-sized pitcher. Sometimes I halve the recipe, but most of the time I just make the whole thing and keep it in the fridge until it’s gone. The first week of January is usually pretty dull, and this helps kick the day in gear.
Bloody Mary from Everyday Drinking
In a medium-sized container:
375 ml Vodka (Half a bottle)
60 ml Orange Juice
60 ml Lemon Juice
15 ml Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce (feel free to use more)
2 tablespoons Ketchup
1 teaspoon Celery salt
A few good cranks Black Pepper (I add this. He doesn't mention it.)
Mix all of this together so that the ketchup emulsifies and the salt and pepper are not lumpy.
In a larger vessel:
950 ml of plain tomato juice out of a can. (No additives. From concentrate is okay.)
Add the vodka, ketchup, salt, pepper, juice mix from above.
Stir all with ice to chill and dilute slightly.
Remove ice by pouring through a colander into a glass pitcher (this is tough with shaky hands).
Drink in small stemmed wine glasses without ice or garnish. Yeah, no celery stick.
If you can’t be bothered to mix all that up, take the Canadian shortcut invented by Walter Chell in Alberta, Canada, in the late ’60s and throw together one of my favorite breakfast drinks, The Caesar Cocktail:
The Caesar Cocktail
In a Collins glass:
30 ml Vodka
3 Pinches Kosher Salt
3 Twists Fresh Ground Black Pepper
3 Dashes Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
2 Dashes Tabasco
Swirl to mix and then fill with ice
Top up with Clamato juice
Some people like to rim the glass with Old Bay but I usually skip that step.
Note: Clamato Juice contains clam juice. AVOID if allergic to shellfish. Though it would probably be a delicious way to punch out. Beefamato may suit your needs better here.
For more cocktails, check out The Cocktail Doodle Cocktails Google doc.
The Nightcap Show
Live Tuesdays at 9 pm ET 🌛on Instagram
Here are the shows from December if you’d like to catch up:
Dec 1: Episode 10—Jim Blakey
Jim is a lawyer that lives outside of Boston and the man behind Clearly Frozen, a tray that makes clear ice right at home. These are the trays that I use to make all the ice in my house!
Check out Jim Blakey on Instagram @clearly_frozen!
Dec 8: Episode 11—Alyssa Hughes
Alyssa is a distiller, and for the last few years, she has been distilling at my local distillery, the Ann Arbor Distilling Company. We mix up a gimlet with a gin that she made and talk about the ins and outs of distilling and what is coming up in the future for her.
Check out Alyssa on Instagram @cosmic.distiller
December 15: Episode 12—Clay Ragan
Clay is a cocktail guy through and through. He keeps up with a fully stocked home bar and around the holidays puts together a Tiki pop up called: “Surfin’ Santa’s Swizzle Shack!” We talk about his bar and go on a little verbal vacation to some places we can’t wait to visit again.
Check out Clay on Instagram @chipsterzz.
December 22: Episode 13—Charlie Coffeen
Charlie is a producer based in LA with a musical background in Jazz and Gospel. I met Charlie when I was working at the Whistler, a cocktail bar in Chicago, and the nights he was performing quickly became my favorite nights to tend bar.
Check out Charlie on Instagram @charlieskeys
December 29: Episode 14—Anthony Sacco
Anthony is an absinthe aficionado based in Chicago. On this episode we drink Pernod Fils from 1901 (not a typo) and compare it with Jade 1901.
Check out Anthony Sacco on Instagram @anthony.absintheur
All live shows are turned into podcasts and released a week later. Find them on Apple or Spotify.
Cocktail Vignette: Bloody Mary
I wrote this a few years ago and it is still one of my favorites. I certainly don’t want to relive the feeling anytime soon, but it seemed fitting for New Years Day. Just remember that big glass of water before bed and you should be fine!
As his eyes opened and the sunlight cut through his sore retinas he felt around to make sure he was alone. It had to have been the second bottle of Champagne. It always was.
He shuffled to the kitchen one naked foot, and one socked foot in front of the other. The counter needed a chalk outline around the General Tso's he didn’t remember massacring last night. The refrigerator yielded no mercy of leftovers. A smart person would have saved that for breakfast. No, he thought as he put his sunglasses on, a smart person wouldn't feel like death right now.
The ritual was easy—muscle memory. Off the bar cart, he grabbed the clear bottle of vodka that had put him in the same mess a few months ago—dodging a stream of light from the window like a nimble vampire he made his way back to the kitchen.
In a container, he dumped a few glugs of vodka, examined the bottle, and glugged again. He hand-squeezed lemon and orange into the vodka and then added a few ketchup packets. The final touch was a healthy dose of Lea & Perrins and a pinch of celery salt. He mixed this with a fork and dumped it in a pitcher. He opened a large "break in case of emergency" can of tomato juice and added it to the thick brown mix. A scoop of ice that made his head throb with every clink against the glass would be worth it in a few short minutes.
After stirring, he scooped the ice out of the now chilled red liquid. The dishwasher was, of course, dirty, so he picked the cleanest glass he could find. It was a stemmed wine glass. He slipped his house shoes on still only wearing one sock and retrieved the paper he probably wouldn't even read. Wine glass and the pitcher in hand went to the balcony to start the day. The first sip was spicy, thick, and rejuvenating. He would be mostly okay by lunch.
Current Reading
This past month I got some new (and some very old) books and I am enjoying them immensely so far:
Hors D'oeuvre & Canapes by James Beard
I was lucky enough to find a first-edition from 1940, so I assume any current printing will have removed all mention of cigarettes and ashtrays, which reading through the original seemed like you couldn’t have a cocktail party without! Also neat to see James Beard take on a few cocktail recipes.
The Shaken and the Stirred: The Year's Work in Cocktail Culture edited by Stephen Schneider and Craig N. Owens
This book is a collection of articles, and it is AMAZING. My favorite so far is an article called “Absolut Psychosis,” which brings up white-collar American masculinity juxtaposed with vodka (tasteless, colorless, odorless, all around devoid of anything) and the advertising that goes along with it. It concludes by comparing all of that with the 1991 novel American Psycho. Fantastic.
Delights and Prejudices by James Beard
This cookbook reads more like a book than a recipe guide. Many of the recipes are his mother's, and it is a treat to read so far.
Gordon's Cocktail & Food Recipes, Canapes and Tastybits for the Cocktail Hour by Harry Jerrold Gordon
This is an oldie! One of the first cocktail books to come out after prohibition. Published in 1934.
The last two books I got from Thomas Posey, who will be my guest on The Nightcap Show next week. Thomas collects and sells vintage first-edition cocktail books and cookbooks. You can find him on Instagram and his store on Etsy.
New Products
Big Easy Tepache
Lagunitas releases alcohol-free IPNA
Josh Cellars begin initial rollout of Prosecco Rosé
LAWS Experiential Series Ruby Port Finished Bourbon
In Other (Booze) News
In a Pandemic, Mommy Wine Culture isn’t funny anymore
Restaurants Can Require Servers to Share Tips Under New U.S. Rule
Amid Sexual Harassment Scandal, Elite Wine Group Elects New Board
Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen
Alcohol Consumption Due to Fall by 8%
10,000 restaurants have closed over the past three months
I’m Afraid It’s Too Late to Save Restaurants
Irish whiskey sales in US are expected to overtake Scotch in next decade
No drinking alcohol for two months after COVID-19 vaccine
25-year study finds that a glass of wine a day lowers risk of diabetes
New U.S. Dietary Guidelines Reject Recommendation to Cut Sugar, Alcohol
United Airlines Eliminates Cocktail Picks To Save $80,000/Year
Well, that does it for me! I hope you enjoyed the last monthly review of the year and I wish you a great month to come. Thank you to all the supporters of this newsletter.
Those of you that pay to support Cocktail Doodle keep new and interesting books on my shelf and you keep my whistle wet! If you’d like to pitch in I ask for $5/month or an even better deal of $50/year.
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This has been highly entertaining since the start. I know it’s a lot of work but I enjoy it a lot. Keep it up and I can’t wait to see where this leads next!