Monster in a Glass

Putting the word “corpse” in anything you are going to consume is probably a mistake, but Corpse Revivers seem to have weathered any associations with dead stuff. When you look at the name closely you pick up right away that this cocktail is intended to clear out the cobwebs and get you right up out of your grave, er, bed I mean. This one is an old one showing up in newspapers in the mid-19th century as a pick-me-up with a notably unusual name. As we learned with the Old-Fashioned episode, people seemed to think cocktails were a good morning activity to get you going. Ah, the 19th century, where booze was the equivalent of coffee.

Known more as a class of drink, rather than a cocktail itself, there are still two very different recipes that survived. We end up with a Corpse Reviver #1 and a Corpse Reviver #2, showing that it didn’t really matter all that much what was in it as long as it was liquor and you could drink it in the morning.

Join us as we discuss why something with brandy in it might make you alert, rather than warm and sleepy. We also delve into the faux pas of burying the living who were thought to be dead, an invention to make sure the living could let you know they weren’t dead, and the man behind the innovation.

Corpse Reviver #1 is an American version that is
2 parts cognac
1 part apple brandy or Calvados
1 part sweet vermouth

Corpse Reviver #2
3/4 ounce gin
3/4 ounce lemon juice
3/4 ounce Cointreau (triple sec)
3/4 ounce Lillet
1 dash absinthe

Anyway, we tried both and they have no similarity except that they are alcoholic beverages.

If you asked the average person to name a cocktail, The Cosmopolitan would probably be on the short list. If you asked the average person what was in it, you might not get past vodka in a martini glass with some other stuff. It is a heavily-recognized cocktail for sure, but it is it anything more than a souped-up vodka and cranberry?

Join us as we head way, way, back to the 1980s to talk the evolution and disputed origins of this cocktail. We also discuss what cosmopolitan means, the drinks cultural significance, and a resurgence in the early 2000s because of its association with Sex in the City.

The Rusty Nail sounds like a rough cocktail, something that requires you to get a tetanus shot after you drink it. The ingredients don’t necessarily live up to the harsh name, but I hope you like Scotch! This drink is just Scotch, and the Scotch-based liqueur Drambuie for extra scotchiness and a bit of sweet. This cocktail, which really doesn’t start to appear with its dangerous name until the 1960s, involved a lot of piecing together and chasing legends to get the full story.

This is the first time we are talking about Drambuie, so we do a deep dive into its long history and heroic and medicinal roots. We look at the Drambuie story from its orgins with Bonnie Prince Charlie, the legend of how it got the name, and whether it was a favorite illegal import to the U.S. during prohibition.

Join us as we talk a whole bunch about Scottish stuff, the history of nails, and have our pal Science Guy call in to scare us about lockjaw.

There are a couple of things to note about the Calvados Cocktail. One, it does in fact have Calvados in it so no misdirection there. Two, there is a whole lot of orange-flavor in this one, with orange juice, Cointreau, and orange bitters. I am not sure if the Calvados Cocktail gives you any Vitamin C, but hey, there is no harm in trying it if you want to get tipsy while fighting a cold.

An apple brandy, Calvados is only Calvados if it comes from the Normandy region. This French cousin to the American Applejack doesn’t show up in a ton of cocktails, but does make appearances in some of note like the Avenue.

Join us as we explore this almost entirely fruit-based cocktail, breaking down each ingredient and their appearances in the cocktail world.

While the recipe for Rob Roy cocktail is pretty standard today, it wasn’t always that way. Variations occur from the earliest appearances in cocktail books and continue on pretty much throughout the 20th century. So how do we get to a standard for a drink often referred to as a Scotch Manhattan?

We discuss this mystery and the origins of this cocktail in the late 1800s, where Rob Roy seemed to be a pretty popular name for all kinds of things like hats, plaids, racing horses, an operetta, and of course whiskey. Then we dive right into the life and legend of Rob Roy, the Scottish folk hero who led a colorful and action movie-like existence.

So put on your kilt, grab your Scotch, and join us for this action-packed episode!

The recipe is as follows:

The Pimm’s Cup is obviously a cup, right? I mean it is in the name. So why was it advertised as “the original gin sling?” Or is it actually a punch? Is Pimm’s No. 1 a cup? Or is Pimm’s Cup a cup? And just what are cups, punches, and slings? All these questions will be answered, and not answered as we explore this simple, yet complicated drink. You may want to take notes on this one to follow along.

There isn’t a whole lot to this drink, so the focus of this episode is on the origins. Digging through the Pimm’s Cup story is a whole lot of lack of information, so we had to do some deep genealogical diving and piecing together to get to the bottom of it. We explore the man behind it, James Pimm, and why his special liqueur stood out among the rest of the fishmongers in the Poultry. We also try to figure out how it went from a drink marketed to a class of people who regularly played croquet at garden parties, to a nice refreshing summer concoction for the British masses.

Join us as we discuss the hardship of getting Pimm’s to British troops in the Sudan, London trade guilds, the odd popularity of oyster taverns, and a whole lot of craziness called the Oyster Wars. Honestly, give humans a chance, and they will fight over anything.

The recipe is:

In this episode we delve into the concept of extinct cocktail ingredients.  It’s hard to put your finger on these dearly departed until you discover by happenstance, as I did, that you can’t complete the recipe. I stumbled into this circumstance by choosing the Amarosa Cocktail, another classic cocktail in the pantheon of aged beverages, but when I surveyed the list of ingredients there was one, Amaro Cora, that Michael said he didn’t have.  When that happens I take it upon myself to acquire the missing component.  When I went shopping, however, I discovered that nobody had any available, so I researched deeper and learned that the liqueur is largely gone (I did find some old bottles being sold for $200 – yikes!). To me, that’s really sad.  Not only do I not get to experience it, but there is a piece of cultural history and identity that’s becoming invisible.  I never would have known about it if it wasn’t for the project I’m engaged in and this recipe and book we’re working from; even knowledge of Amaro Cora is close to vanishing completely.  It made me wonder, how many other lovely concoctions have already gone from the world and how many others are on the endangered list.  In our conversation, it was clear that both of us were at a loss because those in the process of disappearing are hard to see.  But that story itself is also interesting, so we decided to use the Amarosa Cocktail as a way to discuss those expiring and long gone spirits in the world of cocktails. The really cool narrative I discovered was that with the resurgence of the craft cocktail and craft spirits community, there is a real motivation to recreate or "reverse replicate" these extinct liqueurs, beers and wines by finding forgotten recipes, finding samples in sunken ships or old buildings, or interviewing people who have tasted the original to reproduce spirits from recollection.  Recently some sealed bottles of beer were dredged up from a shipwreck in the North Sea, craft beer guys are having the ingredients analyzed in a lab to discover what it is...and if they can make some too.  The University of Chicago classics department teamed up with Great Lakes Brewing Co. to reproduce ancient Sumerian style beer from an old recipe translated at the university.  This is a wonderful time in the industry where history, culture, tradition, exploration, research and artisanship join to potentially bring back. Jason also researched the world of old world digestivos (as amaros were originally intended as stomach tonics to aid in digestion).  This is always a fun part of the episodes we do... the short diversions from the cocktail content to explore bits of history that reveal the strange, unexpected and wonderful aspects of our history and culture.  It truly is fascinating to see what our ancestors thought would alleviate upset stomachs. In my research, I found another amaro, Cardamaro, whose origins were the same as Amaro Cora, the Piedmont region, and is produced by the same company that bought Amaro Cora in 1984.  I was hoping that Cardamaro was somehow derivative of Amaro Cora.  After trying it...I don't think it is.

Throughout this episode I repeated over and over, "This could be all wrong without the actual Amaro Cora".  I reserve the right to maintain this forever and ever, because the simple fact is, we didn't have the actual ingredient for the cocktail.  The cardamaro was a strange creature...everybody gave it a different assessment after tasting.  It was all over the place.  By and large, this cocktail was not appreciated in the form we tried.  We mostly agreed that the kirschwasser did not play well with the ingredients and that it alone as a liqueur is unpleasant.  In the end, Rachel had even decided that this drink was, in her assessment, bad; the rest of us didn't commit to anything.  In closing, I would like to reinforce two things:  This cocktail we tried was not the correct one, so we can't know what the real taste is until we get some; and, Michael makes the cocktails as instructed so we get the best actual experience that we can.  If we don't appreciate the cocktails as much, that does not reflect upon Michael's expertise or the Brixton and their cocktail offerings...we've had their cocktails...they pretty much kick the ass of most of the cocktails in book we're using for our tour. And BTW anybody who has some Amaro Cora they’re not using…go ahead and send it our way.

Was there ever any doubt that at some point in history there would be a cocktail with the name Hanky Panky, when cocktails so often have the reputation of leading to lascivious funny business? Whether the name was a reference to the cause, prevention, or embodiment of sexual activity, or completely unrelated is not totally clear. We explore the different uses of the term over time, and one of the stories behind the creation of the cocktail to see if we can nail down the intention of the name. We talk so much on this podcast about the bartenders that were cocktail legends and the gentlemanly profession that was slinging drinks. It has always been men though, so it was refreshing to have an episode where we get to feature a woman as the person behind the cocktail. Ada “Coley” Coleman is given credit for creating this cocktail for actor Sir Charles Hawtrey, in the early part of the 20th century. Ada Coleman comes up very infrequently in the bartender arena, despite the fact that she was the head bartender at the Savoy Hotel for about twenty years. In this episode we are talking women bartenders, diving into the history of barmaids in the 19th century. While other similar professions were gaining support for unionizing, a whole lot of people on every side of the political spectrum still had a problem with barmaids doing the same because they were women working in bars. So join us as we explore their fight for unionization and respect as professional laborers, as well as their struggle against laws trying to eliminate their livelihood. We even get to see this movement take on and beat a British MP by the name of Churchill. Don’t mess with the barmaids. The recipe is as follows: