One thing this country has always enjoyed is a good drink. Whether it was rum on the Atlantic, bourbon at the races or that Bloody Mary at Sunday Brunch, alcohol is the American Drink.
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posted byThe Photo Booth gives us a Prohibition slide-show, complete with protesters, secret flasks, and flappers
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posted byLadies do not drink, nor do they smoke in circles that I have ever moved in, in St. Louis. It may prevail in homes that I do not know of, but I am sure that the rule is quite different. I certainly would not like to revisit a home where cocktails or liquors of any kind were served to ladies, or where the hostess would permit such customs.
I should no more think of going to an entertainment where such things were permitted than I would go to the house where they permitted bridge whist to be played for money.
—Mrs. Ashley D. Scott of 3515 Morgan St., St. Louis. She’s quoted in “The Cocktail Habit Among Ladies: Are the Titillating Stimulators Before Dinner and the Varicolored Liqueur After, Desirable Aids to Feminine Sociability?”, The St. Louis Republic, 1903. Spread pictured above.
Getting a buzz from booze may boost creativity. Men who drank themselves tipsy solved more problems demanding verbal resourcefulness in less time than sober guys did, a new study finds.
h/t Miles Van Pelt
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And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World In Ten Cocktails by Wayne Curtis (Amazon)
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If one needs an example of how to drink a proper daiquiri, one need only go back to the 1960s. On the night he was elected president in 1960, John F. Kennedy sat sipping daiquiris in the dining room of his house in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. When dinner was over, Kennedy rose and walked to a a nearby room to watch a small television with bad reception. Here, he checked in on the election returns, and here—infused with the glow of a daiquiri—he learned he would be the next inhabitant of the White House.
”
The Daiquri shares a name with a beach near Santiago, Cuba and a nearby iron mine. One story says a bunch of American mining engineers came up with the drink after dusting off their gin and substituting rum. Another says the drink started life as the legendary Grog back in the 1700s. What we do know about the daiquri’s origin story is that in 1909, a U.S. Navy Admiral with a pimp’s name— Lucius Johnson— introduced the drink to the Army Navy Club in Washington, D.C. Ernest Hemingway and John F. Kennedy enjoyed everything about a daiquiri or two (or 12) and In 1948 David Embury tapped it as one of the six basic drinks1 in his seminal book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.
What about any of that begs to be slurped from a whale bone while getting your vacation-braids did or screams “SHOW ME YOUR TITS!”
The daiquiri is a good, hard drink. Simple, dry, refreshing, a classic sour with more in common to a Tom Collins than a Slurpee.
So what happened? Well, it’s difficult to tell exactly so let’s take a look at the obvious: America happened. On the one hand, we often accidentally define cool. On the other hand, we commodify, artificially color and sweeten it and call it progress— worse yet, innovation. Apparently this resonated with a post-WWII population eager to unleash the atom, cure polio and win space. Advertisers jumped on it by printing recipes calling for limeade frozen concentrate. That’s about as timeless as a Foreigner slow-jam. [queue butt-rock ballad]
Big Papa
A man walks into a bar and orders a daiquiri. The man drinks it down, looks at the bartender and says, “That’s good, but I prefer it without sugar and double rum.” The bartender turns around and whips one up. The man says “This is very good!” The end.
That man? Ernest Hemingway. You may have heard about his drinking or maybe his writing. His version of the daiquiri became the Papa Doble.
The Hemingway Daiquiri is different. It’s made with a teaspoon of maraschino liquor and a quick splash of fresh grapefruit juice, Buh-lended. Just like them chicken-heads in Cabo San LOCO do.
That’s right: He preferred his daiquiris blended and by the dozen. Like the big ol’ former war-reporting, big-game hunting, sissy-pants that he is.
Chances are that your first daiquiri was made from frozen juice concentrate. It was mine. I’m sure I was under the legal drinking age and my palate was still that of a child. It was too sweet. I got too sick. Because Americans don’t read and I am an American, I never learned about Hemingway’s fascination with them.
To crib from Adam Lisagor:
“Sometimes I don’t know things for a really long time, and then suddenly I know them and I feel much better.”
The Daiquiri2 is one of those things.
The Daiquiri
2 oz white rum
1 oz lime juice
1/2 - 1 oz simple syrup to tasteShake3, strain and serve that bad boy up. Try a woody gold rum like Rhum Barbancourt Five Star or Cruzan Aged Light Rum instead of the Bacardi your aunt used to drink.
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The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks lists the Manhattan, Martini, the Old Fashioned, Sidecar and the Jack Rose alongside the Daiquiri as the six basic drinks. ↩
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And Adam Lisgor’s little gem about one of Miles Davis’ massive influences. Check it out. ↩
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A note on shaking and straining: Use lots of ice in your shaker and shake for at least a standing-8 count, about 10-15 seconds. Once done, strain your drink out and never use that shaken ice again. Throw it out like you’re made out of new money. ↩
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American Drinks Compounded. This is an illustration from Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad, 1869.
Via youllbehealed - a nice collection of boozy quotes, art and assorted trinkets.
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posted by“I Wonder If Mr. Fieldcrest Is Married?”: New Yorker Ads from the “Mad Men” Era
When “Mad Men” finally—finally—returns from its long hiatus on Sunday, many mysteries stand to be resolved: Has Don married Canadian Megan? Did Joan have Roger’s baby? Will Peggy drop acid at the Summer of Love?
No matter the oscillations of the character’s lives (and hairstyles), one thing is certain: there will be ads. In honor of the upcoming season, we’ve looked through the magazine’s archives from the early sixties and culled a smattering of vintage New Yorker ads that recall the boozy, beehive-y “Mad Men” universe.
For a slide show of more Mad Men-era ads featured in The New Yorker, visit: http://nyr.kr/GSaJ60
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