For this month’s Mixology Monday — the first that saw something that at least passed for a “MxMo Live” component — bloggers took the theme to heart: not only are we awash in French 75s, Ramos Gin Fizzes and Absinthe Suissesses (try saying that last one after a couple of drinks), but a great many posts feature not one, but two or even three drinks. Like many visitors to New Orleans — including a great many participants at Tales of the Cocktail — participating bloggers shrugged off restraint this month in favor of hedonistic excess.

I expected nothing less.

Here’s what we’ve got (in no particular order, and with photos borrowed shamelessly from participating sites):

• Our good friends Cameron and Anita at Married…With Dinner indulged in a drink that I know many Tales attendees enjoyed in great quantity: the Pimm’s Cup. Pointing out that this is actually a quintessential British drink, Anita and Cameron nevertheless ward off the heat of the day with a tall Pimm’s Cup at the Napoleon House on Chartres Street, aka muffaletta-and-Pimm’s Central.
• Also Pimms Cup-ing, but from a greater distance, is Felicia at her eponymous Felicia’s Speakeasy. The only New Orleans-type drink that Felicia keeps around on a regular basis, this Pimm’s Cup is so powerful and delicious that merely reading the recipe stunned me right out of remembering to include this in the roundup when I first posted it. Sorry Felicia!
• Across the pond, Christian at Cocktailwelten gazes jealously in the direction of New Orleans (at least I think that’s what he’s doing — it’s been a long time since those German classes I took in college) while mixing up a French Quarter, a suitably rich and boozy mixture of rye whiskey, creme de cacao, creme de menthe and, of course, cream.
• Also on the envious side is Cynthia at My Brilliant Mistakes. Cynthia takes on one of the bugaboo drinks of New Orleans: the Hurricane. Using good passion-fruit juice and other quality ingredients, Cynthia made a scratch Hurricane that beat the Pat O’Brien’s version hands-down.
• How do I know it beat the ones found in that French Quarter institution of venerable cheese? Because these guys absolutely had to seize the opportunity to funnel the O’Brien’s variety down their gullets. Blair of Trader Tiki — he of the pith helmet in the photo — documents not only the Hurricane, but the Hand Grenade and the Daiquiri (French Quarter version) in a little roundup he likes to call “The Worst Drinks on Bourbon Street.” It was a dirty, nasty job, and somebody needed to take it on — better you than me, Blair.
• Also succumbing to the call of the Hurricane was Rum Dood, who presumably was manning the camera for the above shot. Dood starts off with the Pat O’Brien’s variety, then quickly comes to his senses and works his way through an anonymous and lackluster recipe, then proceeds to try Jeff Berry’s recipe and finishes by giving it his own tweak.
• Classin’ up the Hurricane is also the mission over at Southbound Train, and the result is Les Bontemps Roulez. For good measure, the mixologists move on to a version of the Sazerac that substitutes muddled tarragon for the absinthe.
• Riba over at Riba Rambles also tried to spruce up the ol’ Hurricane, using Dale DeGroff’s recipe, then crosses a new line when she mixes up what she claims to be her very first self-made cocktail: a Ramos Gin Fizz, shaken during the New Orleans Cocktails session at Tales. You picked no better place to start, Riba!
• From Hurricanes to Red Bull: Jamie Boudreau of Spirits & Cocktails demonstrates his fondness for mixing with jet fuel in the Pain Pain Go Away, a mixture he regularly imbibed at Tales that also includes Tylenol, Gatorade and water. Once able to navigate the streets without weaving, Jamie then turned to the semi-official guide for MxMo: New Orleans edition, Stanley Clisby Arthur’s Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix Em, with a recipe for the cognac-and-applejack fortified Ambrosia.
• Ryan at Doggone-Friggin’ gets local — suitable, since he’s a New Orleans-based blogger — with A Certain Swizzle, a drink made with New Orleans Rum that bears a certain resemblance to a swizzle served at a prestigious Poydras Street bar and restaurant.
• Also going the New Orleans Rum route are FlyboyzNYC, who take the classic Sazerac for a spin and wind up with the Swaggerac, substituting rum for rye and Fee Brothers barrel-aged bitters for the Peychaud’s, and using a rinse of pimento dram in lieu of absinthe, finishing the drink with a lime twist. If I can dig that bottle of New Orleans amber out of my liquor cabinet, I know what I’m trying tonight.
• Also riffing on the Sazerac is Cooking 4 the Week; starting with the original cognac version, the drink morphs into the more familiar rye whiskey version, but finally a happy detente is reached by blending both the cognac and rye.
• Jacob Grier ventures off the traditional path with a drink he discovered at Tales: Stephen Beaumont’s Green Devil, served during the “How to View Beer as an Ingredient” session. Starting with an absinthe rinse in a Duvel glass, Beaumont hits it with an ounce of gin, followed by a bottle of Duvel. Sounds delicious, and dangerous, which just proves the point: when you type “Evil Genius” into Google, “Stephen Beaumont” should be at the top of the list.
• Also heading into new but inspired territory is Shawn at Rejiggered, who takes the classic Brennan’s dessert and configures it into the Bananas Foster Cocktail.
• More novel cocktails can be found at Beers in the Shower, where Kevin posts the Saints-inspired New Orleans Cocktail #25, made with bourbon, St. Germain, Fernet Branca and a few drops of Jamie Boudreau’s Boker’s Bitters replica.
• Muddle, muddle, muddle; booze, booze, booze. That’s all I can come up with for the Tall Acadian over at Les Mixeur. Too bad Ted is so stingy with words; I’m sure there’s a story in there somewhere.
• Muddling? That brings us to mint juleps. While these are more broadly a southern thing and not just New Orleans, if you haven’t spent a sweltering piece of an afternoon over one of these in New Orleans, you haven’t lived. Fortunately, Paul and Steve over at Cocktail Buzz have lived, and bring us two juleps to prove it: a Doublemint Julep, made with peppermint and spearmint leaves; and a Chocolate Mint Julep, made with chocolate mint, and with a little oomph from stevia leaves. Don’t let the “chocolate” thing fool you — it’s just a hint of flavor from the variety of mint, and by using stevia in place of sugar for sweetening, this julep actually weighs in on the delightfully dry side. Good thinking, guys.
• Ah, the Ramos Gin Fizz. Many bloggers came up against this drink for MxMo, and with good reason: it’s one of New Orleans’ finest. Over at Bartender Geek, Xiphias Gladius steps away from the recipe to look at the use of technology in mixing this drink. Classically shaken for anywhere between one and 10 minutes, the Ramos Gin Fizz is a labor-intensive drink; Xiphias looks at the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating mixers into the process, after watching everyone’s favorite lazy bartender, Jamie Boudreau, wield a hand mixer at his Molecular Mixology session.
• Tiare at A Mountain of Crushed Ice also expressed great fondness for the Ramos Gin Fizz, but points out another concoction that has some relation to New Orleans: the Rum Julep, created by New Orleans native Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, better known as Don the Beachcomber. Thanks, Tiare, for keeping the New Orleans tiki connection alive.
• Seamus at Bunnyhugs — also known as the blogger who traveled the greatest distance to come to Tales of the Cocktail — also ponders the Ramos Gin Fizz, and his unsuccessful attempt to find a good one while visiting New Orleans. Seamus finishes with a few points on how to make a version of this classic drink better than the ones he was served during his visit.
• Marshall and SeanMike, our hosts for last month’s MxMo: Bourbon blowout over at Scofflaw’s Den provided a slew of drinks to work through. These initially included the Coffee Cocktail and the Vieux Carre, but then when the deadline was extended they came along with another round, consisting of the Brandy Crusta and the aforementioned Ramos Gin Fizz. And while they couldn’t make it to New Orleans for Tales this year, the Scofflaws deserve a special award for their creative garnish on the Ramos Gin Fizz.
• Did I say Vieux Carre? Well, plenty of participants did — this concoction that originated at the Hotel Monteleone in the 1930s was Darcy’s chosen cocktail for the week, and he mixes one up for himself (and us) over at Art of Drink.
• Erik at Underhill Lounge also takes the Vieux Carre for a spin, starting with the classic rye-and-cognac version before moving on to one with Martinique rhum and apple brandy, and finishing with a single-malt scotch and Calvados variation that he describes as “a disaster”, yet “salvageable”.
• Erik’s not the only one screwin’ around with the classic recipe; Jeffrey Morgenthaler sees the need to put up two posts on his twiddling of the New Orleans classic, a path that leads him to the Strega-laced Autumn Leaves.
• And while we’re playing with the classics, Chuck Taggart — aka the guy who determined the dining habits for dozens (if not more) Tales visitors — swoons over H.’s interpretation of the venerable milk punch, the Milk Punch Named Desire. And since Chuck is always up for a second round, he also posts the story about coming across the Mother-in-Law Cocktail.
• Over at Martini Talk, Christa goes more classic style with the Milk Punch, a New Orleans breakfast favorite.
• Our good friend Marleigh at SLOSHED! also hits the milk punch, lamenting that she was unable to enjoy one while in New Orleans for Tales (I hope you made up for it with other drinks, Marleigh), but once home, she puts a vegan spin on the drink using soymilk. But be warned — Marleigh has no fear of fortifying this creature, and uses healthy measures of brandy and dark rum to give it a little oomph.
• The mad scientists at Infusions of Grandeur missed New Orleans altogether, but made up for it by exploring the world of Crescent City cocktails, finally settling on the boullion-and-Tabasco-fuelled Creole, substituting bacon-infused vodka for the boullion. Verdict? “Nowhere near as bad as I’d feared,” writes Wayland, though Brendan uses terms like “odd taste sensation,” “very unsettling” and “unpleasant,” leading Wayland to agree that the finish tends to create “a bit of burning in the stomach lining.”
• Also going experimental was the Scribe at A Dram of Brine. After starting off with a review of the New Orleans-influenced Maple Tree Inn in Chicago, the Scribe turns attention to the Witch’s Broux, an original drink that takes the classic New Orleans roux as an ingredient, using it to thicken a beer syrup which is then mixed with rye whiskey and Peychaud’s bitters.
• After barely making it out of New Orleans thanks to those bitters-nabbin’ busybodies at the TSA, Kevin at Save the Drinkers comes up with the Bienville at Dawn, made with gin, cognac and absinthe, inspired no doubt by the things he’d consumed and the things he smelled of upon entering the hotel each morning after a long night out.
• Somehow, Michael at A Dash of Bitters made it to the sessions each day at Tales, and brought home two drink recipes he wanted to share: Sloppy Joe’s Mojito, from Phil Greene’s Hemingway session, and Paul Harrington’s modern-day classic Jasmine, from the Juniperlooza session. Michael’s a bit sensitive about the fact that he’s just now discovering the Jasmine, so whatever you do, don’t venture into the comments section and give him shit about it.
• Also at Juniperlooza: the Singapore Sling. Gabriel at Cocktail Nerd grabbed a snap of the sling while coining the term “ice porn”, then proceeds to take a walk down a boozy memory lane about the sling’s origins, and where it may have gone wrong.
• I somehow missed an introduction to the Tipsy Texan while in New Orleans, and that’s a shame; fortunately, said Texan brought home a comparison of the French 75 — those made with cognac, a la New Orleans, and the more prominent, gin-based style — before arriving at the peacemaking French Detente.
• Nothin’ says mornin’ in New Orleans — at least, boozy mornin’ in New Orleans — quite like the Absinthe Suissesse. Stevi at Ana Bolena perdió su cabeza also couldn’t make it to New Orleans this year, but inspired by Chuck’s post on Tales Blog, she decided to grab the bottle of Lucid and try one — scratch that, two — at home, all the while taking Chuck’s advice to avoid the variation of this drink that calls for creme de menthe.
• Totally ignoring Chuck’s advice in favor of a recipe from Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix Em, Craig at Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments — never the sort of guy to let a bout of gout get him down — dug right in with the CDM variation (green creme de menthe, at that) of the Absinthe Suissesse (the variation that also calls for dry vermouth) and pronounced it scrumptious, declaring it a perfect New Orleans mix of the sacred and the profane.
• Having problems settling on a drink? That’s not surprising — so why not do what Bruce did at WorldWide Drinks, and just have one of each? Bruce had to miss Tales this year, but from the amount of mixing he did — check out his Sazerac, Ramos Gin Fizz, Brandy Crusta, Pimm’s Cup and Vieux Carre — I’m sure it seemed like he was right there at the Carousel Bar, especially once the room started spinning.
• I saved my Cocktail Chronicles post for last in the roundup, but you should try the drinks sooner rather than later: I snagged recipes for the Bywater and the Accoutrement from Chris Hannah at Arnaud’s French 75, and these were two of the best drinks I had in New Orleans during a week full of them.

Good lord, that’s a lot of drinks! Thanks everybody for joining in, and if I missed you, let me know. And remember, for details about upcoming Mixology Mondays or information on how to participate, just head over to MxMo HQ and you’ll find all you need right there.

Tags: Mixology Monday by Paul
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I’d like to write about all the great drinks I enjoyed in New Orleans, but to be honest, after the first couple of Sazeracs everything started running together until, a week later, I boarded the flight home, still bleary eyed and happy and reeking only slightly of absinthe. God, I love New Orleans.

Before Tales of the Cocktail, I had the bright idea of hosting the Mixology Monday on the Monday following the event; then, it’d be easy enough to just slap together all the posts on drinks that bloggers were putting up at Tales Blog during the event, along with those from folks who couldn’t make it, and we’d all be done by the time the Tales hangover wore off.

Of course, I wasn’t counting on the royally uncooperative wi-fi at the Monteleone, and the sheer volume of events and distractions that kept me and a good majority of the other bloggers away from our computers until we were safely back at home. Somewhere around Thursday I realized that it was better to be out drinking and eating and talking and schmoozing than to be tapping at my keyboard, and while those of you who couldn’t come to New Orleans had to contend with a lull in posts, I can say with a good deal of certainty that I’m the better off for it.

Here’s proof. Before heading to New Orleans, I checked in with Chris Hannah at Arnaud’s French 75 bar to see when he’d be working. Chris has earned a reputation as one of the top bartenders in the city, and I couldn’t miss the chance to visit the French 75 — easily one of the most beautiful and historic bars in a city filled with them — while Chris was on duty. I dragged a contingent of booze geeks to the bar on Tuesday, the first night in town for most of us, but we just missed Chris (though we did have some great drinks in the beautiful bar). On Friday I had better luck, and fortunately had the mind to put my choice of drink in his hands. Here’s what he came back with:

Bywater, an original drink by Chris Hannah, Arnaud’s French 75 Bar, New Orleans

• 1 3/4 ounces Cruzan 5-year-old rum (Chris suggests the Cruzan Single Barrel as a suitable replacement)
• 3/4 ounce Amer Boudreau (housemade Amer Picon replica, using Jamie Boudreau’s recipe)
• 1/2 ounce Chartreuse (yellow, I’m assuming)
• 1/2 ounce Falernum (housemade, I’m guessing, using the recipe that ran in Imbibe last summer)

Stir with ice & strain into chilled cocktail glass.

The bar was humming during my visit, so I didn’t get much of a chance to chat with Chris, but he kindly provided this recipe. I’m assuming he used yellow Chartreuse, as the green has the habit of walloping both the drinker and the flavor of the cocktail, whereas the Bywater has a nice balance; and a housemade falernum made with fresh lime juice. I tried one of these at home using the Falernum #10 that I poured during the “Make Your Own Cocktail Ingredients” session; this version doesn’t call for fresh lime juice, and I found the drink needed just a little splash of acid to keep the sweetness in check. Though really, that’s kind of the beauty of this kind of drink, that uses not just one but two homemade ingredients: to position the flavors of the cocktail just so, you have the opportunity to not only adjust the levels of each ingredient, but to tinker with the flavors of the ingredients themselves to custom-craft a good drink, as Chris masterfully did with the Bywater.

The drink takes two divergent but not dischordant courses: first, you have a very gentle, vanilla-ey rum paired with the island-punch sweetener falernum; but then, you introduce two very complex and very resonant French (or French-style) ingredients, that introduce high bitter-orange notes and a mid-range light bitterness, with the elaborate floral and herbal characteristics of the Chartreuse.

The cocktail is named, of course, for the Bywater neighborhood in New Orleans, part of the Ninth Ward. I figured plenty of folks would be coming to this month’s MxMo armed with Ramos fizzes and Sazeracs, and I wanted to have a fantastic contemporary cocktail with strong New Orleans roots. The Bywater certainly fits the bill.

And since many of this month’s participants seem to be taking the Tales-style two-fisted approach with their entries, I should follow suit with the cocktail Chris poured me after I polished off my Bywater. This time, rather than try to explain it in a crowded, noisy bar, Chris simply handed me a copy of the Food & Wine Cocktails 2008 book, which includes this original recipe:

Accoutrement

• 2 ounces Calvados
• 3/4 ounce Strega
• 1/2 ounce Creole Shrubb
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Shake well with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass; garnish with brandied cherries.

Between the Calvados and the Creole Shrubb, I was hooked. Calvados makes some incredibly complex and evocative cocktails, and the gentle spice of the Shrub and the Strega really make this an elegant drink.

I’ve had plenty of lackluster cocktails in New Orleans at previous Tales of the Cocktail; this year, the general level of quality was notably improved, but when I positioned myself at Chris Hannah’s bar and let him show me what he had, I was absolutely blown away. I know where I’m drinking next year.

I’ve lost count on how many bloggers have joined in this Mixology Monday; I know it’s huge, though, so keep an eye out for the roundup in the next couple of days.

Tags: Calvados, Drinks, Establishments, Falernum, Mixology Monday, Rum by Paul
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Tales of the Cocktail is a much different experience when you find yourself on the other side of the presenters table. Instead of just freewheeling it around like you’ve done on other days, you actually find yourself in work mode, busy and slightly stressed, and stone-cold sober (or close to it) at an event dedicated to booze.

Like last year, I worked two panels at Tales this year: the first, on Friday, was “Cocktails With a Kick: Absinthe Returns to America,” and the second, on Saturday, was “Making Your Own Cocktail Ingredients.” And despite an assortment of unexpected challenges ranging from a chronic and near-catastrophic shortage of bartenders and drink-mixing equipment to the sudden loss, and then regain, of a panelist, from where I sat — up in front of packed, 150+ crowds for both sessions — they both came off pretty well.

It’s safe to say I prepared more for the absinthe session — no wonder, I had a 30+ slide presentation on vintage absinthe cocktails, along with details from old humor books and morality missives that I thought worked well with the idea of historic absinthe cocktails. For this session I had the great fortune to be paired with co-moderator Gwydion Stone, of the Wormwood Society and Marteau Absinthe, and to be joined by Jim Meehan, general manager at PDT in New York. Gwydion set the stage by talking about absinthe as a spirit, and its distinctiveness as a category, and Jim followed my presentation with a look forward, at how we can move forward with new absinthes coming on the market.

The session hit some problems about an hour before we went on; due to a shortage in personnel, it turned out we had nobody to mix drinks for the crowd, so we began cutting drinks from the list, and at one point Jim told me I had the choice of mixing drinks or talking. Fortunately, though, he managed to wrangle two fantastic bartenders from Los Angeles to man the kitchen, and he spent the better part of the session getting drinks out to attendees. For my part, I lost my place a couple of times during my presentation, plus I realized at one point that I was speeding through and would be done in much less than my allotted time, so I may have wandered a bit while trying to fill up space, but I managed to not break down and start babbling like an idiot before I finished my Powerpoint.

The “Making Your Own Ingredients” session faced many of the same challenges, but fortunately this time I knew they were coming: initially we had no staff to mix drinks, so I recruited volunteers before discovering that we didn’t even have basic things like cocktail shakers to use. Fortunately I had a lot of support, so the panel participants batched their own drinks, Daniel from PDT stepped in to mix, and we recruited Keith Waldbauer and Zane Harris to help him get drinks out to the crowd; up front, Heather (Tiki Mama) volunteered her services to pour Tequila por mi Amante, falernum, orgeat and bourbon for everyone.

Complicating matters further, one of the panelists, John Deragon from PDT, was participating in the Cocktail Apprentice program, and about an hour before the session he realized he wouldn’t be able to participate. He arranged for Daniel to fill in in the kitchen plus talk about the bar’s fat-washed bacon bourbon, and recruited Robert Hess to step in and talk about Abbot’s bitters. Crisis just barely averted and with the panel running on rims, we had to just dive in and see what happened — fortunately, the nervous energy translated into a really lively session, and panelists Erik Ellestad and Jamie Boudreau had some fantastic drinks and some good pacing to keep things moving along. Just an hour before the session I was convinced it was headed for disaster, but somehow — SOMEHOW — it came together great. And to top it all, by the last 15 minutes John Deragon was able to tear himself away from the pastry kitchen, and before the bloodhounds could find his trail, he was able to talk about his fantastic recreation of Abbot’s bitters that we served earlier in a 50-50 Manhattan.

That’s my perspective, anyway — I dunno, maybe from where you were sitting we looked like a bunch of idiots. Anyway, if you were at one or both of the sessions, thanks for coming and I hope you enjoyed the drinks; and if you weren’t there, then … I guess we’ll see you next year.

Tags: Events by Paul
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Since virtually all of the 30-someodd cocktail bloggers who made it to Tales of the Cocktail are still in transit on their way home (me, Blair, Craig, et al) or are showing up bleary-eyed at their day jobs after a week of revelry (Jeffrey, Rick, Erik, et al), it doesn’t look like many of us are going to make today’s deadline for posting a New Orleans drink. So, I’m pushing back the deadline one week, to July 28. Details on this month’s theme is here; I’m hosting, so stick the URL of your submission in the comments section of the announcement post, and I’ll get a roundup posted in the following day or so.

Tags: Mixology Monday by Paul
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Yesterday was the official Day One of Tales of the Cocktail, and the headline statement, uttered at a room party around 3 am by a very tipsy Bay Area bartender, capped the day properly. As did the invite to the room party: “I’ve got Antica, Sazerac, some homemade tonic syrup and that apricot liqueur from Haus Alpenz–you coming?”

I started the morning slow — as was fit, considering the way I’d ended Tuesday evening — but by noon, with a panel on Researching Drink Recipes and Collecting Cocktail Books, I was ready to go. New York bartender and consultant Jonathan Pogash led the panel through a discussion of how they utilize certain books and resources (Jerry Thomas is an obvious long-standing influence) to research new drinks for bar menus; even more up my alley was Brian Rea’s talk about collecting cocktail books. Rea, an 81-year-old bartender who at one point had amassed what’s likely the largest collection of drink books in the world, gave out his tips for the books to have and the antiquarian dealers to use for other collectors of these rare volumes. Rea also had the runner-up for quote of the day: “David Embury was a lousy tipper. I know, I used to serve him.”

After catching Lauren Clark’s great media panel, we headed over to the blog reception (”Welcome, Bolgers!”). After knowing many of these fine people online for a couple of years, it was magnificent to have them all come together at one time. We had some excellent Cabana Shrubbs prepared by Maxwell Britten, made with our sponsor, Cabana Cachaca, and while shifting event times and room changes made the start of the event a little slow, soon we had a really nice party going on.

Evening was for the Beefeater party, a wall-to-wall crush of people drinking Jasmines and Gin-Gin Mules; then, after a dinner of Shrimp & Grits backed by an Ojen Frappe at Luke, a group of us hit Bourbon Street, shying away from the crushing crowd at Arnaud’s in favor of absinthe frappes and sazeracs at the Old Absinthe House. A few go-rounds on the Carousel Bar set the stage for the room party of bartenders from both coasts, with Manhattans served over the drunken body of Camper English. But Camper’s a pro, and he concealed his inebriation much better than the other Bay Area bartender we encountered in the elevator.

Next: Tales of the Cocktail, the hangover edition!

Tags: Events by Paul
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