The Spirit World

This classic recipe for preserving the short seasoned-yet-delicious raspberry comes from The Vintner’s, Brewer’s, Spirit Merchant’s and Licensed Victualler’s Guide (1826), but looking through old housekeeping or inkeeping instructional manuals, it seems to be a pretty standard one. The result is a sort of brightly-flavored brandy cordial, as opposed to a dry fruit brandy or […]

Today we visit another one of Leo Engel’s “specialties.” Perhaps you remember the Girard Flip from his American and Other Drinks (1878) Crazy ol’ Leo advises us to
Fill up a sherry wine glass two-thirds full of Maraschino, yellow Chartreuse, Kummel in equal proportions, and one dash of Kirschenwasser. Having done this, add the white of […]

For classic cocktail fans like me, Crème Yvette is one of the many ingredients we wish we could find. It’s been defunct in the U.S. since the late 1960’s or so, when Charles Jacquin et Cie stopped production. Thankfully, we have other violette liqueur options to use now, but almost no one has tasted the […]

These days, cocktail folks the world over are brushing the cobwebs off classic cocktails and returning them to circulation. Their digging into dusty drink books of yore have given us such delicious new-old hits as The Last Word, The Aviation, and The Clover Club, just to name three. Research in this area surely continues, to […]

Each year, and with fairly little fanfare, there is a fairly exhaustive spirits judging that takes place in San Francisco. Anthony Dias Blue is the founder of the competition, which saw its eighth year in operation when it held its 2008 judging in mid March.
There were 847 products submitted, across 439 different brand classifications. Judging […]