Category: books
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The History of Grenadine Use in Cocktails: Literature Review
When was grenadine first used in cocktails? I thought this would be a simple question to answer, but not so much. Along the way to figuring this out, I've had to split up this one blog post into several. First we'll look at the cocktail books from 1862 – 1930 and see where grenadine is…
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Irish Whiskey History
I recently read the book Irish Whiskey: A 1000 Year Tradition, which is no longer in print but still available. It was originally published in 1980 and most recently reprinted in 1998. A lot has happened since then, but this book has some good historical information. Here are some facts and assertions from the book.…
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A Thousand Year Old Drunken Regret Letter
For my book club I read the book Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk. It's about European explorers finding and raiding the artwork of abandonded and sand-buried cities along the silk road. In a chapter on finding a hidden library of ancient scrolls at Tun-huang, the author notes (page 175) that they found "a…
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History of the El Diablo Cocktail in Trader Vic’s Books
I was trying to find the first reference to the El Diablo cocktail recently. Mexican El Diablo 1/2 lime 1 ounce tequila 1/2 crème de cassis Ginger Ale Squeeze lime juice into a 10-ounce glass; drop in spent shell. Add ice cubes, tequila, and crème de cassis. Fill glass with ginger ale. Searching the web,…
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The Intercontinental Cocktails of Charles H. Baker
I wrote a story in this weekend's San Francisco Chronicle about Charles H. Baker's cocktails and their popularity, centering around the program at Heaven's Dog in San Francisco. "A hazy memory of a night in Havana during the unpleasantnesses of 1933, when each swallow was punctuated with bombs going off on the Prado…" This line…
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The History of the Ice Trade
I recently finished reading The Frozen Water Trade: A True Story by Gavin Weightman. The book is the story of Frederic Tudor, whose wacky idea of cutting ice in winter from ponds in Massachusetts and selling it to people in warmer climates in the summer turned into a 100 year industry until refrigerated ice became…
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The Gentleman’s Companion’s Companion
The Gentleman's Companion by Charles H. Baker is one of the most entertaining historical cocktail books, if not always the most useful. It contains cocktail recipes gathered from Baker's travels around the world, but the best parts are the drink introductions and settings. Like this one: THE JAMAICAN BLACK STRIPE, another Heartener from that Tropical…