From El Draque to Mojito

In 1586 Sir Francis Drake sailed into to Havana Cuba. He was sent on a mission by the British Crown to the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean to plunder their gold. The reason he came to Cuba was another. His crew was suffering from scurvy and dysentery and they needed to find a remedy. The locals brought him Aguardiente (an early form of rum), lime, mint and cane juice, a concoction they started to call El Draque, the name they gave Sir Francis Drake. The drink did not however cure himself and Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery outside Panama in 1596.

The later name Mojito might have derived from the Cuban mojo, a sour citrus sauce made by African slaves.

This blend of alcohol, lime, mint and cane juice was most likely drunk by slaves on the Caribbean plantations to help with their own ailments long before Drake came to try it. But not until the American Prohibition when the American cocktail party moved to Cuba the drink started being served as a highball with soda and the Mojito as we now know it was born.

The highball glass was designed by Finnish glass designer Nanny Still in 1964 and is called Flindari.

Coffee and Baked Goodness

Time for the next exhibition at Nockeby Bageri. A series of illustrations of baked goods from Nockeby Bageri in the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden. The recipes are made by Håkan Johansson, master baker and the winner of Bakery Masters 2014 (The World Championship). The wonderful pastries and breads are mixed with classic Italian coffee in cups made by some great designers. The exhibition is ongoing and will be up during the month of April.

Being Cosmopolitan

When you can’t wait for the world to become more cosmopolitan yet again this is a good start.

The Cosmopolitan is said to have been invented in 1985 by Miami bartender Cheryl Cook at a South Beach bar called the Strand. Wanting to make a perfect cocktail for a Martini glass Cook used the Kamikaze as a base, changed the regular vodka to citrus-flavored vodka and added a splash of cranberry juice.

Others believe it was first invented by Toby Cecchini in 1988 when he was working at New York’s Odeon. Cecchini used Absolut Citron, the second of the range of flavored vodkas from Absolut and released in 1988, and made it a big hit in the New York bar scene. With the help of the characters in Sex and the City, where the Cosmo was almost an essential part of the plot, the Cosmopolitan turned into a modern classic.

The glass is called Margot and was designed by Felicia Ferrone in 2013.

Cosmopolitan

2 parts lemon flavored vodka (preferably Absolut Citron)

1 part Cointreau

1 part lime juice

1 part cranberry juice

1 lemon twist

Shake ingredients with ice. Strain into cocktail glass and add a lemon twist.

Possibly the Best Way To Fight Scurvy

This is an old one. It was first published in The Bartender’s Guide by Jerry Thomas in 1862 but the concept of the sour was known and loved for over a century prior to that. During the 18th Century sea travel, especially from Europe to America, was an ordeal with malnutrition and scurvy taking its toll on the sailors. Thanks to Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon, The British Royal Navy started to mix lemon or lime with rum and water to stave off scurvy and so the sour was born, one of the oldest types of cocktails. From there it was only a matter of time before someone started to make a sour with American whiskey and made it what it is today.

The Whiskey Sour is traditionally made with whiskey, lemon juice, sugar and egg white, an ingredient that will smooth out the tartness of the lemon juice. Today the egg white is optional and you often find bars serving the Whiskey Sour without it.

On a side note, calling a spirit diluted with water a grog is also because of Vice-Admiral Vernon. He was known for wearing grogram coats giving him the nickname ”Old Grog”.

The glass called Dondolino was designed by Setsu & Shinobu Ito in 2016 and is painted using a technique with Japanese lacquer called Urushi, generally applied on wood.

Whiskey Sour

2 parts Whiskey

1 part Lemon juice

1/2 part Sugar syrup

1/2 Egg white

3–4 drops Angustura bitters

1 Maraschino cherry

Shake whiskey, lemon juice, sugar syrup and egg white without ice (dry shake). Add ice and shake again. Strain into glass and add 3–4 drops Angustura bitters. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

Waiting for Bond

If you are waiting for the next Bond movie there is something you can do to make the wait a little bit shorter. Make yourself a Vesper. Named after the fictional double agent Vesper Lynd by James Bond himself the cocktail was featured in Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first book about the secret agent, published in 1953.

The instructions Bond gave to the bartender were “In a deep champagne goblet. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large slice of lemon peel.” The only problem making it today is that the bitter Kina Lillet was discontinued in 1969 so you have to substitute it either with Cocchi Americano to get the original bitterness or use Lillet Blanc and maybe add some bitters to the drink.

The glass, On the Rock, was designed by Lee Broom in 2014.

Vesper

3 parts Gordon’s gin

1 part vodka

1/2 part Lillet Blanc

1 lemon peel

Stir the ingredients with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Or if you are James Bond, shake it until ice cold and serve it in a deep champagne goblet.

A Mardi Gras Without the Parade

Nothing is as it used to be with the pandemic still raging around the world. The Mardi Gras parade is cancelled, the Carnevale di Venezia is online and the Carnevale in Rio is postponed indefinitely. What can you do to lighten the mood whilst waiting for the world to be vaccinated if not to make your own Sazerac and dream about celebrations to come.

The Sazerac is claimed to be the original cocktail was created in New Orleans in 1838 by an apothecary named Antoine Peychaud. He mixed up cognac, absinthe and his own herbal remedy he dubbed Peychaud's Bitters and served it in an egg shaped cup, in French called a coquetier. The Americans started calling the cup a cocktay and hence the word cocktail was born. The cognac Peychaud originally used was Sazerac de Forge & Fils but by 1870 the cognac was substituted for rye whiskey. In 2008 the Sazerac was voted New Orleans official cocktail.

The Revolution glass was designed by Felicia Ferrone in 2001.

Sazerac

1/4 part Absinthe of Herbsaint

1 sugar cube

2 daches Peychaud’s bitters

4 parts Cognac or Rye Whiskey

1 Lemon twist

Twirls Absinthe or Herbsaint to cover the inside of the glass, then discard. Muddle sugar and bitters. Stir sugar, bitters and Cognac or Rye with ice. Garnish with a lemon twist.

What Is A Sidecar?

As often with old classic cocktails there are many different stories about the origin. The Sidecar, possibly the most famous of the cognac cocktails, is no different. The two most common stories both involve an army captain arriving to a bar in the sidecar of a motorcycle sometime during World War I. The bartender mixing the first Sidecar was either Harry MacElhone at the famous Harry’s New York Bar in Paris or Pat MacGarry, bartender at the Buck’s Club in London and inventor of the Buck’s Fizz. However Harry MacElhone himself gave MacGarry credit for the cocktail in his book ”Barflies and Cocktails” from 1927.

Another explanation for the name is that it rather derives from a bartending term for the leftovers in the shaker after pouring the drink. This is poured into a shot glass and served alongside the cocktail and is called the ”sidecar”.

The cocktail was first published in two books in 1922, “Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails” by Harry MacElhone and “Cocktails and How to Mix Them” by Robert Vermeire. Both original recipes calls for equal parts Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice but as time passed the ratios have been altered to two parts Cognac, one part Cointreau and one part lemon juice.

The silver cocktail glass is called Millennium and was designed in 2000 by Lella & Massimo Vignelli.

Sidecar

2 parts Cognac

1 part Cointreau

1 part Lemon juice

Shake ingredients with ice. Strain into chilled glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Pisco Sour Day on Saturday February 6

The Pisco Sour is said to have bean created by Victor Vaughen Morris, an American expat who moved to Peru to work for the Cerro de Pasco Railroad. According to legend he ran out of whiskey when he was to make 5,000 Whiskey Sours to celebrate the inauguration of a new railway line. He found the solution in substituting the whiskey for pisco.

In 1916 Morris left the railway business and moved to Lima to open his own bar, simply called Morris’s Bar. One of his bartenders Mario Alfonso Bruijet Burgos added bitters to the cocktail making it what it is today.

That said, a cookbook called ”Nuevo Manual de Cocina a la Criolla”, published in Lima in 1903, presented a cocktail with all the same ingredients save bitters. That means the cocktail was clearly already around when Victor Morris moved from Salt Lake City to Peru in 1903.

The Pisco Sour is so celebrated it even has its own day. Pisco Sour Day is celebrated on the first Saturday of February.

The glass is called Fabulös (Fabulous in English) and was designed by Gunnel Sahlin in 2009.

Pisco Sour

2 parts Pisco

1 part Lime juice

1/2 part Sugar syrup

1/2 Egg white

Shake Pisco, lime juice, sugar syrup and egg white without ice (dry shake). Add ice and shake again. Strain into glass and add three to five drops of Angustura bitters.

Finally We're In Mexico

Reading through classic cocktail books you won’t find that many tequila-based concoctions but this is a classic, the Margarita. The Margarita is basically a tequila-based Daisy, a type of cocktail made with spirit + usually orange liqueur + lemon or lime juice. As it happens the Spanish word for Daisy is Margarita. The first mention of the Tequila Daisy was in 1936 when the editor of the Moville Mail told the story of trying the drink in a saloon in Tijuana where it was first made by mistake when the barman reached for the wrong bottle when making a Daisy.

A fun fact is that cocktail with the exact proportions of a Margarita but with the name Picador was included in the British Café Royal Cocktail Book by William J. Tarling in 1937 meaning the famed cocktail might actually be a British invention.

The first time the cocktail was seen in print and called Margarita was not until 1953 when it was published in Esquire magazine.

Their are lots of other claims to the origins of the Margarita. For example that it was first concocted by Carlos (Danny) Herrera in 1938 at his Rancho La Gloria bar in Rosarito, Mexico for a showgirl called Marjorie King. King was allergic to all alcohol except tequila, but didn’t like to drink the stuff straight. 

Or that it was named for actress Rita Hayworth, who was offered one by an admiring bartender during a theater job in Tijuana in the 1940s. (Hayworth’s real name was Margarita Cansino.) 

Whatever the origin though, this is one amazing cocktail.

The glass called Sultan was designed by Nanny Still in 1966.

Margarita

2 parts Tequila

1 part Cointreau

1 part lime juice

Rub the rim of the glass with lime and dip it in salt. Shake ingredients with ice. Strain into glass and garnish with a lime wedge.

The Perfect Brunch Cocktail – Mimosa

Whether you go straight for the eggs benedict, the huevos rancheros, the chicken waffles or a short stack it is hard to imagine a brunch without a Mimosa or two.

The Mimosa, essentially a fruitier Buck’s Fizz, was created in 1925 by a bartender called Frank Meier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. (Buck’s Fizz was first made in 1921 at the Buck’s Club in London). The Mimosa calls for equal measures of Champagne and freshly squeezed orange juice served over ice whilst the Buck’s Fizz uses 1 part orange juice to 2 parts Champagne without the ice.

Some suggest the Mimosa was first made in San Francisco in the 1940’s by none other than Sir Alfred Hitchcock. A story that isn’t very likely since it first appeared in Frank Meier’s own cocktail book ”Artistry of Mixing Drinks” in 1936. That said Hitchcock did make the Mimosa popular in the US making it the brunch cocktail we know and love.

The Smoke Champagne glass was designed by Joe Colombo in 1964.

Mimosa

2 parts Champagne

2 parts orange juice

Pour half the Champagne into ice-filled glass. Then pour the orange juice and finally the rest of the Champagne. Stir gently. Garnish with a half orange wheel.

The missing link

The Martinez is said to be the missing link between the Manhattan and the Martini just as Lucy is the missing link between the apes and the Homo sapiens. It first appeared 1884 in OH Byron’s Modern Bartender’s Guide. A few years later in 1887 the legendary bartender Jerry Thomas made the recipe into what it is today. The story goes that Thomas made it for a customer traveling to the city of Martinez, California. To make this classic it is preferable to use Old Tom gin, a type of gin that is something in between Dutch genever and London dry gin.

The Coupe glass was designed by Felicia Ferrone in 2018.

Martinez

3 parts Old Tom gin

3 parts red Vermouth (for instance Punt e Mes)

1/2 part Maraschino

2 dashes Angustura bitters

2 dashes orange bitters

1 orange twist for garnish

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist.

November exhibition

During the gloomy month of November eight of the cocktail collection prints are exhibited at Nockeby Bageri in Stockholm. Take some time to enjoy their amazing baked goods while you learn how to make some great cocktails and drinks.

Post presidential debate

This just might be exactly what you need after the first presidential debate for the 2020 US election. Something actually presidential.

One of the origin stories of El Presidente is that it was created by the American bartender Eddie Woelke who worked at the Jockey Club in Havanna during the Prohibition. He made it in honor of Mario García Menocal, president of Cuba from 1913 to 1921. It was originally made with equal parts rum, French vermouth and a bar spoon of grenadine. Legend has it that when president Gerardo Machado took over in 1925 he demanded his own version and so a bar spoon of Curaçao was added to the cocktail.

The glass was designed by Misa Tanaka in 2009 and is a combination of glass and ceramics.

El Presidente

2 parts gold rum

1 part French Vermouth

1 bar spoon grenadine

1 bar spoon Curaçao

Stir with ice and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Venice International Film Festival

Nothing is as it used to be. Not even the 77th edition of the International Film Festival in Venice. But if you can’t take part you can at least make yourself a Venetian cocktail.

The Bellini was created in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani at the world famous Harry’s Bar in Venice. The drink was named Bellini because its pink color reminded him of the toga of a saint in a painting by 15th-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini. The Jellies Family Flute was designed by Patricia Urquiola in 2014 for Kartell.

Bellini

1 part white peach purée

2 parts prosecco

1 wedge of white peach

Pour the white peach purée into the glass. Slowly top with Prosecco and stir gently. Garnish with a wedge of white peach.

Let's go simple

Sometime’s a cocktail should be simple, really simple. Nothing is easier than the Milano-Torino. Originally made in 1932 to celebrate the inauguration of a highway between Milan and Turin and thus having one ingredient from Milan (Campari) and one from Turin (Punt e Mes). The glass is designed by Agustina Bottoni in 2018 as a tribute to Milanese architecture.

Milano-Torino

1 part Campari

1 part Punt e Mes

1/2 orange wheel

Build over ice and stir gently. Garnish with a half orange wheel.

French Cocktail Hour

The French “75” is an early 20th Century drink that is actually named after the French 75-mm field gun used during WWI. Shaken, strained and served in the Paro glass, designed by Achille Castiglioni in 1983. Enjoy!

French “75”

2 parts gin

1 part lemon juice

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Champagne

Shake gin, lemon juice and sugar well with ice. Strain into chilled glass and top up with Champagne.

Amazing Islands

The first three in a new series of illustrations of the most amazing islands from around the world showing the beautiful patterns of topographic lines.

Friday Daiquiri

The Daiquiri is pretty much as simple as it gets. Perfect if you are stuck at home, not being able to stock up your home bar. The only thing you need is a decent rum, lime and sugar. The Daiquiri was created by Jennings Stockton Cox, an American engineer working in Cuba at the turn of the 20th Century. Here it is served in Russel Wright’s Pinch glass designed in 1950. More cocktail recipe posters are found here.

Daiquiri (as served at the Stork Club in NYC)

3 parts Rum

2 parts lime juice

1 teaspoon sugar

Shake well and strain into a well chilled glass.

A perfect drink for your Friday Zoom cocktail hour

Here is a great recipe for a Zoom cocktail hour, the classic Satan’s Whiskers. It looks advanced, meaning everyone will be impressed, but is actually quite easy to make. If you don’t have all ingredients in your home bar, check our other cocktail recipe posters here.

Satan’s Whiskers

2 parts orange juice

2 parts gin

2 parts Italian vermouth

2 parts French vermouth

1 part Grand Marnier

1 part orange bitters

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. The one on illustration being Tapio Wirkkala’s Tapio, designed in 1954.

Stay safe!

1111 Lincoln Road

1111 Lincoln Road is an office, retail space, and parking garage all under one roof at the corner of Lincoln Road and Alton Road in the South Beach section of Miami Beach, Florida.

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron. It was completed in 2010.