12What to Drink Before and After Dinner: Aperitifs and Digestifs
13The Green Fairy: All About Absinthe
14An Essential Ingredient: Bitters
15What Exactly Is a Cocktail Mixer? A Guide to Making Your Own
16The Jewelry of the Drink: Cocktail Garnishes
17On the Rocks: A Brief History of Ice for Cocktails
18Bar Hopping: Famous Cocktails from Around the Globe
20Look it Up: The Best Online Cocktail Sources
21Behind the Bar: The Fifteen Most Influential American Bartenders
22Changing the Way We Drink: Craft Bars
23Serving Cocktails: A Guide to Cocktail Vessels
24Tools of the Trade: The Essential Cocktail Bar Tools
25Neat or Straight Up: Getting Familiar with Drink-Making Terms
26Rules to Drink By: Bar Etiquette
27Trending: What Influences Our Imbibing
28Cocktails in Film: The 1930s to the 2010s
29Cocktails in Literature: From Shakespeare to Today
30Cocktails in Television: The 1950s to the 2010s
31Name Your Poison: Cocktails and Alcohol Celebrities Drink
32Neighborhood Watering Holes: Historic Bars Around the World
In her inimitable fashion, Miss Charming, the bartender who is considered by many, myself included, to be the ultimate Queen of the New Orleans Cocktail Scene, has delivered yet another fabulous book, chock-full of all manner of cocktailian splendor. And this one’s a doozy!
The world of cocktails flows with fascinating trivia, incredible folklore, accurate historical stories, some tall tales, and lots of straight, hard facts. I believe that Cheryl Charming has detailed near-as-darn-it every single one of these pearls of liquid wisdom in this tome. Skim through it for a few minutes and see how much time passes before you can even dream of putting it down.
Who else would describe garnishes as jewelry for cocktails? Nobody. That’s who. It’s part of Cheryl’s unique style, and it’s part of what makes her stand out in any crowd of cocktail aficionados.
You’ll find, too, that Cheryl goes the whole nine yards when it comes to research. Fancy a Ramos Gin Fizz, for instance? You’ll find that a certain Henry Charles “Carl” Ramos invented the drink in 1888 and his bar went through an incredible 5,000 eggs every week to keep up with demand for the drink.
But Cheryl doesn’t stop there. Read on and she’ll tell you where to get the best Ramos Gin Fizzes in New Orleans today, and I wasn’t surprised to see that Bourbon O Bar, where Miss Charming struts her stuff, is one of them. I’ve had a Ramos Gin Fizz at the Bourbon “O” Bar. It was sublime.
This book will walk you through drinking scenes from movies, books, and television. As you start this literary bar crawl you might want to keep in mind that Cheryl has also provided a guide to historic bars around the world here, so a literal bar crawl could be in your future too. How about starting off in Dublin at the bar where Oscar Wilde once worked? You’ll find it in here.
When was the first golden age of the cocktail? Which family has been producing fine apple brandy in New Jersey since the late 1600s? When were cocktails first served on an aircraft? (Far earlier than you’re thinking.) Where can you find a cocktail that incorporates crushed Mexican black ants? Which cocktail should be shaken to the rhythm of the Foxtrot?
All this and more will be revealed to you in this great book.
And buyer beware: if you loan this book to a friend, you might never see it again.
gaz regan
Step Up to the Bar: An Alcohol Timeline
No one knows the exact date when cocktails started, but through archeological findings, it is assumed that humans have been mixing ingredients together to create tasty beverages for themselves for 10,000 years because that is when domestic agriculture began—and if you believe in the Lost Continent then it goes back even further. Mead (made from honey), ale (beer), and wine (made from fruit) are the most common alcoholic drinks found in ancient civilizations, so it is also assumed that these ingredients were mixed together to create honey-flavored beverages. In addition, it is imagined that herbs and spices were thrown in to infuse more flavor, and possibly steeped medicinal herbs were used on occasion. Social drinking has been part of every culture in some form and with time, people began to travel (for various reasons) and needed shelter, so humble inns along their path provided temporary housing, food, and drink—the same basic amenities modern hotels provide today. Public houses (pubs) were built in towns and served as “information hubs” where you learned of current events, gossiped, complained about the weather, flirted, told stories, and, of course, drank. Things pretty much remained the same for hundreds of years.
There have been many theories of where the word “cocktail” came from. Some include an Aztec princess, an Ancient Roman doctor who called a favorite drink cockwine, a New Orleans French egg cup, Cock Ale Punch that was actually made with a whole rooster and ale (ick!), a gingerroot suppository for a non-spirited horse, and a tavern keeper who put rooster tail feathers in soldiers’ drinks (cock-tail).
The first known reference to the Asian spirit “arrack” was by traveling merchants in the 1200s. In the 1300s the word “aqua vitae” (“water of life”) was coined and Armagnac and Scotch whisky were being produced in the 1400s. But the first record of a spirit (an early rum) being mixed with three other ingredients in bulk was for ill sailors in the 1500s. Between the 1600s and 1800s, communal drinks were served in big bowls—with cups for