Picked up my copy at Booklarder in Seattle. It’s a romp. I keep getting Hendrick Van Loom energy from the history being imparted here. @davidwondrich.bsky.social I think have everyone id’ed on pages 38-39 and except the Sangaree guy, help me out.

“Talking with Patrick McGovern about liquor was like talking to an astronomer about the Big Bang.” A tribute to the man who saw ancient history in every sip.

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 615 contr @audreysaunders.bsky.social @davidwondrich.bsky.social salt is a mineral that, in cuisine and in mixed drinks, is not only a primary flavor in itself (along with sweet, sour, and bitter) but also an enhancer and modifier of other flavors.

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 762 contr Chad Solomon well or rail the stainless steel rack of liquor bottles kept directly below the bar. A “well drink” or “rail drink” is a mixed drink made with an inexpensive, generic liquor (the kind usually used in the well). #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 409 contr @libation-legacy.bsky.social kümmel herbal liqueur of southern Baltic origin, primarily flavored with caraway seed. Once a renowned ingredient in cocktails, punches, and drinks short and tall—most famously the Silver Bullet. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 104 contr Doug Frost bouquet describes aromas that develop as wine ages in the bottle. Spirits connoisseurs use the term to describe the creation of complex aromas during and after a spirit’s aging, particularly with cognac and brandy. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 762 contr unattr water-bath still modification of a standard pot still, often used for distilling cordials, in which a separate vessel is placed inside the water-filled still pot (similar, in principle, to a double boiler orbain-marie). #Cheers 🍸

Little Italy Audrey Saunders, Pegu Club, NY 2005 Stir with ice: 2 oz Rittenhouse 100-proof Bonded Rye 0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Vermouth Rosso 0.5 oz Cynar Strain into a coupe. Garnish with a cherry. from Robert Simonson’s Modern Classics of the Cocktail Renaissance app #Cheers 🍸

Little Italy Audrey Saunders, Pegu Club, NY 2005 Stir with ice: 2 oz Rittenhouse 100-proof Bonded Rye 0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Vermouth Rosso 0.5 oz Cynar Strain into a coupe. Garnish with a cherry. from Robert Simonson’s Modern Classics of the Cocktail Renaissance app #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 409 contr Jordan Mackay Kweichow Moutai (sometimes transcribed as Maotai) China’s most revered and expensive brand of baijiu, from the most valuable spirits company in the world. Most important expression is a sauce-aroma style baijiu. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 408 contr unattr Kräuterlikör the German term for herbal liqueurs, such as Jägermeister, usually served as a digestive. See also APERITIF and DIGESTIVE ; HERBAL LIQUEUR ; and GERMANY, SWITZERLAND , and AUSTRIA. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 411 contr Doug Frost lactones group of phenols derived from oak that create many aromas, flavors, and textures in barrel-aged spirits, including milky or coconut notes, vanilla, balsam, apricot, peach, leather, green walnuts and more. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 406 contr Philip Duff korenwijn deluxe version of oude-style genever, marketed in the Netherlands since WW II, not currently exported. Must be a minimum of 51% malt wine, 38% ABV and contain no more than 20 grams sugar/liter. #Cheers 🍸

Widow’s Twist Robert Simonson, 2022 @robertsimonson.bsky.social •2 ounces Laird’s bonded apple brandy •1/4 yellow Chartreuse •1/4 Benedictine •3/4 lime juice •1/4 simple syrup (2:1) Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, shake, strain into a chilled coupe.

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 414 contr St. John Frizell The Last Word pre-Prohibition-era cocktail, first appears 1916, published 45 years later in Ted Saucier’s racy cocktail book Bottom’s Up, revived by Murray Stenson during the renaissance. Four part symmetry #Cheers🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 406 contr Lauren Clark koji Japanese term for grain or other starchy material that has been treated with koji-kin, a mold used in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean culture to ferment soybeans and make alcoholic beverages. Seems like magic to me. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 415 contr Marcus Boon laudanum tincture of opium, principle uses medicinal, but also consumed with reckless abandon by a variety of people (including poets, politicians, and Popes) in the 19th century. Often consumed in cordial form. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 405 contr @davidwondrich.bsky.social The Knickerbocker (alias Knickerbocker Punch) a single-serving punch generally based on rum and orange curaçao, is one of the oldest American “fancy drinks” on record. First appears 1843. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 416 contr Fernando Castellon Lefeuvre, Émilie (1847-1891) published the first French book (1889) dedicated to mixing drinks in the American style and thus stands at the head of the long and fertile tradition of French cocktail books. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 404 contr Frederic Yarm Knickebein , or “knee bend,” is a German, and German American, variant of the Pousse Café involving an unbroken egg yolk taken in a regimented four-step process. First detailed by Leo Engel 1878. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 417 contr David Mahoney legs (or tears) refer to the trail of liquid left by a spirit on the inside of a glass when it is tilted or swirled. Used for visual assessment of a liquor. Thick, slow moving legs indicate greater viscosity. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 404 contr Kaspar Keller kirschwasser or kirsch diverse category of eau-de-vie distilled from cherries and their pits, from the German-speaking part of Europe. A base for Café Brûlot, and the signature Parisian drink, the Rose. #Cheers 🍸

Road trip

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 418 contr @davidwondrich.bsky.social Lewis bag modern term for the stout sack, usually made of canvas, used to hold ice so that it can be cracked with a bat or mallet. The best way of producing the finely cracked ice demanded for the Mint Julep #Cheers 🍸

Mai Tai (Trader Vic, 1944) lots of debate out there but I always come back to Jeff Berry’s version. 1 oz fresh lime juice ½ oz orange curaçao ¼ oz orgeat syrup ¼ oz sugar syrup 1 oz dark jamaican rum 1 oz aged martinique rum Shake well with plenty of crushed ice. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 402 contr Doug Frost ketone an organic compound characterized by a carbonyl group attached to alkyl or aryl groups. Some in Cognac believe ketones are partly responsible for many characteristic aromas of rancio in cognac. #Cheers 🍸

Fitzgerald Dale DeGroff, Rainbow Room, NYC 1994-1996 Shake with ice: 1.5 oz dry gin 1 oz simple syrup 0.75 oz lemon juice 2 dashes Angostura Bitters Strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with a slice of lemon. #Cheers

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 419 contr @dsandhaus.bsky.social light-aroma-style baijiu spirit made from sorghum. Traditionally fermented in pots below ground to maintain a steady temperature. Name refers to mildness of flavor rather than strength, often bottled at 60%ABV. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 402 contr Anna Archibald kao liang, kaoliang, or gaoliang type of strong, unflavored baijiu made by twice distilling sorghum that has been fermented with wheat qu and combining the distillations (gaoliang : Chinese word for sorghum). #Cheer 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 419 contr Doug Frost lignin a complex organic polymer that gives vascular plants their fibrous, woody character. Lignin is a major component of wood (between 15 and 35 percent of the dry material), supplying the material for… #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 401 contr @robertsimonson.bsky.social Kamikaze drink made of vodka, curaçao, and lime juice, usually the preserved kind. Was typically thrown back as a shot, though it would also be served as often as a cocktail. Progenitor of the Cosmopolitan #Cheers🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 419 cont Rebecca Rothbaum limoncello a lemon liqueur traditionally produced in Southern Italy, especially along the Sorrentine Peninsula. 1990s. The recipe: lemon peel, free of pith, steeped in neutral spirit, and sweetened with sugar. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 125 contr Chad Solomon call drink a mixed drink made with a specified brand of liquor “called” for by the guest, instead of allowing the bartender to use the house’s standard “well” or “rail” brand. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 129 contr David Mahoney cane-based spirits a far-flung family of distillates made from any of the several species of Saccharum, the perennial grasses, commonly known as sugar cane, which thrive in tropical and subtropical climates. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 401 contr David Mahoney Kahlúa world’s most popular coffee liqueur, made in Mexico since 1936 from coffee, distillate of sugar cane, all grown in Veracruz, as well as rum, vanilla, and caramel. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 420 contr @maxwatman.bsky.social Lincoln County process method of filtering new whiskey through hardwood charcoal—typically maple—before it is put in the barrel. Associated with Tennessee whiskey. Grants the aging of whiskey a head start. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 123 contr @davidwondrich.bsky.social The Caipirinha Brazilian mix of cachaça, sugar, ice, and muddled pieces of lime (and often other fruits), the most famous member of a large, native class of mixed drinks, the batidas.

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 130 contr @wcurtis.bsky.social cane syrup “partially evaporated sugar cane juice. It ranges in color from light amber, resembling grade A maple syrup, to a deep brown-black, not unlike thick molasses.” #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 401 contr @davidwondrich.bsky.social kachasu native spirit of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is primarily made from malted maize and sugar; usually single distilled in pot-stills of local design. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 421 contr unattr liqueurs spirits that have been flavored and heavily sweetened. “Liqueur” was also formerly used as an adjective, attached to “brandy” or “whisky,” denoting that the spirit so described was old and rich. #Cheers 🍸

Nice tribute to Murray Stenson. youtu.be/twgdsW_W9Eg

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 117 contr @davidwondrich.bsky.social buchu Brandy and buchu gin two separate substances, buchu brandy involves infusing leaves of the South African buchu bush; buchu gin was an American drink that traded on the medicinal reputation of the herb. #Cheers

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 131 contr Derek Brown The Cape Codder mixed drink made with vodka, cranberry juice, and sometimes a lime wedge or lime juice and/or a splash of soda water. Enjoyed its greatest popularity during the “preppie” craze of the early 1980s. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 399 contr Audrey Saunders juniper small, bushy, coniferous shrub with short, prickly needles. Its “berries” (soft cones) are rich in monoterpene compounds which provide fresh, sweet, piney-camphorous notes. Essential for genever, gin #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 421 contr Sam Eilertsen Llul, Ramon (1232-1316) Catalan philosopher and theologian who made important contributions to the development of formal logic and Medieval lit. Often incorrectly described a pioneer of alcohol distillation. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails ph 116 cont Misty Kalkofen bubble test a visual method for calculating the percentage of alcohol in a distilled spirit by shaking the solution and evaluating the size of the resulting bubbles. Still used by some mezcal producers #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 131 contr unattr Capel still form of hybrid pot/column still used in Chile to make pisco. It combines a cylindrical pot, topped with a globular still head, with a rectifying column through which distillate may or may not be routed. #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 398 contr @davidwondrich.bsky.social julep or Mint Julep, with spirits, sugar, water, mint, and ice, is the oldest of the canonical American mixed drinks and is the recipe that more than any other spread the gospel of iced drinks in the country. #Cheers🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 421 contr Wayne Curtis loggerhead iron rod used in the making of flip, a popular colonial-era heated beverage. A tavern staple, the rod would be heated in the fire and inserted in a mug of flip (rum, beer and molasses). #Cheers 🍸

Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails pg 116 contr Reid Mitenbuler Brown-Forman one of the world’s biggest liquor companies, began its ascent during the 1870s, early success built on the sales of Old Forester. From 1956 bought and grew Jack Daniel’s to its current success. #Cheers 🍸