MAKE ME A COCKTAIL

The Alabama Slammer is a ’70s kind of tiki bar, umbrella-topped, sweet tasting cocktail immortalized by Brian (Tom Cruise), the Last Barman Poet in the movie “Cocktail”: “I see America drinking the fabulous cocktails I make / Americans getting stinky on something I stir or shake / the Sex on the Beach / the schnapps made from peach / the Velvet Hammer / the Alabama Slammer.” Legend has it that the Alabama Slammer was invented at the University of Alabama in 1975, although further details about the drink’s origin are [ .... ]

The classic cocktail is back, and it has tales to tell. Often, those tales include the storytellers themselves. Alcoholic concoctions are legendary in the literary life: “You’re a rummy, but no more than most good writers are,” Ernest Hemingway is said to have told F. Scott Fitzgerald. Readers who want to imbibe the heady lore, or learn to mix the drinks favoured by their favourites, will find plenty of inspiration in books about the art of the cocktail, whether they want to inhale a hot, steaming punch like Dickens, party [ .... ]

The White Russian is arguably one of the most famous cocktail recipes in the world, even among people that don’t consider themselves to be cocktail enthusiasts. Virtually everyone has at least heard of the vodka-based concoction, from people that are working in the liquor distribution industry all the way down to a college fraternity’s newest inductee. The drink has evolved quite a bit since the term “White Russian” was first coined in 1965, and there are a few unique ways to mix it. In each case, it’s possible to include [ .... ]

Everybody knows the name of their favourite cocktail. Many never give thought to how those special cocktails were created. Those drinks were created by someone at some time and now they are enjoyed by millions who are unknown to the creators of those drinks. The Tom Collins, Martini, Sangria, Sake Bomb and the Long Island Iced Tea are all in the class of rock star cocktails that have become staples at most every bar in the world. The reality is that anyone can create their own signature cocktail; all they [ .... ]

The Cosmopolitan, a stylish pink concoction in a martini glass, was the signature cocktail in the 1990s for Carrie Bradshaw and her “Sex and the City” friends. But before that, it was favoured by Madonna and other celebrities from South Beach to New York to San Francisco. In the 1960s, it was a recipe on Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice bottles, then called the Harpoon. Even further back, a drink that had the same name but very different round-the-world ingredients, thus the name, made the rounds in 1927. Many sources credit today’s [ .... ]

Cocktail competitions have their root in the late 19th century, when Jerry “the professor” Thomas mixed an original cocktail called the Blue Blazer. The professor drew patrons who wanted to view them poor fiery streams of boiling water and flaming whiskey. However, The 1st competition would have to wait until almost a half century later when the international bartenders Association, founded in 1951, initiated the World Classic Cocktail competition in 1955 and a World Flair Competition in 2000. At the end of 1986, T.G.I. Friday hosted the 1st national flair [ .... ]