Cocktailians

Diary of a Tales Virgin, Part 1

I'm greatly enjoying my time at Tales of the Cocktail so far. Hotter than the hobs of Hades, as my friend Tizzie puts it, but it certainly feels goshdarned civilized to stroll down the sidewalk with a St. Germain cocktail clutched in one's paw. (The impending Tropical Storm Bonnie should at least dump some rain here. I think I'll stay inside the Hotel Monteleone, only leaving for medicinal Powerade refills and fried-oyster po'boys. We journalists suffer, I tell you.)

I've had excellent food at Green Goddess and the Acme Oyster House and Nola and the Old Coffee Pot so far. But how were the cocktails? My God, this place is amazing. Yesterday I had to pause and realize that I had to slow down and pace myself, because I was reaching the point where I had to pay attention to my consumption of free drinks or else lose my effectiveness for the day. It was 10am.

Thank goodness there is coffee available -- you just have to remember that spiking said coffee with Kahlua Especial is going to have an effect. But chalk up any sightings of green monkeys and man-sized celery stalks to the booze industry's promo folks, and not what's nestled in your tasting glass. (I'm proud of that link, by the way: my first CNN.com byline.)

More soon.

Drinky Linky: Girding My Liver for Tales Edition

A bunch of interesting shiznit from the Web, for your enjoyment and perusal:

• Eater tracks what it says are the big five cocktail trends of 2010. Really? A lot of these seem like they've been ongoing for a while;
• The NYT chronicles the cocktail scene in Copenhagen;
• while Budget Travel does likewise in LA;
• No prices on the drinks menu at the new T.G.I. Friday's in Union Square, apparently. Why on earth? Apparently it's classier that way. Yep. Classy. (Hmmm. Maybe I should bite the bullet and go review a Manhattan fern bar. Check out the flair!);
• Gayot.com names the top ten cocktails in the US. I think the Chartreuse Swizzle and the Last Tango In Modena sound especially good. (But someone tell those Vegas guys that you don't put club soda in a julep. Or sour mix.);
• Not strictly cocktail-related, but the French Culinary Institute is having a fundraiser today and tomorrow to benefit Gulf wildlife. Homemade bourbon butter pecan ice cream with fudge "tar balls" can be yours for just a fin;
• The Times' Frank Bruni goes in search of good Bloody Marys (not listed, but one of my favorites is at Enid's, with their house-infused pepper vodka. The Village Voice also recommends "Birth of Pain" mix, which sounds interesting.);
• The Voice also published a fun and wide-ranging interview with Cocktailians pal and bibulous boulevardier Damon Dyer...the man who brought the Angostura shot to NYC.
• Cocktailia posted a great interview with Blair "Trader Tiki" Reynolds about his line of syrups;
• Toby Cecchini offers an interesting recipe for an unsweetened rhubarb syrup that sounds like lots of fun. (I need to experiment more with my Fee's Rhubarb Bitters, too);
• Speaking of Fee's, they've just rolled out Cranberry Bitters;
• And speaking of bitters, Robert Simonson has a great article on unusual homemade bitters in Brooklyn;
• I hear great things from a friend of Cocktailians about Guy Rehorst's Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee. Their Citrus & Honey vodka was recently featured in the Trib;
• But salmon-flavored vodka? In a word, no;
• About.com brings us some more odd and disgusting-sounding drinks;
• I think it'd be fun to serve summery cocktails in cucumber cups -- they're a little small for Pimm's, but you could always break out the Hendrick's;
• The Boston Globe recommends some unusual summertime drinks;
• If the wine vending machine exists, surely an Automat Shot Dispenser can't be far behind;
• Ten tips for low-light cocktail photography;
• Metromix interviews Eben Freeman on his return to the NYC cocktail scene, kegged cocktails, and more;
• In a brace of interesting posts, Camper English asks if tequila is the new vodka, and offers some things to think about when evaluating tequilas;
• More on the white dog trend, from the Kansas City Star;
• And Robert Simonson points out that hibiscus is the next/new Big Thing (which is great; hibiscus is an interesting, piquant flavor. But: I'm in agreement that willy-nilly deployment of the fragrant flower will lead to overexposure);
• Oddly enough, the Times discovers that St. Germain is popular, some three years after its introduction and a year or two after it became truly ubiquitous;
• Serious Eats digs up some unusual non-alcoholic cocktails;
• And very much in the other direction, Painkiller is now offering $80 zombie bowls. Sounds deliciously lethal;
• Eatocracy wondered what drink to order on an airplane. We'd covered it a couple weeks ago, but @RuthBourdain on Twitter comes up with a truly unappetizing option;
• I want to go to Namibia and drink in these bars;
• My friend Dante did a nice interview with Daniel Okrent, author of a new book on Prohibition, for Forbes.com. (I interviewed Okrent a while back for a story on Prohibition and its repeal in NYC);
• And if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because I'm going to Tales of the Cocktail next week in New Orleans. What the steamy NoLa heat doesn't start, I'm sure the ethanol abuse will finish off. (I'm reading this guide to prepping for Tales with a delicious tingle of nervous anticipation.) Be kind to my liver, people!

Cocktails At 35,000 Feet

Being away from a quality bar -- whether a cocktailian boîte or your own home -- doesn't mean you can't have a well-crafted drink. For instance, most airlines will sell you a miniature liquor bottle and a mixer, and it's not hard at all to enjoy a rum and Coke, a gin and tonic, a Bloody Mary, a whiskey and soda, et cetera. But what if you want to move beyond the highball kingdom? It's not too hard to make yourself a good drink while aloft, provided you do a little prep.

I brought along a small kit with lemon wedges, Carpano Antica Formula sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters, an orange wheel, some homemade cocktail cherries, and an orange twist. I packed the citrus in individual zip-type plastic bags (pill-size and snack-size) and put the liquids in 12ml bottles from Muji. (The 1/8 oz. Tabasco bottles would work here, as would any kind of small vial-type bottle. I was just trying to keep everything below the 3oz. TSA limit.) This kit let me easily throw together a Tom Collins, an Old-Fashioned, and a Manhattan -- just cadge cups, ice, seltzer, and sugar from your friendly flight attendant (mine was greatly intrigued when she saw me shaking up the Tom Collins) and you're all set. A coffee cup set in a beverage cup made a pretty decent imitation of a Boston shaker, chopsticks from the airport Panda Express franchise did double duty as a muddler and a stirring spoon, and you can strain using two cups (Careful of the turbulence, now.)

You don't have to limit yourself to these three drinks, of course; Rob Roys and Whiskey Sours are easy with this particular kit as well. Substitute in some dry vermouth for sweet, and maybe add some orange bitters, and you can do Algonquins and Martinis. Orange bitters will also work in a Rob Roy. Bring along some lime wedges, and make Cuba Libres, Daiquiris, Gimlets, Moscow Mules, et cetera.

The key is not to think of it as an airplane; think of it as a very exclusive cocktail lounge that moves at 600 miles an hour, has its very own pair of designated drivers up front, and whose bouncers make you take off your shoes.

(Many thanks to Bari Dulberg for the camera work and to Damon Dyer for the conversation that suggested this topic.)