Is it wrong that I look at this and think, Oh my god, the punches you could make!
A Dash of Bitters
A weblog detailing cocktails, spirits, liqueurs, barware, bars, and bitters. Maintained by Michael Dietsch, a writer and hobbyist mixer in Brooklyn.
Posts by author admin
How to Drink Like a Mad Man
Ad of the week: Heublein’s Club Cocktails
ZIPPITY ZOOMBA!
(“The Mandarin.” Iron Man villain, or sign of the times? This was 1938, after all.)
A detail from Mr. Crockett’s letter:
To learn more about Mister A. S. Crockett, here’s a great piece on Diffordsguide.
In Praise of Straight Whiskey
Sad news: Parker Beam has ALS
I must say that I was stunned into submission to learn that Parker Beam, the beloved and long-serving master distiller for Heaven Hill, has been diagnosed with ALS. It is a jarringly sober moment; solemn would not be an overstatement.
More here from Allen Katz.
Ad of the week: Hiram Walker gin
ZOOMA ZOOMA!
Life; February 21, 1938.
Love all the detail about the botanicals in the gin. A quick Google search isn’t turning up anything on Jimmy Corosu. The Peoria distillery closed in 1981; it now makes ethanol for ADM. Peoria, incidentally, was apparently once a powerhouse in whiskeymaking, with access to abundant crops of corn and barley. (This, incidentally, is why I keep up this ad project. I never know when a bit of research into a brand will uncover nuggets of cool booze history.)
Ad of the week: Calvert
Life; February 14, 1938.
Calvert is still around, still a blended whiskey. It’s reportedly 70% neutral grain spirit, and 30% straight whiskey — or as some folk like to say, it’s a whiskey-flavored vodka.
Ad of the week: Early Times
The whiskey that made Kentucky whiskies famous. Wait, that sounds familiar.
Life; February 7, 1938.
Early Times has a history dating back to 1860, when the first whiskey under this name was produced. Brown-Forman acquired it in 1923 and still owns the today. During Prohibition, BF marketed Early Times as a medicinal whiskey.
Today, the product is known as a “Kentucky whisky” (why they drop the e that’s traditional when describing American whiskeys is a question I can’t answer). It’s made the way bourbon is made, except that Early Times, today, is aged in used oak barrels. Straight bourbon, by law, must be aged in new oak barrels. New barrels impart more woody flavors into a distillate than do used barrels, and thus Early Times doesn’t taste as bourbony as bourbon should.
Early Times continued as a straight bourbon until the 1980s, and as of two years ago, a bourbon version is again marketed by Brown-Forman. The two products are now sold side-by-side; the bourbon is called Early Times 354.
Ad of the week: Monogram
I am also a leader in the low price field.
[Life; January 31, 1938]
Grand Centennial
Friday, Grand Central Terminal marks its 100th-anniversary with a grand celebration, and with that fête comes a bit of cocktail news.
First, some of the station’s vendors are offering 1913 pricing on some items. For example, a nickel will buy you a shoe shine, or six pennies will earn you a loaf of rye bread. But Michael Jordan’s Steak House in the main concourse is offering a 75¢ Adirondack cocktail, from its transit-themed cocktail menu.
Meanwhile, DNAinfo reports that for the 2013 price of $15, The Campbell Apartment offers a glass of Centennial Punch, a mix of papaya, pomegranate and lemon juices, plus Hendrick’s Gin, Sandeman Founder’s Reserve port, and champagne.
I’ll probably be at GCT tomorrow to enjoy some of the festivities, but I’ll have a baby strapped to my chest, so I don’t think I’ll partake in a libation.
