Texas Iced Tea – Original Recipe & History

Texas Iced Tea
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Texas Iced Tea

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

300

kcal
Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Texas Iced Tea.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Sweet and Sour Mix

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Orange Liqueur

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Vodka

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 White Rum

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Dry Gin

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Silver Tequila

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Rye Whiskey

  • 1.5 oz 1.5 Coca-Cola

Directions

  • Technique: Tiki Dirty Pour
  • Combine all ingredients, except for the soda, into a shaker with crushed ice.
  • Vigorously shake the shaker for 10 seconds.
  • Dirty pour the whole shaker into a glass. Crushed ice and all.
  • Top the drink off with soda.
  • Garnish:
  • Lemon wheel

Featured Video

What Does The Texas Iced Tea Taste Like?

The Texas Iced taste resembles the standard Long Island Iced Tea. It’s a bit boozier, but it’s not bad. The kind of whiskey used will make all the difference. Irish whiskey is fun because it adds a nice smokey flavor to it. Scotch differs depending on the manufacture and region, but softer, milder scotch is a miss. It just gets lost. Any smoother whiskeys, regardless of style, are pointless in this cocktail. Bourbon is toasted caramel flavors, but it too is a bit weak in the Texas Iced Tea. The best whiskey for a drink like this is rye.

The recipe I have provided uses Robert “Rosebud” Butt’s original Long Island recipe with the addition of 1 oz of rye whiskey. I don’t know if the original 1980s T.G.I. Friday’s recipe used rye, but I figured rye would be the best way for the whiskey to make a noticeable difference in such a sizeable boozy drink. Bourbon’s softer, sweeter flavor is a bit lost in the Texas Iced Tea, but rye’s more robust spicier flavor is more noticeable.

The History Of The Texas Iced Tea

The Texas Iced Tea was invented by T.G.I. Fridays in 1980 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its parent company Carlson. T.G.I. Fridays is often mistaken for inventing the Long Island Iced Tea, and while they didn’t, It is still one of the most popular drinks they sell. Although T.G.I. Fridays did create several popular variations. They made four variations: the Sparkling Iced Tea, the Long Beach Iced Tea, the Caribbean Iced Tea, and the Texas Iced Tea. The Sparkling Iced Tea replaced the Coca-Cola with champagne. The Long Beach Iced Tea replaced Coca-Cola with cranberry juice. The Caribbean Iced Tea used blue-orange liqueur instead of clear to give the drink a light green color and left out the Coke. And the Texas Ice Tea added an additional ounce of whiskey.

I understand this is supposed to be a vintage cocktail resource, and while T.G.I. Fridays is not seen as a high-end bar today, it once was. The first T.G.I. Fridays was opened in 1965 by Alan Stillman. Stillman lived on 63rd Street between First and York in New York and, while surrounded by single attractive working women, had a hard time meeting any. Alan liked to go out after work, and believe it or not, many bars in the 1960s still had policies that no women could enter unless they were with a man. Hell, women couldn’t have bank accounts until the 1960s, and it wasn’t the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 that women could get an account without a father or husband to manage it. But back to cocktails. Obviously, not every bar was like this, and some areas were more progressive than others, but there was still a culture of bars being too rough for single vulnerable women. Some high-end bars excluded single women, fearing their presence would distract business-minded men from making deals. Even though prohibition had helped lessen the stigma of women publicly drinking, it still took activists like Betty Friedan and others to fully break down these barriers. Alan Stillman also helped break down these barriers when he opened T.G.I. Fridays, one of the United States’ first singles bar. The original intent of T.G.I Fridays was to offer a welcoming environment that felt like home where single women and men could meet. Women didn’t need to come with a man to enter. They served high-end drinks and well-made American food. Stillman may have been looking to meet women, but he inadvertently helped bring down some of the social barriers American women faced.

Recipe Resources

Texas Iced Tea Article

Original Long Island Iced Tea Recipe

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Tokyo Iced Tea – Recipe & History

Tokyo Iced Tea
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Tokyo Iced Tea

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

300

kcal
Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Tokyo Iced Tea.

Ingredients

  • 1 oz 1 Lime Juice

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Dry Gin

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 White Rum

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Vodka

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Silver Tequila

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Melon Liqueur

  • 2 oz 2 Lemon-Lime Soda

Directions

  • Technique: Tiki Dirty Pour
  • Combine all ingredients, except for the soda, into a shaker with crushed ice.
  • Vigorously shake the shaker for 10 seconds.
  • Dirty pour the whole shaker into a glass. Crushed ice and all.
  • Top the drink off with soda.
  • Garnish:
  • Lemon wheel

Featured Video

What Does The Tokyo Iced Tea Taste Like?

The Tokyo Iced Tea taste like a melon-flavored adios. It’s boozy, but the sweetness is not overpowering. Using Midori instead of orange liqueur gives the drink a nice light melon flavor instead of the adios’s citrus-forward flavor. Highbrow cocktail drinkers may turn their noses up to a drink like the Tokyo Iced Tea, but it’s pretty good and worth a try if you like long Island’s or Adios cocktails.

The History Of The Tokyo Iced Tea.

Many sources I looked at guessed that the Tokyo Iced Tea was an invention at TGI Friday, but I could not find anything backing that up. Even those publications said they had no proof and that it was only a guess that TGI Fridays invented the Tokyo Iced Tea since they were famous for selling long Island variations in the 1980s. Although the Tokyo Iced Tea resembles the Adios Motherfucker more than the Long Island Iced Tea. The earliest reference to the Tokyo Iced Tea I could find comes from the 2002 book “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Asian Cooking.” The Recipe in that book is slightly different from the common one today as it uses raspberry liqueur instead of melon liqueur. The melon liqueur version we are used to today first appeared in the 2007 book “10,000 Drinks”. I also don’t believe there is anything Japanese or Asian about this cocktail. Searching for the cocktail in Japanese on google returned zero hits. The Long Island Iced Tea is well known in Japan, but not a single Japanese drink blog or cocktail website produced a single hit for Tokyo Iced Tea or anything resembling it.

Recipe Resources

Tokyo Iced Tea Article

Original Long Island Iced Tea Recipe

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Caribbean Iced Tea – Original Recipe & History

Caribbean iced tea
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Caribbean Iced Tea

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

300

kcal
Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Caribbean Iced Tea.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Sweet and Sour Mix

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Blue Orange Liqueur

  • 1 oz 1 Vodka

  • 1 oz 1 White Rum

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Gin

  • 1 oz 1 Silver Tequila

  • 1.5 oz 1.5 Lemon Lime Soda

Directions

  • Technique: Tiki Dirty Pour
  • Combine all ingredients, except for the soda, into a shaker with crushed ice.
  • Vigorously shake the shaker for 10 seconds.
  • Dirty pour the whole shaker into a glass. Crushed ice and all.
  • Top the drink off with soda.
  • Garnish:
  • Lemon wheel

Featured Video

What Does The Caribbean Iced Tea Taste Like?

Like the other Long Island Iced Tea variations, the Caribbean Iced Tea tastes similar but is a bit brighter and more citrusy. It lacks the earthy flavors cola gives to the typical Long Island. The cola flavor in a long island is mild, but removing it means the orange liqueur and sweet and sour are the primary flavors in a Caribbean Iced Tea. If you like booze but want something a bit brighter and citrusy, then the Caribbean Iced Tea is a pretty one to try.

The History Of The Caribbean Iced Tea

The Caribbean Iced Tea was invented by T.G.I. Fridays in 1980 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its parent company Carlson. T.G.I. Fridays is often mistaken for inventing the Long Island Iced Tea, and while they didn’t, It is still one of the most popular drinks they sell. Although T.G.I. Fridays did create several popular variations. They made four variations: the Sparkling Iced Tea, the Long Beach Iced Tea, the Caribbean Iced Tea, and the Texas Iced Tea. The Sparkling Iced Tea replaced the Coca-Cola with champagne. The Long Beach Iced Tea replaced Coca-Cola with cranberry juice. The Caribbean Iced Tea used blue-orange liqueur instead of clear to give the drink a light green color and left out the Coke. And the Texas Ice Tea added an additional ounce of whiskey. Not that I can prove this, but I have a feeling the Caribbean Iced Tea eventually evolves into the Adios Motherfucker. The Caribbean iced tea can firmly be dated to 1980, but the adios started to appear in the late 90s and early 2000s. The two share the same ingredients, and while some of the volumes are different, the two drinks are almost mirrored images of each other.

I understand this is supposed to be a vintage cocktail resource, and while T.G.I. Fridays is not seen as a high-end bar today, it once was. The first T.G.I. Fridays was opened in 1965 by Alan Stillman. Stillman lived on 63rd Street between First and York in New York and, while surrounded by single attractive working women, had a hard time meeting any. Alan liked to go out after work, and believe it or not, many bars in the 1960s still had policies that no women could enter unless they were with a man. Hell, women couldn’t have bank accounts until the 1960s, and it wasn’t the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 that women could get an account without a father or husband to manage it. But back to cocktails. Obviously, not every bar was like this, and some areas were more progressive than others, but there was still a culture of bars being too rough for single vulnerable women. Some high-end bars excluded single women, fearing their presence would distract business-minded men from making deals. Even though prohibition had helped lessen the stigma of women publicly drinking, it still took activists like Betty Friedan and others to fully break down these barriers. Alan Stillman also helped break down these barriers when he opened T.G.I. Fridays, one of the United States’ first singles bar. The original intent of T.G.I Fridays was to offer a welcoming environment that felt like home where single women and men could meet. Women didn’t need to come with a man to enter. They served high-end drinks and well-made American food. Stillman may have been looking to meet women, but he inadvertently helped bring down some of the social barriers American women faced.

Recipe Resources

Caribbean Iced Tea Article

Original Long Island Iced Tea Recipe

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Bees’ Knees – Original Recipe & History

Bees' Knees
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Bees’ Knees

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: French
Servings

1

servings
Calories

189

kcal
ABV

28%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the Bees’ Knees.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Lemon Juice

  • 1/3 oz 1/3 Honey Syrup

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Featured Video

History Of The Bees’ Knees Cocktail.

The Bees’ Knees was invented by Frank Meier while working at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. The recipe was first published in his 1936 book “The Artistry of Mixing Drinks.” His original recipe is.

“In Shaker: The juice of one-quarter lemon, a teaspoon of honey, one-half glass of Gin; shake well and serve”

From my experience, half a lime or lemon is typically around a 1/2 oz (15mLs), so a quarter would be 1/4 oz (7.5 mLs). Also, a wine glass measured out to 2 oz (60 mLs), so half is 1 oz (30 mLs). The only change I made is I doubled the recipe to make the drink just a tad bit bigger since the original recipe is small.

What Does The Bees’ Knees Taste Like?

The sweet and sour flavors of the bees’ knees are spot on—just the right amount of honey and lemon. The honey adds a nice earthy floral sweetness to the bright sour lemon flavor. The gin mixes nicely, bringing a dry herbal quality to the drink that compliments while not competing with the lemon or honey. I tried making this once with vodka, and it was nowhere near as good as gin. I’ve also made rye and bourbon variations of this cocktail that are very good too.

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Saturn – Original Recipe & History

Saturn
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Quick Step-By-Step Saturn Recipe Video

Saturn

5 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

224

kcal
ABV

20%

Total time

3

minutes

Make a Classic Saturn Cocktail

Ingredients

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Lemon Juice

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Passion Fruit Syrup

  • 1/3 oz 1/3 Falernum

  • 1/3 oz 1/3 Orgeat

  • 1.5 oz 1.5 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Blended
  • Combine all ingredients into a blender with a single scoop of ice cubes.
  • Blend on low for 10 seconds or till the ice is mostly pulverized. Now blend on high for 5-10 seconds to completely crush the ice and turn the drink into a slushy texture. Pour into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Long lemon peel circling a cherry

Recipe Video

The History Of The Saturn Cocktail.

The Saturn cocktail was invented by Filipino bartender Joseph “Po Po” Galsini as one of their entries for the 1967 IBA World Cocktail Competition. (In Filipino culture, it’s a term of endearment for older people to say a younger persons’ first name twice in some cutesy way. For example, someone named Tom would be called Tom Tom, Luna becomes Lu Lu, Mario becomes Mo Mo, etc.). Working as a school teacher in the Philippines, Joseph Galsini (I am not his senior and have no emotional connection to him, so I don’t feel right calling him Po Po) immigrated to the United States in 1928, where he began bartending in California. Joseph and his team eventually went on to win first place at the 1953 and 1954 IBA World Cocktail Competition. In 1967 one of the cocktails they entered was the Saturn, named after the Saturn V rocket also invented that same year. They didn’t win that year, but they still created a very memorable tiki-style cocktail with a fun garnish. The Saturn cocktail was rediscovered by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, who was able to save the recipe thanks to Bob Esmino, a fellow Filipino Bartender who got his start helping to open Don’s Beachcomber Cafe. Thanks to Bob Esmino remembering the recipe, Jeff “Beachbum” Berry was able to publish it in his 2010 book “Beachbum Berry Remix”. Sadly Joseph Galsini died in a car crash in 1982. Check out This lengthy article about Joseph on the Daily Beast by David Wondrich.

Is the Saturn Blended Or Shaken?

The most common way this drink is made is by shaking the ingredients, making for a delicious drink. But, according to Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, who got his recipe from Bob Esmino, who worked with Joseph Galsini, the original Saturn was blended. Both are great ways to make the Saturn, and it just comes down to texture.

How To Make The Saturn Garnish.

The Saturn is tasty, but it is the garnish that stands out about this cocktail. Joseph Galsini topped the Saturn off with a lemon peel circled around a maraschino cherry to resemble Saturn. The garnish is more aesthetic than functional, and damn, it looks good. The garnish is made by peeling the whole circumference of a lemon and pinning a cherry in the middle. I’m personally not the biggest fan of overly decorative garnishes and feel if a garnish does not contribute directly to the drink’s flavor, then it should be omitted. Still, I make an exception for this drink. Also, I am always a little disappointed if I order a Saturn at a bar or restaurant and don’t get the Saturn garnish. I don’t care whether it is blended or shaken; I just want to see that cute little cherry with a lemon peel around it.

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Alexander (Gin) – Original Recipe & History

Gin Alexander
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Alexander (Gin)

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

282

kcal
ABV

18%

Total time

3

minutes

Make a classic Alexander Cocktails

Ingredients

  • 1 oz 1 Heavy Cream

  • 1 oz 1 Creme de Cocoa

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Featured Video

The History Of The Alexander Cocktail.

The first printed recipe for the Alexander is from the 1917 book “Recipes For Mixed Drinks” by Hugo Ensslin. This early Alexander is gin-based, and so is the Alexander recipe in the Old Waldorf-Astoria. This means the two oldest known Alexander recipes are both gin cocktails. Even though the Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book was printed in 1935, it documented the bars recipes from the 1890s to 1920.

Europe, it seemed preferred to use Brandy instead of gin. The earliest printed recipes for the Alexander in Europe come from “The Savoy Cocktail Book” by Harry Craddock and “Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails” by Harry McElhone. Both books refer to it only as an Alexander cocktail, not specifically a gin or brandy Alexander. Interestingly the Savoy list both the older style gin-based Alexander as an Alexander #1 and the brandy-based one as an Alexander #2. Harry’s ABC book only lists the brandy recipe and does not have the gin version. With all the European cocktail books I looked through from the 1930s on, I noticed that most had both a gin version and a brandy version and referred to both of them as Alexanders. The gin-based Alexander is often called an Alexander #1, and the brandy-based one is called an Alexander #2.

The first American book I could find to include an Alexander with brandy is the 1951 book “Bottoms Up” by Ted Saucier. He lists them as an Alexander (Gin) and an Alexander (Brandy). By the 1970s, the gin-based Alexander goes back to just being called an Alexander, and the Brandy one gains its more common current name of a Brandy Alexander. I first saw this naming convention used in the 1972 Trader Vic’s Cocktail Guide.

Personally, I like the Bottoms Up naming convention for the Alexander and its variations. It’s clear and descriptive and easily allows for additional variations.

Should I use Dark, White, or Clear Creme De Cacao?

None of the Alexander cocktail recipes specify precisely what kind of creme de cacao/chocolate liqueur to use, and honestly, they all taste the same. The dark, white, clear, or lightly aged color depends mainly on the base spirit used and if dyes were added. That being said, the white and dark brown chocolate-colored liqueurs are not naturally that color. Pigments are added to achieve that look. Clear ones were probably also manufactured using a super processed cocoa extract which is then added to sweetened vodka. A naturally colored creme de cacaos is either a light pale brown color or looks like a typically aged spirit like cognac. This depends on if the base spirit is an un-aged distillers alcohol/vodka or an aged spirit. You can easily see this at home by making your own creme de cacao. Add cocoa nibs to high-proof grain alcohol, let it soak for a few days, filter it, and combine it with vanilla extract, sugar, and water until you get a desirable flavor. The color will be a nice light pale brown from the soaked cocoa nibs.

Again the color is artificial unless it’s one of the two mentioned above and is not a result of the flavor extracting process, so get one you like. Ultimately all creme de cacaos are the same product, and the look and color are purely visual. Do you want a dark brown Alexander or a white one? They will taste practically the same so find a brand you like and go with it.

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Fog Cutter – Original Recipe & History

Fogcutter
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Fog Cutter

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

344

kcal
ABV

19%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the Fog Cutter.

Ingredients

  • 2 oz 2 Lemon Juice

  • 1 oz 1 Orange Juice

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Orgeat

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Dry Gin

  • 2 oz 2 White Rum

  • 1 oz 1 Brandy

  • 1 oz 1 Sherry

Directions

  • Technique: Tiki Dirty Pour
  • Combine all ingredients except the sherry into a shaker
  • Add a scoop of crushed ice.
  • Vigorously shake for 10 seconds.
  • Dirty pour the whole shaker into a glass. Crushed ice and all.
  • Top with sherry.
  • Garnish:
  • Mint bouquet

Notes

Featured Video

What Does The Fog Cutter Taste Like?

This is defiantly more on the tart side of tiki drinks and is closer in taste to a sour than most juice-filled tiki cocktails. Think of this as a nutty tiki version of a rum sour. It’s a beautiful cocktail that is more to the taste of someone who likes sours than Dark & Stormies or mules.

Nothing too interesting in the history of this cocktail. It was invented by Victor Bergeron for Trader Vic’s and was one of his most popular cocktails, second to the Mai Tai. Trader Vic’s Bartending Guide says that after 2 of these, you won’t even see straight anymore, but I have had 2 or 3 of them, and I was alright. There are countless variations on this guy (true for almost all tiki drinks), but here is the tried and true recipe from Trader Vic’s book itself.

Floating Sherry On Top.

The last ingredient in this cocktail is to do a sherry float on top. Here is the thing: sherry is very dense and thus can not float. Floating alcohols on top of each other are based on weight. Sugar is heavier than water, water is heavier than alcohol, and the heaviest ingredient will always sit at the bottom. The sherry is way more sugary than the drink. Therefore, it will want to drop to the bottom. This works out to have a cool effect and make it look like the sherry is cutting through the drink. If you want an excellent dark float that will sit at the top, try using 151, as it has less sugar than the rest of the drink and is much more alcoholic, so it floats on top.

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Ideal Cocktail – 1930s Cuban Recipe

Ideal Cocktail Sloppy Joe
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Ideal Cocktail – Sloppy Joe’s Recipe

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: Cuban
Servings

1

servings
Calories

239

kcal
ABV

23%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make an Ideal Cocktail

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp 1 Simple Syrup

  • 1 oz 1 Grapefruit Juice

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Gin

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

The Many Variations Of The Ideal Cocktail.

The Ideal cocktail was invented by Hugo Ensslin and is printed in his 1917 Book “Recipes for Mixed Drinks.” The ideal cocktail is a grapefruit variation of the martini, and you can see that in the way the cocktail changed over time. As Hugo saw it, a classic martini was what we would consider today to be a sweet martini. It is made of gin and sweet vermouth. During this time and more so into the 1930s, the dry martini becomes far more popular. Modifying Hugo’s original version based on the sweet martini, Jose Abeal (owner of Sloppy Joe’s) substituted sweet vermouth for dry vermouth (like the dry martini) but made up for the sweetness with a little bit of simple syrup. Grapefruit, dry vermouth, and dry gin are a bit much, and the drink needs a little sweetness to taste good. A clean and herbal grapefruit martini is more suited for a warm tropical climate.

The History Of Sloppy Joes Cuban Bar.

There are two famous pre-revolution Cuban bars. Well, there are at least two famous pre-revolution Cuban bars that printed books and provided future generations with their recipes—Bar La Florida and Sloppy Joe’s Bar, both in Havana, Cuba. Sloppy Joe’s was created by Spanish immigrant Jose Abeal. The 1936 edition of his book details his biography. Jose immigrated from Spain to Cuba in 1904, where he worked as a bartender for three years. He then moved to New Orleans, where he worked as a bartender for another six years, and then to Miami, where he worked for another six years. Upon moving back in 1918 to Cuba, he opened a liquor store and added a bar. When a few of his American friends visited, they commented on how dirty his store was. “Why, Joe, this place is certainly sloppy, look at the filthy water running from under the counter.” They were commenting on how he let the melted ice run all over the ground. His friends would call him dirty or sloppy Joe, and the name stuck. Jose sold classic American and Cuban drinks from his liquor store and bar and Spanish and Cuban food. One of the most popular food items he sold was a traditional Spanish picadillo sandwich. A loose ground beef sandwich where the beef is cooked with crushed tomatoes, Spanish olives, spices, and herbs became more commonly known as a sloppy Joe in the United States. Although Sloppy Joe’s Picadillo sandwich is nothing like the midwestern BBQ sauce covered, Manwich style sloppy joes most of us are used to.

A political revolution later, and Sloppy Joe’s fell on hard times. Now owned by the state and American tourists prohibited from visiting, Sloppy Joe only stayed open for a couple more years. The 1959 movie “Our Man In Havana,” starting Sir Alec Guinness, features some of Sloppy Joe’s in its prime before its business dried up. After a fire in 1965, the bar and store closed entirely with no real intention to ever open again. In 2013 though, the bar was restored, where it was, as it was, and currently sells the same drinks and food items as it did in the 1930s – 1950s.

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Poets Dream – Classic Recipe & History

Poets Dream
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Poets Dream

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: British
Servings

1

servings
Calories

115

kcal
ABV

29%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Poet’s Dream

Ingredients

  • 1 dashes 1 Orange Bitters

  • 2 dashes 2 Benedictine

  • 1 oz 1 Dry Vermouth

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

What Does The Poet’s Dream Taste Like?

The Poet’s Dream taste like a slightly more herbal dry martini. A little less boozy but more complex with a small amount of benedictine and orange bitters. My suggestion is to serve this as cold as possible, stir maybe a couple of seconds more than usual and go easy on the orange bitters. A dash too much on the bitters becomes the overwhelming flavor. Like the dry martini, this is a hard drink to make. Not because it is complex but because it is so subtle and unforgiving if you don’t get it right. This drink can be excellent if done right, and the flavors are kept in check when measuring and stirring. But it can also be pungent if you get a little heavy-handed on the bitters. It’s easier to start small on this and gauge the taste, adding a little more of the benedictine and bitters as you continue making more.

William Tarling’s Cafe Royal Book And Its Influences.

Cafe Royal is massive. I can’t find exactly how many recipes are actually in this book, and I’m not going to count, but my best guess is around 1200. William Tarling did not create most of the recipes in Cafe Royal; he was the president of the UKBG (United Kingdom Bartenders Guild) and head bartender of the Cafe Royal in London. He instead compiled some of his own bars’ top recipes and the recipes of other UKBG into a single source. In his introduction, he says he combed through more than 4000 recipes to find the best and most original ones from around England. This book is a monster, and sadly ordinary folks like you and me will probably never own it. Sure there are limited reprints from time to time, but there were only 1000 original copies made in its single 1937 edition. The book was created and sold as a fundraising item for the UKBG healthcare benefit and Cafe Royal sports club. Healthcare didn’t become universal till 1948 in the UK. We’re still waiting here in the US.

William Tarling was known for experimenting with new ingredients. He positioned the Cafe Royal Bar as more edgy and experimental in its recipes compared to other more traditional bars like The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel. Cafe Royal was an early pioneer in Tequila, mezcal, and vodka cocktails mixed with exotic fruit juices. Tequila and Vodka cocktails don’t start becoming more common till the 1940s with the Moscow mule and the margarita. It’s easy to argue that the margarita was invented at the Cafe Royal in the early 1930s as their picador cocktail. In the book’s preface, William Tarling argues that there needs to be more originality and variety. Martinis and Manhattans are great but just as one tires of eating the same dinner night after night; it’s monotonous to drink the same drinks at every party. Have some fun and try channeling your inner William and try something you wouldn’t normally drink.

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Martini (Medium) – Classic Recipe & History

Martini Medium
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Martini (Medium)

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Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

163

kcal
ABV

29%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a classic medium/perfect martini

Ingredients

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Dry Vermouth

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Sweet Vermouth

  • 1.5 oz 1.5 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass. Express a lemon peel over the drink and discard the peel.
  • Garnish:
  • Spanish olive.

Notes

Featured Video

The Medium Martini, Also Known As The Perfect Martini.

The last of the three main martinis, the medium martini, is perfect and combines the flavors of both the sweet and dry martini. The oldest printed martini recipe I could find is in the 1888 edition of Harry Johnson’s New and Improved Bartender’s Manual. His original 1882 edition does not provide a recipe for the Martini. The original martini recipe appears between the late 1880s and 1890s and is essentially a pre-prohibition style Manhattan with Old Tom Gin instead of whiskey. Harry Johnson’s recipe is half Old Tom Gin, half sweet vermouth, a dash of orange liqueur, two Boker’s (cardamom) bitters, and two dashes of gum syrup. If you look at my original pre-prohibition style Manhattan recipe, they are almost the same, save for the Old Tom Gin. But the recipe begins to change over the next decade until it settles on the more generally accepted 2 oz Old Tom, 1 oz sweet vermouth, and a dash of orange bitters with an expressed lemon peel. This was the standard martini until the 1910s, when the martini’s dry variation was invented and became very popular. The original martini becomes known as a sweet martini, and a medium sweet version that combines the two is also made.

Now while most bartenders from the 1910s through to prohibition know of the sweet and dry martini (Not all, though, even books like Hoffman house from 1912 and Jack’s Manual from 1916 only have the sweet martini), not all seemed to do medium martinis. Hugo Ensslin’s 1917 book Recipes for Mixed Drinks only list the sweet and dry versions. It’s not till the mid-1920s that you start to see the medium martini recipe being printed—beginning in 1925, books like L’art du Shaker by Dominique Bristol first published a martini named the medium martini. The recipe for the medium martini is precisely the same regardless of the book. 1/2 dry gin, 1/4 dry vermouth, 1/4 sweet vermouth, and most do not have a garnish for this drink. The exception to this is the Waldorf-Astoria’s recipe which has an expressed lemon peel and Spanish olive like the dry martini.

I chose to go with the Waldorf-Astoria recipe because I like the lemon oil and olive as a garnish. I think it makes the drink better. If you ignore the garnish, the recipe for this cocktail is the same from 1920 to the 1970s (I don’t own a cocktail recipe book from the 1980s). Somewhere after the 1970s, this started to be called a perfect martini. I can’t find exactly when or by who, but the name perfect martini is standard today for a medium martini. For all 3 of my martini recipes, I chose to go with the Savoy naming structure for martinis because it is the most straightforward and concise.

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