Just a drop will do. Measuring out bitters. Image taken at Calyer Restaurant, Brooklyn.

Now that cocktails have weaseled their way back into the current drinking repertoire, it’s time to take a look at one the elements of many a good cocktail: bitters. These days, there are many different kinds of bitters with wildly diverging flavor profiles — from blueberry to celery — but their aim is the same. All bitters are concentrated elixirs of botanicals that add nuance and balance to a drink. The flavor doesn’t punch you in the mouth like a a glug of piña colada mix does — but a few drops of bitters can separate a great cocktail from a serviceable one.

A heap of classic and new recipes follow, so you can start flexing your bitters-dripping muscles right away.

In the broad sense, bitters can mean any liquid with bitterness that we can drink. Some are as drinkable as soda, but what we’re discussing today is the most potent and household-handy interpretation: cocktail bitters. Cocktail bitters are high proof — around 40% alcohol — not to get you drunk quickly, but to preserve the botanicals therein. (Cocktail bitters are undrinkable on their own to sane folk, and therefore not considered a regulated product.)

Angostura as ingredient. Page from an old cookbook.

The most widely-distributed and oldest brand still in production is Angostura Aromatic Bitters. It would be in my top 10 list of items to have in your home bar, and an indispensable ingredient to many classic cocktails. It’s a heady blend of barks, roots and botanicals native to its birthplace, Venezuela (although it’s now produced in Trinidad). The recipe is a secret, but it’s obvious there are quite a bit of spices involved, and smells like what I think of as Christmas on crack. The bitterness mainly comes from the Gentian root. They also produce a fine orange bitters that I prefer in my Marguerite, arguably the precursor to the Martini.

Peychaud's bitters. Very New Orleans.

The other notable producer who’s had a nice, long run is Peychaud’s, originally of New Orleans and a key ingredient in Sazerac (one of the oldest cocktails in America). It’s on the opposite side of the flavor spectrum from Angostura with a not-so-bitter profile that’s punchy with licorice and floral aromas.

Aside from those two stand-alones, there are heaps of new types of bitters in production. If you ask a cocktail bartender to name all the companies (never mind the flavors), you just may be able to stump them with several new brands.

Whether you’ve never heard of bitters, or you’re dying to round out your collection, the cool part about bitters is that they don’t go bad, and they are relatively cheap considering that a cocktail needs just a few dashes to add a nice bit of flavor. The list I have here is in no way comprehensive, but it does give a fairly rounded view of what’s on the market.

Regan’s Orange Bitters – Heavy on the cardamom, and a nice addition to an Old-Fashioned or Manhattan.
Amargo Chuncho – Similar to Angostura, but it’s from Peru, and it has a hint of cherry.
Dutch’s Colonial Bitters
Sweetgrass Cranberry Bitters
Sweetgrass Blueberry Bitters
Scrappy’s Lavender Bitters – A floral, astringent flavor with a subtle finish.
Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters – The spicy side of dark chocolate.
Fee Brothers Grapefruit Bitters – Very straightforward and versatile.
Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Boker’s Bitters – This is made from a recipe dating back to the early 1800s; the flavor is floral spices and citrus.
The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters – Predominant celery flavor with a zesty citrus finish.

Measuring with a jigger. Image taken at Calyer Restaurant.

Now, onto how to drink all these bitters. For good form, let’s start off by perusing a few classic drinks, and how you can give them an ‘update’ by swapping out different types of bitters. In all my years of bartending, I’ve never found a drinker I couldn’t match with a drink that contained bitters, so have good faith. Lastly, I’ll list a few modern recipes that have a good format for experimenting with different types of bitters.

CLASSIC DRINKS

Marguerite
Stephan Berg, one half of the team behind The Bitter Truth, a Munich-based manufacturer, traced this recipe’s first known publication to an 1896 book called “Stuart’s Fancy Drinks and How to Mix Them.”

2 ounces dry gin (Tanqueray works well)
1 ounce dry vermouth (I prefer Dolin)
1-2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters (Or swap out with Sweetgrass Blueberry or Cranberry)

Stir well over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist an orange peel on top.

Manhattan
Simple and satisfying, this is a drink that really benefits from closely-measured ingredients. You want to taste the whiskey, with just enough vermouth to smooth out the bite. Manhattans may be the perfect canvas for showing off the flavors in a bitters.

2 ounces rye whiskey (Old Overholt, Russell’s Reserve 6 Year)
1 ounces sweet vermouth (I prefer Carpano Antica)
3 dashes Angostura Bitters (I often substitute with Dutch’s Bitters, and I like to add a dash of Regan’s Orange Bitters)

Stir over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry, a twist of orange peel, or both.

Bitters & Soda
This is the perfect tummy settler, and, if you want to enjoy the aromatics of the bitters, go without a straw.

To an ice-filled highball or pint glass, add:

8-12 dashes cocktail bitters (play around with types and combinations of bitters!)
Squeeze a lemon wedge and drop it in. Top with seltzer and stir.

Swirling a cocktail. Picture taken at Calyer Restaurant.

Pink Gin
Popular in the U.K. during the mid-19th century, this concoction is thought to have originated from the Royal Navy.

2 ounces Plymouth Gin
1-2 dashes of Angostura (I often substitute cranberry bitters, or Peychaud’s)

Stir over ice and strain into a small chilled cocktail glass (a large shot glass works too). Twist a lemon peel over the top to release the oils, then toss it.

Sazerac
Earthy and herbal, this is perhaps the oldest cocktail in America.

2 ounces rye whiskey (Old Overholt, Sazerac Rye, Russell’s Reserve 6 Year.)
¼ ounce Demerara syrup (2 parts Demerara sugar to 1 part boiling water stirred until fully dissolved.)
3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters (I usually add a dash of Angostura as well.)

Stir well over ice and strain into an absinthe-rinsed chilled rocks glass (prepare the glass by adding a few drops of Absinthe to the sides and swirling it around). Twist a peel of lemon on top and discard.

Old-Fashioned
Leave off the muddled marachino cherry for a more historically accurate, and more delicious, cocktail.

2 ounces rye whiskey (Some people prefer bourbon, I use Weller 107.)
¼ ounce Demerara syrup (See recipe above.)
3 dashes Angostura (I typically add a dash of orange bitters, and/or Dutch’s Bitters.)

Stir over ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with a twist of lemon, orange or both.

Champagne Cocktail
This is an easy drink to serve to large parties. You can even leave out a selection of bitters, sugar cubes and bottles of bubbly on ice and let folks assemble as they like.

In a champagne flute, add:

1 sugar cube doused in bitters (Most classic brands will work.) Fill with chilled champagne. Garnish with a twist of lemon peel.

Queen’s Park Swizzle
This drink is the precursor to the Mojito, with plenty more depth and beauty.

To a collins glass, add:
2 ounces rum (Lemon Hart, or Appleton’s VX works fine)
½ ounce Demerara syrup (see recipe above)
½ ounce fresh lime juice
6-8 mint leaves

Add bit of crushed ice and swizzle all ingredients together with a swizzle stick. (If you don’t have a swizzle stick, hold the top of a bar spoon between your flat hands and rub them together making the spoon swirl in the glass — the idea is to agitate the mint to release its oils.)

Fill the glass with crushed ice and top with several dashes of Angostura (And feel free to substitute any type and combination here.)

Garnish with a smacked sprig of mint (lay it on your hand and slap it with the other hand) and a straw.

A well-made cocktail, Calyer Restaurant, Brooklyn.

MODERN COCKTAILS

Old Gold
Recipe by Sean Hoard of Clyde Common & Teardrop Lounge in Portland, Oregon.

1 ¼ ounces blanco tequila (Don Julio, Siete Lenguas)
¾ ounce dry vermouth (I prefer Dolin)
½ Cynar (An artichoke-based bitter liqueur from Italy
1 dash celery bitters
1 dash aromatic bitters (Like Angostura or Amargo Chuncho)

Stir over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist a peel of grapefruit on top and discard.

Way Forward
Recipe by Lydia Reissmueller of tenderBAR in Portland, Oregon.

2 ounces Amber Rum (Appleton’s VX, Mt. Gay Eclipse)
1 heaping bar spoon dark fruit preserves (like fig, blackberry or plum)
2 dashes Dutch’s Colonial Bitters
2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters

Stir well over ice until preserves are integrated, fine strain (with a tea strainer) into an ice-filled Old-Fashioned glass. Top with 1 ounce of your favorite amber ale (I like The Bruery’s Loakal Red). Garnish with a speared piece candied ginger.

A professional. Taken at Calyer Restaurant, Brooklyn.

Photos were taken at Calyer Restaurant. Special thanks to Virginia Brown & Jonathon Linaberry. Archival images were found by Michael Wojtas.

FURTHER READING
Camper English writes about everything cocktail. The Alcademics.
Watch Jamie Boudreau execute some mighty tasty cocktails. A bit cheesy, but worth it. Raising the Bar, Small Screen Network.
A blog to trust: Spirits and Cocktails
Imbibe Magazine, the best drinks publication in the country.

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Languidly drinking without interruption.

Punches are originally from India (panch in Hindi), and were taken around the world by the boozy merchant sailors of the British East India Company. The idea of a cocktail you don’t have to make one at a time is good, so where ever it went, it took. The undiscerning rabble stuck by a charming rhyme to make their punches: “One of Sour, Two of Sweet, Three of Strong, Four of Weak.” Easy to remember if you’re already three sheets to the wind, but also handy when the kinds of alcohol and available mixers changed at each docking.

Lucky for us, we’re not limited to what can be dredged up at the port. Here are four punch recipes, dug up or invented (and taste-tested) by Lydia Reissmueller, who’s made cocktail magic in legendary bars from New York to Moscow. Right now, she’s running Tender Bar out of Portland, Oregon.

Stir up these punches for your next dinner party. You’ll feel classy, while sitting back and getting nice and toasted with your friends.

These punches are the opposite of a handle of 5 O’Clock vodka mixed with Dr. Pepper. They’re made with good alcohol and sophisticated ingredients, but are simple to put together. Stick close to the measurements to get the subtleties of flavor. After each spirit, Lydia recommends a brand or varietal.

Nothing finer than a glass of punch by the fireside.

Cranberry Punch (about 15 servings)

1 bottle of gin (Tanqueray or Beefeater)
10 oz Cointreau or Grand Marnier
10 oz unsweetened cranberry juice
10 oz freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoons of almond essence (not the fake stuff)
1 bottle of dry sparkling wine (Gruet Brut, cava or prosecco)

Combine all ingredients, except for the sparkling wine, in a punch bowl. Stir together and store covered in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Once you’re ready to serve, stir the the punch again, then add the bubbly. Put an orange twist* into each cup and and ladle in the punch.

*The nicest twists don’t need special tools. Find a ripe, brightly-colored fresh orange with thick, firm skin. With a small knife (or a regular vegetable peeler), slice off a thin, ribbon-like peel, similar to what you’d get peeling a potato. Do this over each cup so the spray of orange oil lands in the cup. Twist the peel into a spiral to release even more oil and throw it in the cup.

Even the hat is ready for a cocktail.

Royal Pomme Punch (12 Servings)

(Lydia learned this punch from the able hands of James Meehan at PDT New York)

3/4 bottle Dubonnet Rouge (an herb-y wine aperitif)
12 oz Apple Brandy (such as Laird’s Bonded or Calvados)
24 Dashes of Angostura Bitters (or 3 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram)
3 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
12 oz Champagne

At least two days ahead of time, fill a rectangular plastic container with water and put in the freezer to make a big block of ice. Make sure it fits in your punch bowl.

In a pitcher filled with ice cubes, stir together the Dubonnet, apple brandy, orange juice and bitters. Pour the punch through a mesh sieve or cheesecloth into a chilled punch bowl.

Pull your block of ice out of the freezer and let it thaw for 15 minutes until it slides out of the mold. Gently put it into the punch. Top with champagne and serve.

Fun with punch.

Boozy Mulled Cider (makes about 30 servings)

1 gallon of fresh apple cider
2 bottles of amber rum (Appleton’s VX, or a bourbon like Buffalo Trace)
2 apples cored and thinly sliced
4 cinnamon sticks
1 small handful of whole cloves (about 20)
1 small handful of cracked black peppercorns (about 25)
5 cracked green cardamom pods
2 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger

Optionally, you can also add 1 cup of lemon juice (and their peels) and 1 cup of brown sugar.

Combine all ingredients — except the booze — in a pot over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, for 30–40 minutes.

Turn off heat, or turn on lowest possible, and add liquor of choice, stirring well. Strain to order with a tea strainer, OR put all the spices (except cinnamon) in a tea sack in the pot. Serve within 3 hours of making.

Make punch. Give the gracious hostess a chance to sit down and enjoy the night.

Swedish Punsch

This is an original recipe by Lydia. Swedish Punsch doesn’t taste like anything you’ve ever had. It tastes like a Dutch sailor’s grog from 300 years ago, with the snappy freshness of a daiquiri, but with more depth and lots of earthy spicy herbiness.

This is high proof for shelf life. If you can’t drink it all the first time around bottle and cork the stuff — it’ll keep in the refrigerator for months.

1 bottle Batavia Arak (available online at Drink Up NY)
1 bottle Aquavit (Krogstad or Linie)
20 oz ginger honey syrup**
20 oz lemon juice
20 oz orange juice
freshly grated nutmeg for garnish

Combine all ingredients well, and serve it cold or warmed over a low flame. Dilute with water just before serving:  add 1 cup of water to the mix if serving warm, or 2 cups of ice if serving cold. Ladle cold punsch over ice, or warm punch straight, and grate nutmeg on top as an aromatic garnish.

**Combine 1 cup finely chopped fresh ginger, and 1 cup of water in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add 2 cups of raw honey, turn off heat and stir. Let cool and strain well through a mesh sieve or cheesecloth.

A well planted drink.

Image research by Gijs van der Most.

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A jolly group listening to guitar serenades and drinking cocktails in Alcapulco. 1952. Photo by Slim Aarons via Everyday I Show.

Sours are the taste of languid summer days: margaritas, daiquiris and pucker-y limed-up liquors. Lydia Reissmueller, who dreams up incredible cocktails, gives us a few recipes to help you turn your favorite flavors into damn good sour cocktails.

Lydia has made drinks in New York, London and Moscow, and runs Tender Bar out of Portland, Oregon.

Naughty, naughty people going bananas for cocktails during Prohibition. Image via The Lush Chef.

The sour is a rich, timeless drink, dashing to the point that no one notices how arrogant it is, how plainly it brandishes its power of returning the drinker to sultry August nights, regardless of the actual time of year. For now, at least, summer is our happy tyrant, and the sour is her lush, her drunk-ish genius waiting to make us smile.

As cocktails go, sours are straightforward, punchy, uncomplicated. They’re some of the oldest traditional cocktails around. You can make a million variations, but the basics of a sour are: a base liquor, citrus juice, egg white and a sweetener. (If you’ve ever had a margarita or a whiskey sour then you already know that the egg white has become a pretty optional ingredient in recent decades.)

Ernest Hemingway surrounded by a drink, a beautiful woman and polydactyl cats. 1950s. Image via Mermaids of the Lake.

Hemingway took a shine to daiquiris — the rum version of the sour — both on and off the coast of Cuba. The frosty, citrus, aromatic drink goes hand-in-hand with sun and sea and is just like his prose: quick, clean and full of liquor.

For a perfect cocktail, be sure to measure, but the beauty of these recipes is that you can change the flavors to what you want or what you have on hand. Scroll all the way down for links to two books that are packed with cocktail recipes.

Here’s Lydia’s recipe for a real daiquiri — not a jug of mixer in sight.

Strawberry Daiquiri
2 oz Ron Zacapa 23-year or the more aggressively flavored Smith & Cross
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz Demerara Syrup or simple syrup (see recipe below)
2 or 3 fresh, ripe strawberries
Muddle the strawberries together with the lime juice. Add remaining ingredients and shake with ice for about 15 seconds and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a strawberry slice or a mint leaf (clap the leaves in your hand first to release the fragrant oils).

No need to restrict yourself to strawberries — this is a good base recipe. For lavender daiquiris use lavender buds instead of strawberries…or substitute with any number of fruits you feel like drinking up. Go with what’s in season.

Sultry woman seduces with a drink. Photo detail from a Ronrico ad, 1965. Via Vintage Ad Browser.

Demerara Syrup
Mix 2 parts Demerara sugar (by volume) to 1 part boiling water and stir well until it’s dissolved completely. Let cool, and then store in the fridge for up to 2 months. Raw Demerara sugar has more nutrients and a richer flavor, but the daiquiri will still be good if you only have white sugar.

A bartender shakes it. I assume the self-satisfied look in his face means there's an egg white in that cocktail. Image via The Daily Green.

For a woodsy cocktail, go with the Bramble Sour. Made with gin:

Bramble Sour
2 oz Gin
3/4 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz blackberry honey syrup (recipe below)
1 egg white (optional for texture and a lovely dry finish — highly recommended)

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker, and shake without ice to emulsify the egg white. Add ice and shake for about 10 seconds, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Throw in a berry as a little surprise at the bottom of the glass.

Blackberry Honey Syrup*
1 part fresh blackberries (chopped fairly small)
1 part boiling water
1 part honey

It helps to muddle to berries a bit before combining them with the water and sweetener. Combine all ingredients in a pot and stir well until sweetener is fully dissolved. Strain well, using a strainer small enough to remove unpleasant looking particles. For true clarity, strain through a piece of porous cloth. Bottle, label with the date and keep in the fridge for up to 1 month.

*Use this a base recipe for sweet syrups by substituting other berries, fruits or herbs for the blackberries. Think your anise hyssop might taste better with maple syrup? No problem. The world is your oyster. The proportions stay the same, but substitute the sweetener with raw sugar, palm sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup.

FURTHER READING
Published in 1900: Modern American Drinks by George J. Kappeler, Google Books
How to Mix Drinks, or: The Bon Vivant’s Companion by Jerry Thomas. Google Books.
Lydia Reismueller’s cocktail catering website: Tender Bar

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Over the course of the following centuries the rapid commercialization of the brewing industry and the growing importance of beer in world trade heavily influenced its craftsmanship. This change in emphasis was particularly poignant in the United States and by the early 1900s beer had become the drink of choice for the working man, college students, and sports fans. This encouraged mass production and an ensuing loss in quality. Taste was hardly a factor, and most production was guided by a simple principle: make as much beer as cheaply as possible.

Samuel Adams Brewhouse

This coincided with the advent of pesticide use. By the late 1940s  pesticides became a staple of agricultural production, and beer was no exception. Hops and cereal grains (two of the main ingredients for beer) got doused in pesticides.

U.S. commercial beers succumbed to the temptations of pesticides and the profit margins of mass production. It wasn’t until the 1970s that discontent with the decline in quality translated to a movement towards European-style craft beers. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter went through the formality of signing home beer-brewing into law, contributing to a craft beer revolution in the United States.

Budweiser Advertising, 1950s

The appreciation for craftsmanship and flavor again came in conjunction with an interest in pesticides, though this time it was more about it’s negative effects on the earth and the human body rather than the positive effects on crop yield. Aside from the potential danger of exposure to certain chemicals, there is also an increased risk of ground water contamination and a host of other environmental problems including loss of species diversity.

Organic standards in the United States are less stringent than in Europe over one very important ingredient: hops. Hops is the prominent, bitter flavor in many beers. Its antiseptic qualities act as a natural stabilizer, leading to a lower likelihood of spoilage. Hops, however, is a delicate plant, and for European beers to be deemed organic, the hops must also be organically grown. This stipulation leaves European brewers at the mercy of small-scale organic hops production – in other words, a shortage. Organic American beers have been bestowed an exemption from the U.S.D.A. Resorting to non-organic hops will still get a brewer that organic label.

Although some breweries use 100 percent organic ingredients and some organic hops farmers have recently cropped up in the U.S., there is no guarantee unless you know the practices of an individual brewery.

The return to brewing beer for a wide variety of taste preferences, combined with the general movement towards weaning ourselves from the over-use of harmful pesticides, takes beer back to its roots. Some microbreweries even offer “growlers” — containers you can bring back and get refilled to put a few less bottles in our collective waste stream.

LINKS
Beer Advocate, The Growler: Beer-to-Go!
CraftBeer: Find a local brewery

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Steve McQueen and Neile Adams Taking Sulphur Bath, Los Angeles, June 1963, Photo by John Dominis

First, let’s define what it means for a wine to be organic, biodynamic or natural. Calling a wine natural implies that the grapes are organic, harvested by hand and fermented with wild yeasts. The wine should have little to no sulfites. Sounds good, but ‘natural’ is a somewhat controversial term – there is currently no established process certifying that the wine was produced with limited technological intervention.

Organic is a term loaded with many meanings and connotations. Wines labeled organic are simply made with organically grown grapes, which is only one step of the wine-making process. Although this guarantees that you have no unwanted added ingredients to your wine, such as pesticide residues, there is no certainty that the environment surrounding the vineyards has been cared for.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Courtesy of Despertar Conciencia

Biodynamic is a stricter organic standard developed by Austrian scientist Rudolf Steiner in 1924. Growing, harvesting and production techniques revolves around the central tenet that the farm itself is a living being. Any wine claiming to be biodynamic must follow strict regulations laid down by the Demeter Association, which incorporates a wider range of growing standards beyond simple organic methods. This standard means that native plants and animals are included in the vineyard environment, ensuring that the well-being not only of the vineyard itself, but the entire ecosystem that it is connected to.

But is all of this additional time and effort really necessary when picking out a bottle of wine? According to a recent report by Dr. Magali Delmasat at U.C. Santa Barbara, eco-labeling is more of a marketing strategy than an indication of which vineyards are organic and which are not. The study asserted that many wines are not labeled organic, despite the fact that they adopt organic practices. Surprisingly, this is due to the negative perception that many consumers have of an organic or biodynamic wine. Because wine is often associated with a specific region, which is embodied in its taste (terroir), consumers believe that if organic is the main focus, taste will be abandoned in favor of maintaining organic standards. This leads to a negative bias against organic wine and even a rejection of wines that bear the organic label.

Bordeaux Advertising, Circa 1933, Courtesy of Antiques Plus

After reading the study, I went back to the wine store and bought two wines from similar regions — one biodynamic and the other conventionally produced. I paid about twenty dollars for each wine. While both were good quality, the biodynamic wine, full of lush dark fruit and a hint of spiciness, won out in taste. None of the flavors overpowered the wine and I fell in love with the first sip.  Several factors besides being biodynamic could have made the wine better. Maybe the terroir was simply superior, the vintage was particularly good, or the production more skilled. But the point is that just because a wine is labeled eco-friendly, doesn’t mean that the taste will suffer.

The protracted process of certification – known to take between three and seven years – and cost a substantial fee, is a lot to of work for a label that may make a wine less marketable and perhaps even diminish its price. It is hardly surprising that some vineyards opt to keep their status a secret.

Wine-making traditions that extend beyond the relatively new trend of organic labeling can make certification unnecessary by implication. Certain regions in France and South America have historically used minimal pesticides and have been making organic or almost organic wine long before it was a marketable concept. Yet a recent study by Pesticide Action Network (PAN) showed that the temptation of yield-enhancing pesticides can trump traditional practices. Out of 40 wines tested, the only wines that had a minimal amount of pesticides were those labeled organic.

Courtesy of Vacca Vineyards

Another thing to consider is the distance between you and the vineyard the wine comes from. In a country as vast as the U.S., for example, a wine shipped from California to New York actually uses more energy for transport than a wine that comes from France. A study by the American Association of Wine Economists found that the cut-off for Californian wines is approximately Ohio. East of Ohio, you’re better off drinking a wine from Western Europe.

A good wine is hard to find, and a label is more complicated than it looks. If you want to make sure that your wine is organic or biodynamic, eco-certification is the fastest way to know. However, your favorite wine could already have organic standards and could simply be uninterested in marketing themselves this way. The bottom line is to look into the vineyard practices to get a better idea of what their policies are, or look past its bad reputation and use that handy eco-label.

"Unwind with a Little German", Ad for Schmitt Sohne Wines, Courtesy of Adiocracy

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At 16, a late bloomer by some standards, two friends and I admitted we’d never really been drunk. Wanting a quick remedy, my friend had just the fix in his mother’s garage: “Her last boss gave her a case of some French Champagne when she left last year, I think it’s getting pretty old now anyway.” Drinking premier cru champagne from coffee mugs, we spent several hours perusing our favorite periodicals and commenting on the finer aspects of this new favorite beverage. The next morning, the pile of Playboys and empty ’85 Mumm Grand Cordon bottles attested to one simple truth: people should drink more Champagne.

Marilyn Monroe holding a Coupe Glass

Because it’s a perfect compliment to so many foods — from salty to sweet, spicy to mild, salad to dessert, and most anything else, because nothing makes a good time that much better, and because nothing quite raises your spirits like those little bubbles. And Champagne aside, from beautiful Californian sparklers like Roederer and Iron Horse, or the great New Mexico Blanc de Noirs and Blanc de Blancs from Gruét, to the spectacular Crémants of Jura and Loire, there’s no end to the great sparkling wines out there.

DEVIL IN THE BUBBLES

Not knowing the carbonation resulted from yeast eating remaining sugars in the sealed bottle, these defining bubbles were once considered a defect. So much so that early wine makers in Northern France, struggling to figure out how to prevent this strange phenomenon, referred to the strange sparkling wine as “the Devil’s wine.”

This, of course, seems odd today because it’s the bubbles we love so much. How pleasant it is to briefly tune out during some mundane toast while watching them lazily trail up the edges of a flute, or pool up at the top a coupe. And few things so clearly declare a party as that ‘pop’ of a cork.

Niki Lauda after winning the Italian Formula One Grand Prix, 1975, Courtesy of The Age

Nonetheless, while we see these bubbles as a boon rather than a flaw, perhaps unknowingly, there was a kernel of truth in early, “devil’s wine” moniker. Conjecture has long held that the bubbles may get us tipsy quicker. Researchers at the University of Surrey put this to the test, conducting experiments which demonstrated that 5 minutes after drinking, those who had traditional, bubbly Champagne had 54 mg of alcohol in their blood stream as opposed to those who’d drank the same amount of flat Champagne, who had only 39 mg.

CAPTURING

It seems that for delivering and protecting these precious bubbles, stemware is essential. Be it long and elegant flutes showcasing the rise of the bubbles while limiting the surface area to slow the trapped gas’s release, or small saucers arranged in tower, wine cascading from one glass to the next, appropriate stemware is a must.

Pommery

FROM COUPE TO FLUTE, TULIP AND BACK TO COUPE

Although now thought of as myth, early sparkling folklore held that the Champagne coupe was molded on the breast of Marie Antoinette. Upon hearing this ages ago, and at the time familiar with only the ubiquitous Champagne flute, images of Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour and Gaultier designed cone-bras instantly came to mind. Intrigued, I thus became acquainted with the small curved glass that is the champagne coupe, or champagne saucer.

Synonymous with mid-century, the coupe recently came into vogue again. Perhaps Mad Men is to blame (or to thank) for this development, nonetheless, many purists dismiss these small glasses because they quickly allow the carbonation to dissipate; further, they spill more easily and don’t hold as much (4 to 5 ounces per coupe as opposed to the average 8 ounces for flutes). All the same, there’s something eternally classy about a black tie, a long dress, and these little saucers.

More often than not, the flute is the vessel of choice when serving sparkling wine. There are several advantages to the flute as compared to the coupe. Most striking is the length of the glass, allowing the signature bubbles a leisurely assent. In addition, the narrower bowl and mouth of these glasses result in less surface area, meaning the wine retains its carbonation longer.

Champagne Straight From the Bottle

Yet, the flute still as a couple of drawbacks: while protecting the bubbles, the shape doesn’t truly allow the drinker to appreciate the aromas of the wine. Also frustrating, is the way one has to upend the whole glass to get the last of the wine. The Tulip glass is thus my stemware of choice.

Really, only just a slight variation on the flute, the bowl of Tulip widens a bit near the top of the glass and then narrows again. The advantage to this design allows for a bit more swirling, permitting one to more appreciate the aromas of the wine. While not usually quite as dramatic as the flute, the length of a tulip glass should still be striking. Crystal or traditional blown-glass, the tulip should have the same nucleation bead at the bottom of the glass. This is a small rough point at the bottom of the glass upon which bubbles of trapped gas in the champagne will collect and float upward.

French Antarctica Expeditionist J.B. Charcot (left) enjoys a glass of Mumm with Raymond Rallier du Baty, Antarctica, Bastille Day 1904.

Whether you’re into the style of the coupe, the striking silhouette of the flute, or the class of the tulip, make sure to get at least 6: few things are shabbier than having friends over to celebrate a new promotion, lament a recent firing, or simply to watch Damages and discovering that someone has to drink from your 4 year-old’s sippy cup because, “Well, at least this one is sort of the same size.”

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Zippo Advertising 1959

In some long-gone circles, the measure of a man’s worth was his pocket lighter.  (The old films told us as much — just watch the shadowy faces of the great male film icons bathed in the flickering light). The cigarette lighter was a satisfying and necessary investment in the small cache of a man’s personal belongings, like his good leather wallet, a pair of jeans, or favorite hat. There was the timeless chivalry of lighting a woman’s cigarette with a bit of steel that lent a young gent a gleam of class, showing that he had more sense than his modern counterpart, the man who carries around a plastic Bic disposable (and pops off beer caps for his buddies.) The era when men wore hats on a regular basis may have come and gone (and come again) but the ghost of the lighter has maintained a home in his right hip pocket, as seen in every pair of Levis, the epitome of American ruggedness.

I’m the last person to romanticize smoking at any age these days, but I still appreciate the craftsmanship and simple mechanics of the classic pocket lighter. The rounded corners and heft as it sits in the palm of your hand are things of beauty, and the metallic ping! when you flip the lid with your thumb and tsssk! as flint strikes steel, followed by the slow rolling flame. There’s a kind of elemental masculinity to it that men of all eras can connect with.

In the 16th century the first lighters began to take shape as flintlock pistols were converted for use. In 1823, a German Chemist named Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner created a device that utilized the heat produced by the reaction of hydrogen to a platinum sponge. The bulky and highly dangerous invention, popularly referred to as “Döbereiner’s Lamp,” fell out of production by the end of the 19th century.

Döbereiner

As demand for cigarettes became widespread in the 20th century, the lighter saw significant advances. In 1903, Carl Auer von Welsbach invented The Flint, which, when scratched, would produce a large amount of spark that would light the fuel. These first lighters included both pocket and table versions, and were called “striker lighters.” When a steel bar made contact with a small piece of flint, the resulting spark would ignite a piece of asbestos soaked in naphtha and create a flame. (Naphtha was later replaced by butane as the fuel of choice, having less odor.) Seven years later, New York craftsman named Louis Aronson applied for a patent for the Pisto-O-Liter, and in 1913 developed The Wonderlite, a permanent match-style version. The Ronson Art Metal Works would soon shift its focus from ornamental lamps, bookends and statues to full-time lighter manufacturing, renaming itself the Ronson Lighter Company.

The Great War began that same year, and with it came design changes. When soldiers realized that a sudden spark from a lit match could alert sharp shooters to their position, they began using wasted cartridges and glowing wooden blocks to start their cigarettes. Tinder wick lighters (in which a spark ignites the wick, allowing it to smolder rather than produce a flame) were made by a variety of companies to combat such dangers.

Patent for Ronson Banjo 1926

It wasn’t until 1926, however, that what we know as the first automatic flame pocket lighter was born. That year, Aronson’s “one finger-one motion” mechanism premiered as a feature of The Banjo, a lighter that was able to ignite and create a flame in one fluid movement. Known (cumbersomely) as the “Press, It Lights…Release, Its Out” system, the new innovation quickly became a staple in the industry.

Patent for Ronson Pocket Lighter

The Banjo’s overwhelming success and the growing popularity of cigarette smoking urged other companies to develop their own lighters. Companies like Colibri, Dunhill, Evans, Dupont, and Scripto started manufacturing their own versions.

One of the most successful companies to challenge Ronson was Zippo, headed by George Blaisdell. Introduced in 1932, his windproof lighter became fierce competition for the attention of a new generation of smokers. “It works or we fix it free,”,Zippo promised its customers. This guarantee quickly gained the company recognition, making it one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lighters.

Zippo Advertising 1961

With precision metalwork in high demand during World War II, the U.S. military employed Ronson plants to produce ammunition 24 hours a day. Not to be outdone, Zippo won a valuable military contract and was commissioned to provide lighters to American servicemen. Ironically, even though U.S. soldiers were issued the Zippo lighters, American-made Sherman tanks were nicknamed “Ronsons” by German tank crews for their propensity to catch fire when hit by tank shells.

Ronson Varaflame 1957

For several years both Zippo and Ronson continued to hold true to their designs, occasionally introducing table and novelty gift lighters, but it was the classic design of their pocket lighters that continued to sell to a loyal consumer base. Both had a simple yet effective cam system and a tube next to the flint screw to hold spare flints, a design that still works incredibly well. In the early 1980s, however, high costs and the advent of cheap disposable lighters forced closure of Ronson’s production facility in England. For a time, a branch in Long Buckby (UK) sold a range of stylish and expensive butane lighters consistent with the firm’s great legacy, before being shuttered. Unfortunately, only the American arm of Ronson remains, selling mostly fluid and flints, a few inexpensive refillables, a naphtha-based Zippo clone, and a few butane lighters. In recent months, however, Zippo announced plans to purchase Ronson to expand their product line. Now, with a firm grip on the pocket lighter industry, can Zippo continue to hold the torch high?

Ronson Advertising 1952

Zippo Advertising 1969

Zippo Advertising 1959

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Designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1967

Stelton was founded in 1960 with the mission to make high quality stainless steel products. This ashtray is made out of a satin polished 18/8 stainless steel. 18/8 stands for a composition of 18% chromium, 8% nickel and 74% iron. The equivalent American rating is 301.

The ashtray is made out of two parts.

After the cigarette is out, one just turns the handle and the ugly butt disappears.

Please don’t think that I want to promote smoking. It is bad for you and doesn’t look cool. Here is an image of Johnny Cash from the impossible cool.

Bob Dylan Not Looking Cool

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A trillion times more robust than tequila and delivering an intensely warming experience through its formidable smokiness, mezcal’s arduous craftsmanship, made almost exclusively through small scale producers employing traditional techniques 200 years old and laborious history, make it a standout tour de force of drinking.

Made from the agave plant, Oaxaca and its unique topography serve as the epicenter of mezcal production.  Grown for two years in garden plots, the agave are then uprooted, roots cut, leaves bound and left to heal in the shade for two weeks. They are then transported to the hills, where they are transplanted and left to grow for another four to ten years.

After harvesting, the cores are placed and buried in an eight feet deep pit, where a complex roasting/baking process lasts from three days to a month, imparting the flavors of earth, wood, smoke and rocks. After shade resting for a week and fermenting with airborne microbes, a horse powered stone wheel crushes the plant.

Making Mezcal / Image by lagaleriephoto.eu

From there, wooden vats hold the fermenting liquid for four to thirty days. After being transferred to stills, a 24 hour wood fire distillation process, which happens twice, resulting in mezcal.

Mezcal Distillery, Matatlan, Oaxaca / Image by Colors Magazine, Issue 69

As you could expect, a process this in depth and labor intensive, coupled with the albeit limited export demand provides vital employment for around 29,000 people. But when playing the numbers game, perhaps most remarkable is: of the the two million liters of certified production, only 434,000 of that is exported, meaning Mexico means mezcal.

When looking for a good bottle of mezcal, it’s important that it’s labeled “100% agave” as cheaper mezcal has an unfortunate history of color additives, including the marketing gimmick of a worm, which in fact used to indicate sub standard quality as that worm was a parasite from the plant. The purity of 100 percent agave is also fabled to be hangover free.

Not often found on menus, and lacking a signature genre defining cocktail like the margarita, mezcals are traditionally and best enjoyed neat, free from distractions. Del Maguey Single Village and Sombra are two highly drinkable names you’d do well starting with.

Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Pechuga, Santa Catarina Minas

The number of the bottle and other information is hand written on the label.

Sombra Mezcal, Agave de Oaxaca, Mexcal 45% Alc by Vol

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