some stories behind some drinks

**reminder: on February 16th, 2008, 8pm...Munat Bros. and Le Mixeur Present Le Mixeur Trois!**




Les Originaux du Mixeur: A How What Who and Possibly a Why.

Le Mixeur will feature a growing number of original drink creations and a dwindling reliance on classic cocktails. The full process of creating the Fihimafihi has been detailed, ad nauseum perhaps, on this blog in the past. As for the new additions, we will offer the following explanations, which will certainly be a godsend for future generations of cocktail historians in the likely event they become classics...

William Holden -
this cocktail came to be just a week or so ago, after Le Mixeur managed to successfully pull off following a recipe for Belgian Ale liqueur created by Jamie at Vessel. Utilizing a previously non-existent ingredient provides a simple and straight forward path to creating a new cocktail.

The drink revolves around the unmistakable flavor of Campari, and while it contains a new ingredient it bears the gestalt of an old style cocktail. In doing some research, Le Mixeur discovered that old style William Holden fancied his Campari above and beyond all else, and whenever he dwelled at his Mount Kenya safari Club in Nanyuki, he made sure that cases were shipped in to provide for himself and fellow safarians. And besides, we at Le Mixeur think ol' Bill would have loved this one.

Hence, the William Holden: rye, campari, Belgian ale liqueur, lemon. Shake and strain and garnish with a wide strip of orange (yes, the orange strip seems a little foo-foo for Bill, but he did have a sensitive side - you'd be amazed by some of the tender scenes between he and Ernest Borgnine in the alternate director's platinum edition cut of "The Wild Bunch.')

Le Studio Rouge - this drink was chronicled by Le Mixeur in le post about December 31. As you know, December 31st is the celebration of Henri Matisse's birthday, and it was in the throes of this celebration that this drink came to be. Thus, in honor of Matisse,we name this drink Le Studio Rouge, and as we serve the already rouge hued cocktail, we will paint it with a barspoon of grenadine and make it ever more rouge before your very wide eyes.

Hop Skip and a Jump: Step one - Mix your new Framboise Lambic Liqueur with some kind of hard liquor, gin usually works. Step two - cut the syrupy liqueur with a little citrus, a little lime sounds nice with your raspberries. Step three - when in doubt, add St. Germain to anything...hmm that's pretty light and sippy. Step four - make it again but this time put some stank on it...few dashes of orange bitters and a glass rinsed with absinthe makes it done.

The name: Hop refers to the hops used to make the Framboise Lambic, the skip is represented by steps one through three above, and the jump is step four.

The Waste Land: All the young kids these days love the drinks with names that reference getting "wasted," so Le Mixeur's marketing team tells us, after we dusted them off. They also tell us the kids are howling for a drink made with "sarsparilla." Keep up the good work, boys.

In actuality, this drink was made on a whim with no real forethought my T. Mixeur on a night of no real distinction, and came out perfectly the first time, with a collective flavor that creates something not present when each ingredient is tasted separately. It is brandy, cherry heering, sherry, and aromatic bitters. Simple and effective, and as it turns out, featuring similar ingredients to another drink from Le Mixeur Trois...the Ulysses (just extract French Vermouth and use Sherry instead, and add the dash of bitters).

Within the context of Le Mixeur Trois on President's day weekend, the Ulysses cocktail refers to Ulysses S. Grant. In the context of this new cocktail, it refers to James Joyce's Ulysses. TS Eliot's epic poem, The Waste Land, was published in 1922, around the same time as Ulysses, both were aware of each other's works in progress, and both were aided by the editing of Ezra Pound, who famously warned Eliot not to overdo his defecation themes, as Joyce had already done defecation in Ulysses.

And on that note we will leave you on this note: when Joyce does defecation, defecation has been done.





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