Pink Gin and My New British Friend

1,000’s of miles from his home, a man approached me the other day asking me to make him a Pink Gin. I don’t get requests for Pink Gins that often, but when I do, the guest usually has some common characteristics, namely bad teeth. But for what they may lack in dental hygiene, the English make up in cocktail appreciation.

Unlike modern American Kool-Aid cocktail connoisseurs, our friends across the pond love herbal and spiced dimensions in their drink. Man, Mom and Dad are you sure I was born here in the states and am the product of one American with a German background and another with some other non-British European White stuff in it? Wait a second, am I freaking adopted? If I find out about my biological status because of my love for Campari, I am going to be pissed off (and drink some more Campari). Either way, my tastes aren’t going to change anytime soon, and the English cocktail perspective remains as a persistent reminder on how to utilize different flavor elements in drinks. Pimm’s alone has such widespread use and distinct flavor that we could just stop here, but my bar guest wanted a Pink Gin.

I think my British friend expected me to say, “What’s that?” I got the impression that he only asked American bartenders for pink gins as a sort of reminiscing request. It wasn’t about the drink, but about feeling as though he was English and wasn’t going to abandon his strong devotion to good old gin and bitters. He wasn’t expecting to find someone else who loves the same drink I guess, because when I gave him a nod and made the drink in front of him, while continuing my conversation with another guest. I pushed the drink in front of him and noticed that he was just kind of staring at the drink. I was beginning to wonder if I had another cocktail expert on my hands who was going to correct me on how to make the drink correctly; bartenders, you know what I am talking about. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Cocktail Expert: Hey man, can I get one of those upside down, Tequila Zinger Zwangs, cherry style, on the rocks neat?

Me: …

Cocktail Expert: They are awesome; I had one at Shitty Drinks Pub on Tuesday!

Me: Can you tell me how to make a Tequila Zinger Zwang, cherry style upside down?

Cocktail Expert: What you don’t know how to make a T.Z.Z. Are you serious?

Cocktail Expert’s Jackass Friend: What kind of place is this?

Me: Well, if you tell me how to make it, I am sure I can come up with something close if that’s really what you are set on having.

Cocktail Expert: I don’t know! How should I know? You’re the bartender.

Me: Well, I tell you what. You guys give me a chance to make to one drink for each of you, and if it isn’t the best drink you’ve ever had, you can give it back, and I will make you my very best attempt at a T.Z.Z. on me.

Cocktail Expert: Awesome, you’re on.

(5 Drinks Later)

Former Cocktail Expert: Man, these drinks were awesome! What days do you work? We are coming back here tomorrow!

Actual Cocktail Expert Who Has Tolerated This Routine Too Many Times To Count (Me): Thanks guys; let me try some different stuff on you tomorrow and bring some friends. Have you ever had an Old Fashioned?

See how this works? I was ready for this guy to say something like this and tell me how to make a pink gin the “right” way. But, this prediction was way off base, see the British have some sort of detailed cocktail recipe consensus that says how to make certain drinks. Sure, there are variations like with any cocktail, but generally some fundamental rules are followed with each British cocktail. Knowing, this I should have known that this guy wasn’t going to be a pretentious asshole. Something else must have been going on. I asked Nicole to hold on a second and asked the guy if everything was ok. He said, “Man, I’ve been living in Houston for seven years and nobody has ever made me a pink gin without asking me how to make it! That’s awesome! How do you know how to make one of those?” Uhm, because I am a bartender, and you should know how to make one!

Pinks Gins have some variance however, as they are often preferred with tonic water and/or lime. But in its most fundamental state, a pink gin is not a G&T with bitters, instead, it is made as follows:

Pink Gin

2 oz Gin
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Pour the gin over a rocks glass filled with ice and dash bitters on top.

It is called a “Pink Gin” because, well, it looks pink and is made mostly of gin. See, one more reason to love the Brits, simple drink names. The T.Z.Z. would never be served in a British bar. As with many combinations of gin, bitters, and tonic, the Pink Gin was initially conceived by the British Royal Navy as a medicinal treatment for diseases like malaria, seasickness, and other stomach ailments, but we know that they were just making that crap up to drink more gin.

The Pink Gin is awesome because it is so simple and has the ability to bring out so many flavors from the gin and bitters, but can we make it more interesting I wondered. I walked outside and cut a sprig of rosemary of our plant who is still really angry at me for the Rosemarriage Drink of the Week from a couple of weeks ago. I muddled a small sprig of rosemary in a glass with the bitters and a quartered lime wedge, added ice, and the gin and shook and strained my new mixture into a cocktail glass, garnished with a lemon twist wrapped around a fresh rosemary spring. The drink rocked and had such a fresh herbal aroma and taste with all of the traditional Pink Gin qualities.

I passed the drink to my new British friend, and he really liked it. He said he was going to definitely bring some of his other British friends in to have some and take the idea home the next time he visited. If you don’t drink Pink Gins frequently, take this guy’s enthusiasm for this simple cocktail as motivation for trying something simpler which can be expanded on. Just don’t be that guy when you ask you bartender for one. The conversation will likely go something like this if you are:

Cocktail Expert (Due To Reading This Blog): Hey man, can I get one of those Pink Gins?

Less Cocktail Enthused Bartender: …

Cocktail Expert: Don’t tell me you don’t know how to make a Pink Gin. What kind of place is this?

Less Cocktail Enthused Bartender: One you can leave, take your breast cancer awareness gin ass and get the fuck out.

Cocktailess Expert (Due To Not Reading The Entirety Of This Post): Uh, oops…

Man, etiquette and good drinks, what more could you want? How about trying a Pink Gin without the rocks and with different types of bitters. The flavors can really be awesome like this. You’ve got to give it up for those Brits; they really know their drinks. God save the queen and all her cocktails!

The Emergency Room Mixology Monday

I was completely set to write this Mixology Monday post on our feature drink of the week I had created at the bar on Monday: The Rosemarriage. I really wanted to do something refreshing as summer was closing down, so I knew fizz was where it was at. Vodka, lime juice, a rosemary simple syrup, and soda water made a wonderful thirst quenching marriage of rosemary (nobody liked my attempt at a clever name). However, a casual trip to a table on our bar patio completely changed my view on things, literally.

It was an ordinary table of guests. It was about 5:00 in the evening, and the sun was still beating down pretty hard. A couple of ladies had just chosen a table outside and were ready to start their Friday off right. I brought out some water, and a couple of plates and silverware rolls because they had indicated they would be ordering food. They order a bottle of champagne, and I promptly brought the proper setup out to the table: 2 glasses, a bottle of champagne, and an ice bucket and stand. I presented the champagne and removed the foil. Then, the ladies began moving things around on their table, and I realized that it would be difficult to pour the champagne with the waters, plates, and two ENORMOUS purses positioned on the table in their current state. I had begun to twist the cage open, but I had openly made two rotations on the cage’s twisted portion (I don’t know what you would call this part of the cage, but you know what I mean). It wasn’t really proper to stop the wine presentation, but I thought that I needed to rearrange the table to pour the champagne correctly. I put the bottle down in the bucket to my right, not thinking that the champagne had been opened enough to be any threat whatsoever. I should have pointed the bottle away from myself, but like I said, I didn’t think I had opened it enough to be an issue.

Unfortunately, I was mistaken. The temperature change caused by the summer heat must have been extreme enough to cause a pressure build up inside the bottle. It had been sitting inside of the bucket for approximately 20 seconds when all of the sudden, Wham! The cork exploded from the bottle and hit me directly in the eye with the cage still covering it, and when I say “directly”, I mean dead on. It didn’t graze my eye socket, it just hit my right eye. I was shocked momentarily and actually finished pouring the champagne to the table, who had barely noticed what occurred because they were so enthralled in their conversation. I went back to the bar, and began to acknowledge my pain. My eye was watering so bad, that I couldn’t see anything. I went to the bathroom and dried my eye until it stopped watering. I thought the pain would pass and my eye would be fine, but after about five minutes, I realized that my vision was becoming blurry and my eye really hurt. I had lost my contact, but I knew that my vision had altered significantly in other ways because of the impact. Things were getting hazy and cloudy. I called my girlfriend’s father, who is an eye doctor and explained to him what had happened. He told me that it was possible that I had disconnected my retina from my eye. Above all, I recall the phrase, “if this has occurred, you have about six hours to have surgery before losing vision in your eye permanently.”

Wow! After trips to two emergency rooms trying to get in quickly, two hours had passed and my vision in my right eye was almost completely gone. A lady asked me at the hospital how many fingers she was holding up, and I told her the only reason I knew that her shape was a person was because she was speaking to me. Fingers? Yeah right! I was finally seen by an optimologist who told me that I had experienced some blunt force trauma to my eye, and it had hemorrhaged. My fuzzy, and now dark vision, was caused by the presence of blood in my eye which was blurring my vision. She put some drops in my eyes, and told me that I was extremely lucky and would not need surgery. What a relief! My vision started getting clearer soon after I left the office, and I had a newfound respect for the rules of opening a bottle of champagne that I had bended earlier that day. I felt like an idiot, but I knew that I hadn’t really done anything that wrong with the bottle. I hadn’t shaken the bottle. It was cold when I brought it out, and the cage was still strongly attached to the bottle. No matter, the slightest combination of temperature change and a slight twist on the cage gave me a trip to the ER and nearly cost me vision in my right eye.

 

Additional Note: I checked the net quickly for some additional info and found this study. They actually state that 17% of champagne corks that hit people’s eyes and require medical attention cause permanent blindness. Man, I was really lucky!

I debated whether or not to post this on the blog because it is kind of embarrassing at makes me look like I don’t know how to open a bottle of champagne (which I have done thousands of times), but I decided to tell the story as a reminder of how powerful a bottle of bubbly can be. Also, how could I not post this story on a Mixology Monday that specifically asks for stories about champagne and other fizzy cocktails.

So, I was shot by a cork and need a champagne cocktail for Mixology Monday. Sounds like guns and champagne to me! The French 75. The French 75 is a cocktail that bar legend says was invented during World War I by soldiers in France who created this champagne cocktail. I have also heard it was invented by American bartenders, originally came with Absinthe, and other stories. I would do some further research, but right now, my eye hurts from looking at the screen with one eye too long, so I am just going to go with my memory of the cocktail. Either way, it was named after the gun, the French 75.

The French 75

2 oz Gin
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Simple Syrup
Champagne

In a shaker, combine the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup, shake, and strain into an ice filled Collins glass. Top with champagne and garnish with a lemon wheel.

A picture would be nice here right? Sadly, I don’t think drinking and taking pain medication is a good idea, and I don’t want to waste a bottle of champagne that won’t be consumed. Plus, why risk it?

I know this is story that no professional bartender should ever tell because I, of all people, should know better, but it happened because I underestimated a few elements of the process and became part of a freak situation. This, if anything, should be a reminder of why care is needed when opening a bottle of champagne throughout the entire process. Don’t skip any steps and once you begin to open the cage, even just a little bit, you have began something that could potentially be harmful. Most of all, always point the bottle in a safe direction. Treat it like a gun, maybe even a French 75. You are now free to mock me and make pirate jokes. After you’ve finished laughing at me head over to Gabriel’s site, Cocktail Nerd, and check out the other fizzy posts. Be sure not to stray to far from Gabriel’s site and look around it later if you’ve never been there before. It is an awesome site and, despite only being around for a couple of months, is quickly becoming one of the premier cocktail blogs on the net. Ask him to do some more fight nights!

I’d Like My Salad AND Cocktail With Vinegar Please

Gabriel, the “Cocktail Nerd”, recently discussed the issue of vinegar in cocktails, focusing on the Shrub family of cocktails. I think that the concept of using vinegar in cocktails is an awesome idea, and I really advise heading over to Gabriel’s blog and let him introduce you to using vinegar as a cocktail ingredient. His post demonstrates the use of a Raspberry Shrub Syrup, which is basically simple syrup cooked together with raspberries and vinegar. This sounds like a great potential ingredient, but before I read Gabriel’s post, I had been working with using vinegar in cocktails for about a month with one of our chefs, Dax.

Dax is a big fan of gastriques, which he uses to add flavor to various dishes. A gastrique is very similar to Gabriel’s Raspberry Shrub Syrup, but it exclusively uses sugar, vinegar, and whichever flavoring agents one chooses. The result is a cocktail ingredient that is extremely powerful and adds a ton of flavor to any drink. We’ve been working with several gastriques in cocktails lately, and I highly recommend anyone trying to find new flavors sources to do the same. To make a gastrique, follow these steps:

Step 1: Caramelize sugar in a sauce pan.

To do this, add enough water to cover the bottom of a medium sauce pan and a splash of lemon juice with one cup of sugar. The water and lemon juice essentially just keep the sugar from burning and will eventually evaporate as the sugar turns to a caramel. If you are doing this for the first time, you will want to mess with the syrup and constantly question whether it has caramelized. Trust me, you will know when it is done, until then just use a pastry brush to push sugar into the saucepan and keep it off of the sides. Eventually, the bubbles (evaporating water) will disappear as the sugar finalizes its caramel transition and begins to turn a brown color. You can make a light or dark caramel, but don’t let the sugar burn. We could take this caramel and pour it on ice cream, but that would be a waste of a potentially great drink additive.

Step 2: Make a gastrique.

Begin introducing vinegar to the caramel slowly and stir the two together. Be careful at first, as the vinegar and caramel will pop violently as they first meet. I don’t like to name any specific amount of vinegar because using varying amounts can create different gastriques, but basically, you need to mix enough in enough vinegar until the gastrique becomes less like a caramel and more like syrup that will pour off the spoon you are stirring with. Basically, ask yourself, can I pour this into cocktail shaker? Keep everything on the stove on medium-low heat.

Step 3: Flavor your gastrique.

Use the same rules for flavoring a gastrique that you would for any simple syrup. Spiced elements will take longer and rely on the presence of heat; herbal elements will become part of the gastrique sooner and can be burnt by too much heat. Keep tasting the gastrique and remove from the stove when satisfied. Allow the gastrique to cool, leaving any non-herbal ingredients in it to add more flavor. Add an ounce of vodka to serve as a preservative and store in the fridge in a sealed container. The sealed part is important, as I have found the flavor of gastriques, for whatever reason, to change overtime when not stored correctly. I actually like to use the spare vacuum wine sealers I have around the house to keep this from occurring. I don’t know why this happens and seems to be distinct to my gastriques, but it does and can be avoided by taking these steps.

As with any simple syrup, all types of sugar will work and can influence the distinct qualities of your gastrique. Try one with brown sugar, and you will get a really nice change. Various types of vinegar also create new possibilities for you to experiment with. White wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar…the potential is tremendous. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend using vinegar that would pair with the flavor additives you have chosen as they would in a dish. For example, if you are using traditionally Asian ingredients, like ginger, a rice wine vinegar works well. But, don’t let yourself get too restricted by this advice, Dax made a killer Balsamic gastrique flavored with rosemary, which we mixed with a red wine simple syrup and used in the Mergroni, as a substitute for sweet vermouth.

Our favorite drink to this point has been a Vanilla-Cardamom Sidecar, I call the Wreck. This is basically a traditional Sidecar which has a Vanilla-Cardamom gastrique added to it. I love Sidecars, but this gastrique flavored variant is especially awesome. At the bar, we managed to convince several people to take the vinegar plunge, and everybody really loved it.

The Wreck

1 ½ oz Brandy
½ oz Cointreau
½ oz Lemon Juice
1/3 oz Vanilla-Cardamom Gastrique
Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a cocktail glass garnished with a lemon twist.

The potential for using vinegar in cocktails is endless. In some circumstances, a gastrique might be best, while in others, a shrub syrup might work best. I recommend thinking of these concepts as two basic extremes and mixing the two together to meet somewhere in the middle, using a juice, wine, or even sake based syrup to make a wildly different shrub syrup, or finding a completely different route. Either way, if you experiment with vinegar even a little bit, you will be hooked and start to explore all of the possibilities. I promise you will find distinct and exciting cocktail possibilities.

Is Your Bloody Mary Really the Best?

Bloody Marys come in all shapes and sizes, and as Keith of Moving at the Speed of Life and Union in Seattle pointed out in the comment section of my discussion of Bloody Mary social norms, everyone thinks that theirs is the best. I happen to think that I am doing some good stuff, but, unlike so may other bartenders and home mixers, I am not going to claim to be the Rumpelstiltskin of tomato juice. No gold, just great cocktails.

Sometimes, I wonder if people who claim to make the best Bloody Mary have ever tasted other versions of this drink. I tend to think that many Bloody Mary “champion’s” claims of superiority are based on some gimmicky ingredient, extravagant garnish, or a complete lack of understanding towards the components of a good drink. Like any other cocktail, Bloody Marys benefit from a basic understanding of three fundamental cocktail principles:

1) Use fresh ingredients. As Dash of Bitters stressed this week, tomato juice comes from tomatoes, not cans. In some instances, exclusively using fresh ingredients can become too costly or require access to fields and farmers markets, but in this situation, we’re dealing with tomatoes. They are cheap and available; you’ve got no excuse.

2) Balance your ingredients. A good drink should not be dominated by a singular ingredient. Cocktails should have levels, allowing you to ponder the ingredients and how they dance together. Each dance has a different taste that stresses different elements greater than others. Tango? Waltz? Macarena? It all depends on what you’re in the mood for, but nobody likes to dance alone. In other words, making your Bloody Mary taste like a steak is not a good idea.

3) Make it look good. Grandiose or simple, a Bloody Mary should not be a liquid foundation for a weird type of culinary Jenga in which people pile an endless amount of food items on top of the glass, forcing the consumer to carefully disassemble the beverage/meal to avoid a collapse and ruined new shirt. The garnish should be distinct, decorative, and add an element to the cocktail that creates another dimension of balance. If your garnish does not help achieve greater equilibrium or upsets the balance, you need to reconsider your approach.

These cocktail principles are in no way exclusive, but they are the most violated rules of the Bloody Mary creator. Now think about how many times you have heard claims of Bloody Mary expertise and simultaneously seen a violation of these principles. I would bet that this leaves only about 5% of the self-proclaimed Bloody Mary geniuses left. One reason why people have trouble following good rules of the cocktail creation when making Bloody Marys is that this drink often emphasizes the wrong elements, violating every one of the principles.

Initially, Bloody Mary creators tend to focus exclusively on their tomato juice base and surprisingly never seem to use fresh tomato juice. Popular ingredients such as worcestershire, Tabasco, horseradish, wasabi, beef stock, and weird extremes seem to be the most important ingredients to some individuals. Unfortunately, these additives have very strong flavors which easily disrupt the balance of a good Bloody Mary and prevent the fresh tomato juice from displaying its vibrant characteristics. If you enjoy these flavors, by all means, add them, but remember, there is a reason why worcestershire and vodka is not a popular drink.

It is also important to remember that this tomato base, like any cocktail juice, should balance the included alcohol, in this case vodka. As pointed out before and reinforced by Drink Boston this week, I am not a big fan of stressing the differences between vodka in cocktails. It is a spirit that is produced to be odorless and tasteless which, despite differences in quality, generally does not influence cocktails tremendously. However, vodka does not have to stay this way. Infusions, especially in Bloody Marys, provide a unique opportunity to introduce distinct flavors to your cocktails. By utilizing a great infusion with a carefully considered tomato base, some Bloody Marys might start living up to their hype. My favorite infusion, and one we have started using at th bar, is a Habanero pepper infusion. The spicy reputation of Habanero peppers would seemingly contradict the balance of a good Bloody Mary, but as long as you monitor your infusion and consider the sum of your cocktail parts by adjusting other ingredients accordingly, this Bloody Mary is awesome!

Habanero Infusion

Remove all the stems and seeds from two Habanero peppers. Quarter the Habanero peppers and add one liter of your vodka of choice to a infusion jar, saving the bottle for later. Allow the peppers to sit in the vodka for up to two days, depending on your tolerance for spicy flavors. Stir the infusion twice a day and taste each time to keep track of how spicy the vodka is becoming. When satisfied with the infusion, fine strain the vodka back into the bottle and keep for up to 6 months, or longer, if kept in the fridge.

Bloody Mary creators that have made it this far a generally experienced or extremely careful, but few venture beyond the vodka and tomato juice base. This is a shame because other great possibilities exist. The list is endless, but my favorites next step is the muddling of cilantro with one or two lime wedges. Combined with the pepper flavored vodka, the cilantro and lime qualities make a salsa style Bloody Mary that is as complex as any extravagant evening cocktail.

I didn’t list a specific recipe for my Bloody Mary or give any step-by-step directions because I want this post to simply challenge your conception of the Bloody Mary. I love making Bloody Marys because I get to use ingredients that I don’t touch in any other drink. The possibilities are endless, but they need to follow certain guidelines that are essential to any great drink. If you’re a Bloody Mary “expert” and find that you haven’t been following all of these rules, there is probably some room for improvement in your Bloody Mary. Before your Bloody Mary pride gets all bent out of shape, I’m not saying you don’t make the best; I’m just suggesting ways to make it better. I don’t make the rules; I just drink by them.

Bloody Mary Social Theory

The Bloody Mary’s nostalgia is amazing. Name one other drink that permits Sunday morning preachers, business lunch goers, and responsible parents to drink so boldly in the face of a judgmental public. I have often wondered why this drink, which contains the same amount of alcohol as countless others, is permitted where others are frowned upon. There is no single characteristic of the Bloody Mary that seems to pinpoint its general social acceptance, but over my years of bartending, I have developed several Bloody Mary Social Theories (BMST’s). Hey! I just spent two years getting my Master’s in communication – I’ve got to do something with it.

BMST #1 – The Hangover Drink Theory

Ah, the morning after Bloody Mary! It is one of those simple pleasures that make the whole day better. Water may be best, but it lacks that same satisfaction that has made the Bloody Mary a staple after a night of excess. Could this relationship between recovery and the Bloody Mary indicate the root of social acceptance? This myth of a Bloody Mary treated hangover suggests that the cocktail is helping one to rid themselves of the effects of alcohol, making it acceptable where other cocktails would seem to be a sure fire sign of someone who has a problem. Try and have a simple gin and tonic the next day and people will ask you if you had enough last night; order a Bloody Mary and people think it’s a great idea. The only problem with this theory is that it would seem to suggest that those drinking Bloody Marys would have been drinking the night before, which in many situations would more unacceptable than ordering that G&T. Still, the presumed detoxicating characteristics of the Bloody Mary may contribute to a kinder social attitude towards the drink.

BMST #2 – The Cocktail Maturity Theory

I don’t think I have ever served a 21-year-old a Bloody Mary. It just isn’t a rookie call. Younger drinkers want to taste pleasant refreshing juices that can go down easy and lead to poorly made decisions that can be blamed on excessive drinking later. Perhaps, the use of tomato juice suggests a certain degree of cocktail maturity; you don’t chug tomato. The Bloody Mary is sort of an acquired taste; could this suggest someone who is capable of handling their alcohol and not a social threat? This might be true, but at the same time, the logical mind would suggest that the same individual simply can’t go without. I have never confused social perceptions with logic, but again, the theory seems less than perfect.

BMST #3 – The Food Conspiracy Theory

Bloody Mary garnishes seem to be becoming increasingly excessive. Recently, I saw a Bloody Mary served with a stalk of celery, a jalapeno pepper, three olives, a lime wedge, an 8-inch sausage link, and a warm roll. The glass had so much stuff piled on top of it that you had to almost unpack it to get a drink. I’m not complaining about this wonderful mound of food and drink served together, but I do think that it begs the question of whether this is still a singular cocktail. Instead, I propose that the increase in enormous Bloody Mary garnishes is a carefully calculated culinary addition that blurs the line between drinking and eating. Knob on the rocks is someone trying to get a buzz; a Bloody Mary is someone enjoying a meal. However, not all bars and restaurants take the effort to create large garnishes; some even barely place more than a lime. Somehow, even these neglected cocktails are socially acceptable. Could this theory be a bust as well?

I am not sure that these theories independently hold any water, but together I think they may partially explain why society is more accepting of this drink than any other. But what good are theories if we can’t apply them to other situations?

BMST #1 Application: If Bloody Marys have been pawned off as hangover cures, let’s launch a PR campaign that would give positive reputation to other drinks. Cocktail bloggers and bartenders alike should promote a gin = geniuses myth that will make drinking Old Raj suitable while at work. Could life get any better?

BMST #2 Application: Bloody Marys are acceptable because they demonstrate a degree of drinking maturity. Well, I don’t remember hearing about any underage pregnancies resulting from Campari. It is possible that Bloody Marys are the only cocktail that we know society is willing to accept in non-traditional drinking situations because we haven’t explored out other options in fear of ridicule. Be braver, start ordering other drinks at seemingly unacceptable times. Just make sure to order something that society has little knowledge of; they will be less willing to pass judgment and might even have one. Imagine that spreading the joy of Campari and being able to have some at any time.

BMST #3 Application: Put food on everything! Screw you man; I can drink Absinthe whenever I want as long as I have this freaking piece of bread resting on the cocktail napkin with it. I’m not drinking; I’m eating so leave me alone!

I hope that you weren’t expecting a synopsis of the history of the Bloody Mary or my thoughts on how to make the best Bloody Mary in the world. I love writing about that stuff and do make a killer Bloody Mary, but you can only think about the drink itself for so many years before you start to ponder the people drinking them. If you are interested in my Bloody Mary creations and find yourself in Houston, Texas, come by my bar and order one. Otherwise, check back later this week when I will talk about some of my favorite twists on the Bloody Mary.