What’s the oddest garnish you’ve seen?

~ DBCouper ~ 1 Comment

Whether present for flavor or looks (usually both), the humble garnish works hard to differentiate your drink.

Differing schools of thought rule the citrus peel. Many a mixologist has expressed a peel over my drink. But what happens next differs. Some drop the peel into the drink. Some circle the rim with the peel first. Others believe that rubbing the peel on the stem of the glass is the proper next step, as it leaves warm citrus notes on the drinker’s hand and adds to the nose of the drink.

I’ll update as I receive more interesting examples. Comments about your oddest garnishes are welcome!

Old-Fashioned Menus

~ DBCouper ~ Leave a comment

The Old Fashioned is a contentious drink. Few others (and I say that with the certainty of someone who has done no research) have such distinct geographic divisions.

Not every article on the history of the Old Fashioned acknowledges this, so I refuse to link to a single one that didn’t do their homework on the northern Midwestern niche of Wisconsin’s brandy Old Fashioneds. Slate, though, did do some pretty great homework on the topic.

As have millions of salt-of-the-earth brandy drinkers:

Having reached the age of my majority in this little pocket of reality where Korbel is king, my interest is piqued by variations on the Old Fashioned. Here are some menus I’ve encountered:

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 Old Fashioned menu at Melrose Umbrella Company, Los Angeles, CA, 2016.

Above: Old Fashioneds on tap at Branchline in Emeryville, CA, 2015.
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We really shook the pillars of heaven, didn’t we?

~ DBCouper ~ Leave a comment

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We here at Coupe Tales will acknowledge a certain cocktail snobbery, yes, but let it never be said that our eyes didn’t transform into little anime heart shapes when we got a glimpse of a good theme menu.

Like this heaven-sent glory at the Kurt Russell Deep Cuts art show at Public Works SF.

Look at that! Four Kurt Russell-themed drinks at a reasonable (for San Francisco) $10 each. Pictured is my Escape the Snake cocktail with Espolon Reposado tequila, ginger beer, and lime, which I thoroughly enjoyed while basking in the artistic interpretations of John Carpenter movies around me.

A good theme ennobles a drink, no matter what its ingredients may be.

A Sacred Undertaking

~ DBCouper ~ 1 Comment
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Sacred Gin (and more) handsomely arrayed at Whitechapel for Sacred’s tasting and event. A wonderful night of rare flavors.

Above all, your humble narrator loves gin.

Sacred Gin hit my radar in London a few years ago, where the excellent history Gin Glorious Gin: How Mother’s Ruin Became the Spirit of London upended my itinerary and sent me instead in search of Sacred Gin at Gerry’s and cocktails at Artesian, Nightjar, and Callooh Callay.

Nestled in my checked luggage, a bottle of Sacred’s London Dry survived the return voyage to California where it now holds a place of honor among my bottles. American markets don’t offer the London Dry so cocktails made from it are few and far between in my home.

Therefore, Sacred’s event at renowned gin palace Whitechapel required a pilgrimage.

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The Cardamom G&T using Sacred’s Cardamom Gin

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The unknown delight

~ DBCouper ~ Leave a comment

This cocktail was imbibed October 10, 2015 at Melrose Umbrella Company in Los Angeles, California.

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History does not record the drink’s contents or name. However, taking into account the bar, logic dictates that it was off the hook delish.

Interestingly, those appear to be standard candylike maraschino cherries rather than the Luxardo marachinos more often used at quality joints. Melrose Umbrella Company’s credentials are beyond dispute so I propose that it takes a hella confident place to use the candy cherries. Or perhaps they are tomatoes — though I don’t think this is their Dry Rub cocktail, which does use cherry tomatoes. That one has a rim of BBQ spices, I believe. All truth is lost to the fog of time (and drink)!

Coupe tales intends to return to Melrose Umbrella Company shortly. Research, I promise, will be conducted.

Amante Amaro, Heritage Tavern

~ DBCouper ~ 1 Comment

The Amante Amaro at Heritage Tavern in Madison, WI. Cynar, Cynar 70, housemade artichoke tincture, guajillo pepper and porter syrup, lemon, fir tips.

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Though I didn’t sip the Amanate Amaro until August 2016, I’d first craved it in January, when someone sent me an image of its description on the menu.

Artichoke enthusiasts will note the layers here. Cynar AND Cynar 70? (Equal parts, I eventually learned.) Artichoke tincture boosts the flavors in the famously artichoke-inspired amaro — especially helpful if, like me, you find Cynar to taste inadequately of artichokes.

Upon learning of this drink I reached out to Heritage Tavern to ask about their housemade artichoke tincture. The detailed response underscored my firm belief that bartenders are the friendliest artists that an enthusiast can speak with. Here are some selections from the information that Bar Manager Clinton told me:
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I’m trying to tell you now it’s sabluetage

~ DBCouper ~ 1 Comment

Now alerted to the trend by the honorable Camper English of Alcademics, I hereby swear to be on the lookout for instances of sabluetage.

Lest you imagine that 2012 cocktail color trends are hopelessly outdated, let me propose that everything English writes was previously foreseen by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, who wrote of rises, falls, returns, and bright blue things in his 1933 poem “Lapis Lazuli”:

All things fall and are built again
And those that build them again are gay.

-Yeats, 1933