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Cocktail museum shakes and stirs history
It should not come as a surprise that there is a Museum of the American Cocktail … there’s a museum, a day, a week and a month to celebrate just about everything, so why not cocktails?
Ted Haigh, the curator of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans recently sat down with the Associated Press and shared some interesting little-known facts about cocktails. Here are a few tidbits …
Although people tend to call anything in a V-shaped glass a cocktail, the drink traditionally is required to have spirits, sugar and bitters. Some other facts about the drink:
Originally, the cocktail was considered a morning eye-opener. Some speculate that’s how it got its name — a metaphor for a rooster (cock) heralding the light of day.
In New Orleans, legend has it Antoine Peychaud served his blend of bitters and brandy in eggcups, known as “coquetiers”; to the French-speaking residents. The word later was corrupted to “cock-tay,” and finally to cocktail.
In the 1800s, bitters were used as medicine. Peychaud’s Bitters — label still reads, “Good for what ails one irrespective of malady.”
Martinis and Manhattans were not developed in the United States until vermouth was imported from Europe.
Two of the earliest recorded enhancements to the cocktail were a sugar-crusted glass lip with fruit peel (called a crusta), and the addition of absinthe, now illegal in the U.S.
They recently had an event called “Tales of the Cocktail” - a festival which brings mixologists, authors, bartenders, chefs and drink designers together for several days of demos, tastings, seminars, mixing competitions, dinner-pairings and more. The Web site has a line stating, “measuring some of their success in garnishes, Tales of the Cocktail 2007, used 7250 mint leaves, 3580 lime wedges, 800 watermelon cubes, 560 gin soaked dried cherries, 1390 orange slices, 2 tons of ice and more for thousands of sippers!” It sounds like these folks are serious about their drinks.
The site for the event actually has some blogs, podcasts and some good recipes posted that sound very elegant.
Here’s a recipe by Stacey Smith of GW Finsm, New Orleans, that sounded quite lovely. Not to mention it was the official cocktail of the 2007 event:
Starfish Cooler
Ingredients: 1 oz. Moet and Chandon White Star, 1 oz. Lemoncello, 1 oz. PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur, 1 oz. Un-sweet Iced Tea, 1/2 oz. Simple Syrup Instructions: Muddle orange slice and mint leaf in Collins glass, combine all ingredients.
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