It's "the world's only verbal cocktail manual," originally released as a 10" LP. You can download the mp3 files at the link, and it's well worth it.
Maurice Dreicer was a radio personality and gourmet who spent forty years on a quest for the perfect steak, invented a caviar-testing device, and "spent over thirty years in time, over half a million dollars in money, and over two million miles in travel (including fifteen trips to Europe) to gather the information for the WORLD'S ONLY VERBAL COCKTAIL MANUAL." - quoted from the liner notes reproduced on the WFMU site.
Vodka, the most popular spirit in the United States, is usually (and rightly) maligned by serious cocktailians. The problem most of us booze-nerds have with vodka is that, in it’s pure expression, it is intended to have no flavor. None. Zip. Nothing. The ideal vodka would be 40% - 50% absolutely pure alcohol diluted with absolutely pure water.
In reality, absolutely pure alcohol and water are impossible to manufacture, so vodkas do taste slightly different from one another, but really, isn’t “nothing,” kind of boring as an ideal? Especially to a segment of the population that enjoys things like barrel proof whiskeys, smoky, peaty single-malt Scotch, and Fernet Branca sipped neat?
Vodka does have a role to play in the creation of serious cocktails, and it’s a role that no other spirit can play. Vodka works to soften and mellow the intense flavors of other ingredients while maintaining the alcoholic content, and thus the flavor and impact, of the drink.
I’ll be the first to agree that most vodka cocktails are uninteresting in the extreme. A Screwdriver tastes like alcoholic orange juice, a Greyhound like grapefruit juice, and don’t get me started on vodka “Martinis.” There are a few interesting drinks that use vodka as the base spirit, and this is one of them.
1 ½ oz. cold vodka (From the freezer – I used Absolut)
½ oz. dry vermouth (I used Dolin – Noilly Prat also works well)
2 ½ tsp. apricot brandy (Marie Brizard Apry)
dash Angostura bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
This is a drink that uses vodka properly. It mellows the intense flavor and sweetness of the apricot brandy, and the vermouth and bitters add a complexity without being overbearing. This would make a nice aperitif, or serve as a refresher on a hot day.
For my introductory post, I figured I'd minimize all the getting-to-know-you junk and get right down to a drink (Kind of like meeting a girl in a dive bar, no?).
When they were first introduced, cocktails were morning drinks. You'd have one or two (or four or five) before breakfast in order to get over what you were drinking the night before. While this didn't do much for the cocktail's reputation in those early days - we're talking late 18th century here - there are still a few drinks that lend themselves, either by composition or by name, to early in the day imbibing. The Bloody Mary is probably the most popular morning-after libation, but there are others...
This is one of them - The Morning Cocktail (recipe from cocktaildb.com)
1 oz. brandy (I used cognac)
3/4 oz. dry vermouth
1/4 oz. curacao
1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur
1/4 oz. pastis (or absinthe - I used a pre-1975 bottle of Pernod, back when it was 86-proof and quite a bit tastier)
2 dashes orange bitters
Stir and strain into a cocktail glass. No garnish is needed, because this drink is complicated enough for someone with a hangover to put together without messing about with a channel knife, but an orange or lemon twist would likely work well.
With these proportions, this drink is a little too sweet for my taste, and the next time I make it I'll likely cut back on the maraschino and curacao, and substitute a real absinthe for the pastis, which should result in a drier and more agreeable drink. I don't think this will do much as a curative, but it's a pleasant enough drink in it's own right.
