In the Land of Cocktails

SWIZZLE THE VOTE!

Posted by Ti Adelaide Martin on November 4th, 2008

Inter­est­ing time to launch our lat­est adven­ture – Elec­tion 2008.  No mat­ter your take on things it has been long… very long.  And far more inter­est­ing than usual.  All fac­tors call­ing for a seri­ous cocktail.

When cel­e­brat­ing your candidate’s win, your thoughts may turn to the clas­sic Cham­pagne Cock­tail.  The cherry in the bot­tom, the “tiny bub­bles.”  And if you were like my Aunt Ade­laide, it’s the per­fect occa­sion to lean over your cock­tail with your gold swiz­zle stick on the end of your neck­lace, hang­ing ever so dis­creetly on your… umm, chest, and swiz­zle your cham­pagne in a feigned effort to acti­vate the bub­bles.  She could cap­ti­vate a room like no one I have ever seen, with­out say­ing a word.  That reminds of the time the movie direc­tor.… nah, I’ll save that for another time.

The Cham­pagne Cock­tail a time­less clas­sic orig­i­nally made pop­u­lar in 1862.  A Cham­pagne Cock­tail is one of the rare instances when the wide mouthed, shal­low glass is used with Cham­pagne instead of the tall, thin flute.  Flutes can be used if you don’t have coupes. Using a sugar cube, rather than sim­ple syrup, is clas­sic as well.

Ladies, if we escort you and your gen­tle­man to Table 8 at Commander’s Palace, we hope you’re ready to say, “I do.”  More cou­ples have got­ten engaged at Table 8, a roman­tic cor­ner nes­tled in the Col­i­seum Room, than through­out the entire restau­rant.  Cham­pagne and Cham­pagne Cock­tails are de rigueur for such occa­sions.  Unless the lady says no.  Then it’s “Check, please.”

Cham­pagne Cock­tail
Makes 1 cock­tail
1 sugar cube
6 dashes Angos­tura bit­ters.
Chilled Cham­pagne, to fill the glass
.
Lemon twist for garnish

Place the sugar cube in the bot­tom of a Cham­pagne glass and drop the bit­ters onto it. Fill the glass with Cham­pagne and gar­nish with the twist. Serve immediately.

Now, if you are a bit gloomier on elec­tion night we have a new drink for you.  It is called “The Oops.”  I’ve been want­ing to name a drink that for years.

Up and com­ing bar­tender at Com­man­ders Palace in New Orleans, Fer­rel Dugas, invented this recently.  I am in a Whiskey phase and I per­pet­u­ally sug­gest they develop around it.  Ta Da… The Oops!

The Oops
1 oz Maker’s Mark
1 oz Grand Marnier
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
3 dashes Peychaud’s bit­ters
1/4 oz Cherry Heering

Chill a mar­tini glass.  Shake all ingre­di­ents in a cock­tail shaker and strain into the mar­tini glass.  Gar­nish with an orange peel.

Darn good drink, exceed­ingly well bal­anced!  In fact I am hav­ing din­ner with Dale DeGroff,  “King Cock­tail” him­self this week and we will try it out on him. We’ll let you know how it goes.

Now, what­ever you do on elec­tion day VOTE!  And have a well-made cock­tail.
Oogy WaWa

Ti Ade­laide

*  Coin­ci­den­tally, both of these amaz­ing Cock­tail Chicks came up with the Cham­pagne Cock­tail inde­pen­dent of each other!  Check out some election/cocktail related links on our Friends page.  Your Vote and Voice Counts.  And please let us know what you’ll be drink­ing as Amer­ica moves for­ward with its new president.