"Pegu Club Cocktail...a confirmed classic"

I have seen this cocktail in several of my classic cocktail books, but in truth, I have never made it...until now.  Earlier today I purchased a set of vintage Fostoria Art Deco Era etched cocktail glasses and wanted to christen them with a drink worthy of such beauty.  

*Fostoria Art Deco Era etched cocktail glass

The Pegu Club and it's namesake cocktail have all but disappeared from it's present day Myanmar, however there has been a resurgence due to tourism.  The cocktail first appears in Harry McElhone's "Barflies and Cocktails" (1927) then again in the "Savoy Cocktail Book"  (1930) by Harry Craddock and yet again in Patrick Gavin Duffy's "Official Mixer's Manual" (1934).  The recipe is relatively the same in each book, but the measurements vary...here is my first go with this cocktail...

*Three of my classic cocktail reference books

Barragan's Pegu Club Cocktail

2 oz Boodles Gin

1 oz Pierre Ferrand Orange Curacao

1/2 oz Lime Juice

dash of Angostura Bitters

dash of Regan's Orange Bitters

"La Fheile Padraig...more commonly knows as The Feast of Saint Patrick"

The Feast of Saint Patrick is celebrated on the traditional death date of the foremost patron saint of Ireland, March 17th.  For starters, Patrick was born into a wealthy Romano-British family from the Roman provence of Britania c.AD 385.  His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church.  At the age of 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland.  During the 6 years of working as a shepherd he "found God" and managed to escape and find his way back to Britania.  According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity.

Saint Patrick is often associated and credited with expelling the snakes out of Ireland.  This is just a metaphor for expelling the pagan beliefs and converting them to Christianity.  In addition, the shamrock was used to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish pagans.

Time to grab an Irish beer or whisky, in my case both, and Slainte!

"Cocktail a la Louisiane"

New Orleans is the birthplace to some of my favorite cocktails...meet the Cocktail a la Louisiane.  This is the special cocktail served at the Restaurant de la Louisiane.  This cocktail is a very spirit forward one,  reminiscent of a Sazerac or a Vieux Carre (details on this beauty coming soon)...this cocktail can be found in the Famous New Orleans Drinks and how to mix 'em by Stanley Clisby Arthur 1937.

*A great book for classic cocktails

The original recipe in the book calls for equal parts rye, vermouth and Benedictine, but I find this to be a deservedly rye based cocktail so I mix it as such...

1 1/2 oz Rye Whiskey (Rittenhouse Rye)

1/2 oz Italian Sweet Vermouth (Punt E Mes)

1/2 oz Benedictine

bar spoon of Absinthe (Mata Hari)

2 dashes of Angostura Bitters

2 dashes of Peychauds Bitters

stir all the ingredients together in a beaker with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with a giant ice cube

garnished with a Luxardo Cherry

Cheers!

http://www.lalouisiane.com/la-louisiane-history

"Sabrage...the gentle art of Sabering"

The technique of Sabrage is known to have been popular in France during Napoleons era.  The saber was the weapon of choice for Napolean's light cavalry, the Hussars.  In one of the more spirited tales about sabering, Madame Clicquot used to entertain Napoleon's officers in her vineyard and they would open the champagne bottle with their saber to impress her.

The physics behind the sabrage...a Champagne bottle holds between 70-90 psi or as we are taught as sommeliers "a pressure of 5 to 6 atmospheres".  At the opening of the bottle, there is a lip that creates a stress concentration.  On the vertical seem of the bottle there is a thin, faintly visible seam, which creates a second stress concentration.  At the intersection of the seam and the lip, both stress concentrations combine and the strength of the glass is reduced by more than fifty percent.  The impact of the saber on this weak point creates a crack that rapidly propagates through the glass, fueled by the momentum of the saber and the pressure in the bottle.  Once the crack has severed the top from the bottle, the pressure inside the bottle and transferred momentum from the saber will send the top flying, typically 15-30 feet.

"Champagne! In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it."- Napoleon Bonaparte