I could really go for a blue blazer right about now

December 20, 2012 10:54 PM

How to Mix [Old Timey] Drinks with David Wondrich (slyt)
posted by special-k (18 comments total)

I will have a sherry cobbler and finish me off with an eggnog.
posted by quazichimp at 11:27 PM on December 20, 2012

As a bartender I wish I had access to some of these liquors. Very frustrating to not have the correct stuff when I go into work tomorrow. Awesome post though.
posted by efalk at 11:56 PM on December 20, 2012

I think hot scotch might be the drink I've been looking for all these years. Hot alcohol is a woefully underpopulated category.
posted by cthuljew at 12:21 AM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

The one time I was talked into serving a flaming drink (I'd vowed never to do so after reading too many horror stories, and having one of my own) a girl's hair briefly caught on fire, as did a table. Yeah they look cool but no shit are they really dangerous.
posted by efalk at 12:25 AM on December 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

From the Blue Blazer introduction: "...back in the day, they would toss the drinks over their head between two tumblers -- nobody can figure that out anymore; it's a lost art."

Maybe the art got lost during a trip to South India?
posted by ceribus peribus at 1:24 AM on December 21, 2012 [6 favorites]

Dude has way too much facial hair to be messing about with flaming cocktails.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:52 AM on December 21, 2012

Yeah, this skill was retained in India. An alcoholic example is in snake coffee.
posted by Runes at 5:53 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

BTW, the book is a freebie on Google Play if you're interested in doing more research.
posted by Runes at 5:58 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I much prefer the videos of Chris McMillian.
posted by dobbs at 6:06 AM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Buckaroo fans would call that drink a Blue Blazer Regular.
posted by dobbs at 6:14 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I heard it that way in my head so many times, I was pretty confused when I first saw it written as "Blue Blaze Irregulars".
posted by adamdschneider at 6:29 AM on December 21, 2012

I would drink the shit out of that egg nog.

(might downgrade the sugar a bit and perhaps even add a pinch of msg)
posted by flippant at 7:29 AM on December 21, 2012

I also reccomend the book Imbibe! As it features the Jerry P Thomas book, but updates the definitions and measurements for modern times, and provides a biography of Thomas as well.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:45 AM on December 21, 2012

Also the Cocktail Spirit by Robert Hess is on of the first cocktail video blogs I've found and is still being updated.

For fellow mixologists of tipulars.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:48 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wondrich is great at being super informed without coming off as a pedantic overly precious mixologist dick in his cocktail books. The writing's clever but accessible (the recipes too, for that matter). And if you like this, you might like Small Screen Network's video how-to series from Jamie Boudreau (best bartender ever) and Robert Hess.
posted by ifjuly at 9:10 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

(Boudreau's Old Fashioned, Cubed is lovely, and he taught me you can make rimming dusts out of stuff like Chartreuse...not surprising given he serves the stuff on tap at Canon)
posted by ifjuly at 9:17 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is amazing and now I really want a drink....at 9:40 in the morning.... eggnog sounds like breakfast, right?
posted by chatongriffes at 9:41 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

@chatongriffes If you The Dude, it would be brunch, with all that nourishment:)
Seriously, i love when people do this type of stuff with a white shirt and cufflinks and stay clean.
It also reminds me of how wonderful the internet is, where those who are interested and those who want to can get together; how would this ever work in the 1980s? Some dull airwave hogging tv programme? A book?
It also makes me sooo want a bar spoon. I also get accoutrement lust for everything else, but i've learnt from years of hoarding to only indulge small lusts. I spent years begging anyone i knew who was going to australia to buy me a tablespoon, as theirs is 20ml and ours is 15ml, and i also always wanted one of those chocolate-beaters from south america. (Goes to ebay and alibaba.)
posted by maiamaia at 4:04 PM on December 22, 2012