Literary Cocktails Booklet
17
1
Honey:
George:
Martha:
- Edward Albee,
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Oh, I don’t know, a little brandy
maybe. “Never mix, never worry!”
Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?
Sure! “Never mix, never worry!”
2
Vesper Martini
- Ian Fleming, Casino Royale
‘A dry martini,’ Bond said. ‘One. In a deep
champagne goblet’ . . . Just a moment. Three
measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure
of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold,
then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?”
Ingredients
1/2 part Vodka
1 part Gin
1/4 part Lillet Blanc
Shake over ice until well
chilled, then strain into a deep goblet and
garnish with a thin slice of lemon peel.
“
3
Mint Julep
Ingredients
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
2 oz Bourbon whiskey
2 teaspoons water
4 mint leaves
Gently muddle the mint, sugar and water.
Fill a highball glass with cracked ice, add
Bourbon and stir well until the glass is
well frosted. Garnish with a mint sprig.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“
Daisy, “Open the whiskey, Tom, and I’ll
make you a mint julep. Then you won’t seem
so stupid to yourself.... Look at the mint!”
4
At five o'clock I was in the Hotel Crillon, waiting
for Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and
wrote some letters. They were not very good letters
but I hoped their being on Crillon stationery would
help them. Brett did not turn up, so about quarter
to six I went down to the bar and had a Jack Rose
with George the barman.
Jack Rose
Ingredients
2 parts Applejack
1 part lemon or lime juice
1/2 part Grenadine
Traditionally shaken into a chilled glass,
garnished, and served straight up; without ice
- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
“
5
- Tennessee Williams,
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The click I get in my head when I’ve had
enough of this stuff to make me peaceful.
Ingredients
1 oz Bourbon
1 tablespoon mild honey
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup boiling-hot water
Put bourbon, honey, and lemon juice in a
mug. Top off with hot water and stir until
honey is dissolved.
“
Hot Toddy
6
‘Let me build you a drink. Something new.
They call it a White Angel,’ he said, mixing
one-half vodka, one-half gin, no vermouth.
White Angel
[Naked Martini]
Ingredients
1 part vodka
1 part gin
No Vermouth!
Shake over ice for about
ten seconds. Strain into
a cocktail glass.
- Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
“
7
Anybody who monkeys around with gin and egg
white deserves what he gets. I should have stuck
with Bourbon and have from that day to this.
Gin Fizz
Ingredients
2 oz Gin
1 oz Fresh lemon juice
3⁄4 oz Simple syrup
Mix the first four ingredients to a shaker
and dry-shake (without ice) for about 10
seconds. Add 3 or 4 ice cubes and shake
very well. Double-strain into a chilled
fizz glass and top with club soda.
- Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins
“
1 Egg white
1 oz Club soda
8
I ordered a Scotch and soda, and told him not to
mix it—I said it fast as hell, because if you hem
and haw, they think you’re under twenty-one
and won’t sell you any intoxicating liquor.
Scotch & Soda
Ingredients
2oz Scotch Whiskey
Club Soda to top
Add the scotch to a
highball glass filled
with ice, then top with
club soda & stir briefly.
- J.D. Salinger,
The Catcher in the Rye
“
9
We had actually been sitting there in the
Polo Lounge – for many hours – drinking
Singapore Slings with mezcal on the side and
beer chasers.
Singapore Sling
Ingredients
11/2 oz Gin
¾ oz Cherry Liqueur
1/2 oz Benedictine
3 oz pineapple juice
Add all the ingredients except the club soda
into a shaker with ice & shake. Strain into
a highball glass, and top with club soda.
Garnish with an orange slice and cherry.
- Hunter S. Thompson,
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
“
1/2 oz lime juice
1/4 oz Grenadine
Dash of Bitters
Club soda to top
10
We sat in a corner of the bar at Victor’s and
drank gimlets. ‘They don’t know how to make
them here,’ [Lennox] said. What they call a
gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice, and
gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real
gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice
and nothing else.
Gimlet
Ingredients
1 part Rose’s Lime Juice
2 parts Gin
Mix & serve. Garnish with a slice of lime.
- Raymond Chandler,
The Long Goodbye
“
11
Dean and I had ended up with a colored guy
called Walter who ordered drinks at the bar
and had them lined up and said, ‘Wine-
spodiodi!’ which was a shot of port wine, a
shot of whisky, and a shot of port wine, ‘Nice
sweet jacket for all that bad whisky!’ he yelled.
Wine-Spodiodi
Ingredients
1 part Bourbon Whiskey
2 parts Red Port
Mix port wine and
whiskey in a small
goblet glass & serve.
- Jack Kerouac, On the Road
“
12
He wondered what a beer milk shake
would taste like. The idea gagged him a bit
but he couldn’t let it alone. It cropped up
every time he had a glass of beer. Would it
curdle like milk? Would you add sugar?
Beer Milkshake
ingredients
1 cup milk
1/2 bottle of beer
Combine milk and
beer in a tall glass.
- John Steinbeck, Cannery Row
“
13
I suspect the review above was written
by a pansy full of Brandy Alexanders.
Brandy Alexander
Ingredients
1 part Fresh cream
1 part Cognac
1 part Crème de cacao
Mix / Shake & strain into a chilled
cocktail glass. Add a sprinkling of fresh
ground nutmeg.
- Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
“
14
Punch
Ingredients
1 pint of rum
1 wine-glass of brandy
1 cup of sugar
1 liter / quart of boiling water
3 lemons
15
To divert his thoughts from this melancholy
subject, I informed Mr. Micawber that I relied
upon him for a bowl of punch, and led him to
the lemons. His recent despondency, not to say
despair, was gone in a moment. I never saw
a man so thoroughly enjoy himself amid the
fragrance of lemon-peel and sugar, the odour of
burning rum, and the steam of boiling water.
Peel lemons, adding peels to sugar is a
large, heat-proof crockpot with a lid (do
not use glass or plastic). Pour brandy and
rum into the bowl. Heat mixture for 3-4
minutes on the stove. Once heated, add a
quart of boiling water and squeeze in the
juice from the lemons. Allow to simmer
for 10-15 minutes, cool slightly, and serve.
- Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
“
16
The layering of a lasagna, garlicking of
a bread, tearing up of romaine leaves,
eventually, oven on, into the mixing of the
twilight’s whiskey sours.
Whiskey Sour
Ingredients
1 part simple syrup
2 parts lemon juice
3 parts bourbon
Shake with ice. Strain into
ice-filled old-fashioned
glass to serve “on the rocks.”
- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying Lot of 49
“
18
"I drink to make
other people
more interesting."
- Ernest Hemingway