Well Designed Cocktails For Design Week

Back in Milan it’s Milan Design Week and what better thing to do after a full day of amazing new design than going for an aperitivo and having a true classic Italian Cocktail. Specifically at Bene Bene Bar where you should actually try Morris Maramaldi’s Black Saffron Martini. I’ve listed 7 must have cocktails that is just too great to miss, one per day from start to finish of the Design Week:

Day 1. Milano – Torino
Day 2. Negroni
Day 3. Angelo Azzurro
Day 4. Americano
Day 5. Aperol Spritz
Day 6. Negroni Sbagliato
Day 7. Bellini

Remember to have your Negroni Sbagliato on Day 6 at Bar Basso where Mirko Stocchetto invented it in 1972.

Another Year of Amazing Cocktail Books

What began as way to merge the two worlds of cocktails and glass design into decorative cocktail posters was turned into a thoughtfully curated book featuring 52 cocktails. One cocktail per week for a whole year. A book I simply called A Year of Cocktails.

This is the follow-up next year, next level cocktail book with 52 new cocktails, some slightly more challenging than the last selection. Each drink is accompanied by its own story, the history behind the drink, the designer, and the significance of the specific date connected to each cocktail. Each recipe is illustrated with easy-to-follow instructions, ensuring that even the most intricate cocktails can be made with confidence.

In the 116 page hardcover book the cocktails are indexed several different ways, by ingredient, by name or by a date that is attached to the cocktail, like the Leap Year Cocktail for February 29.

The release date for Another Year of Cocktails is set to June 2. By pre-ordering the book you can make sure, not only to get the best possible price, but also to be one of the very first to receive the book.

Here’s to Another Year of Cocktails!

Verdi's Favorite

In 1826 four brothers, confectioners from the Swiss town Pontresina close to St. Moritz, came to the Italian port city Genoa. The intention was work and save up money to emigrate and seek their fortune in America. Being successful and much appreciated in their new, supposed to be temporary home country, the Klainguti brothers decided to stay in Italy and set up a pastry shop in Genoa instead. In 1828 they opened Fratelli Klainguti on Piazza Soziglia in the heart of the old town in Genoa. The brothers soon became a beloved part of the city, especially among high society.

One of the most famous pastries at Fratelli Klainguti is the Torta Zena. Made with layers of sponge cake and filled with zabaglione cream, flavored with Marsala and rum, and topped with marzipan it is a cake found in many pasticcerie in Genoa today. The name Zena derives from the Genoese name for Genoa. Another of the Klainguti inventions is a brioche they created for their most famous customer, Giuseppe Verdi, who was a frequent patron of the pastry shop. They even named it after Verdi’s opera Falstaff and it was so well received by Verdi himself that he left Klainguti a thank you note reading: “Dear Klainguti, thanks for the Falstaff. Superb... much better than mine!”

In the late 19th century Italian pasticcerie, pastry shops, began transforming and adopting to the new Italian café culture, serving coffee and alcoholic beverages as well as lighter meals. This was a shift that spread across Italy and Fratelli Klainguti were part of this change. 

The creation of the Klainguti cocktail is lost in history but it is very much a part of the Italian cocktail culture. Probably made sometime during the 20th century it has a lot in common with its Italian cousins featuring Campari, Italian vermouth (even though it is usually of the red variety), gin and Prosecco. You could say that the Klainguti Cocktail is like a Negroni Sbagliato where the bartender didn’t use Prosecco instead of the gin but instead used both. Where the cocktail stands out is with the addition of Cointreau a product that doesn’t generally feature in the true Italian classics. 

THE DESIGNER
The glass, which is actually a candy dish, was designed in 1925 by the Austrian designer Oswald Haerdtl. 

Fog So Thick You Can Cut It

This is yet another Trader Vic original and its his most popular creation after the Mai Tai, and closely related to the Scorpion. The drink was first served in the 1940s at Trader Vic’s in Oakland, California.

The drink is very citrus forward and even with the addition of the favorite Tiki drink sweetener, orgeat, the Fog Cutter is definitely on the tart side, more like a sour than a tiki drink. It soon became immensely popular and thanks to this the original recipe has been tweaked in numerous ways like dialing down the lemon and changing brandy to pisco, as they do at Smuggler’s Cove, a tiki bar in San Francisco.

When making this classic, remember that Mr. Bergeron wrote in his Trader Vic’s Book of Food & Drink from 1946 “This is delicious but a triple threat. You can get pretty stinking on these, no fooling.” In the Trader Vic’s Pacific Island Cookbook from 1968 he explained that the drink should be served with straws (and two aspirin).

The Fog Cutter is said to be one of the very first tiki drinks that was served in a tiki mug. Ever since its inception in the 1940s the drink has been served in a signature mug adorned with a hula girl. In his Bartender’s Guide from 1947, Victor Bergeron even pictured the Fog Cutter hula girl mug along with specific glasses for all the different types of drinks in his book, 30 different glasses and mugs in total.

THE DESIGNER
The tiki mug used for this Fog Cutter is not Trader Vic’s. Instead it’s a mug, designed by Stella Bodey in the late 1950s, called the Island Chief. Bodey was very influential in the development of Tiki mugs, working for Spurlin Ceramics in Lynwood, California where she made most of her designs between 1957-1959.

The Agent And His Sidekick Cocktail

October 4th is International Vodka Day, a day to celebrate the versatile liquor that accounts for almost 25 percent of all spirits sold in North America. Here’s to the spirit that “Leaves you Breathless”, as the Smirnoff ad campaign from the 1950s touted.

THE VESPER
In 1952 the British former spy and writer, Ian Fleming, wrote his first book in a series of novels about the British agent extraordinaire with a license to kill. The book was Casino Royal and it featured a double agent called Vesper Lynd. Being the first ever Bond woman and thus James Bond’s first love interest she got a cocktail named after her, the Vesper. The cocktail, a version of the Martini, was created by Ian Fleming himself and the instructions Bond gave to a bartender in the book were very clear. “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.” The only problem making it today is that the bitter Kina Lillet was discontinued in 1969 so you have to substitute it either with Cocchi Americano to get the original bitterness or use Lillet Blanc and maybe add some bitters to the drink. Ian Fleming might have gotten the idea for the Vesper from Ted Saucier’s 1951 cocktail book Bottoms Up, a book where the Vodka Martini first appeared in print. Saucier credited Jerome Zerbe, photographer, and Society Editor for Town and Country, with the recipe. On a side note, during the 1930s and onwards Jerome Zerbe worked at the Rainbow Room, the nightclub El Morocco and at the Stork Club as one of the first ever paparazzi.

THE DESIGNER
Lee Broom designed the glass, On the Rock, in 2014.

The Actor That Didn't Like Her Mocktail

In 2008 India’s health ministry proposed the World Health Assembly in Geneva that October 2 be declared World No Alcohol Day. The date was picked as it coincides with Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. So it’s the perfect day to enjoy the most famous non-alcoholic drink there is.

THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE
The Shirley Temple is possibly the most famous non-alcoholic cocktail ever made. It might even be the very first mocktail. The drink is named after Shirley Jane Temple, born in 1928. She was an American singer, dancer, actor and diplomat. She is most famous for her acting career as a child during the 1930s and, of course, for the cocktail.

As a child she lived the life of the movie star but in a city full of fancy restaurants and cocktails she couldn’t take part in the latter. On a night out for dinner at the Chasen’s restaurant in Hollywood her parents sat at the bar sipping Old Fashioneds. Naturally Temple also wanted a fancy drink but being very much under age, the bartender kindly whipped up a special drink for her. He added some maraschino cherries to make it look more like her parents drinks, and simply called it a Shirley Temple. At least, so the story goes. Ms. Temple herself said it was created in the 1930s at Brown’s Derby restaurant in Hollywood, another hangout for the Hollywood crowd, but that she had nothing to do with it. Shirley Temple herself was apparently never a fan of the drink. In an interview in 1986 she said that “all over the world I am served that. People think it’s funny. I hate them. Too sweet!”. During the 1940s she wasn’t as sought after as an actor anymore and in 1950 Temple officially left the movie business. Instead she started a career in politics, just like actor Ronald Reagan.

THE DESIGNER
The glass called Strikt was designed by the Swedish sculptor and designer Bengt Orup in 1953.

A New Yorkers Take On Japan

This cocktail first appeared in print in Jerry Thomas’s legendary book “How To Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion” from 1862. The book, that also goes by the name “The Bar-Tender’s Guide” is regarded to be the first ever cocktail book, or at least the first book entirely dedicated to cocktails. At the time of printing the cocktail had been around for just two years. It was in all likelihood created as a tribute to the first Japanese Diplomatic Mission to the United States. After arriving in San Francisco the mission visited Washington DC before coming to New York where they stayed at the Metopolitan Hotel just a block away from Jerry Thomas’s Palace Bar on 622 Broadway.

One of the members of the delegation was a 17-year old translator called Tateishi Onojirou Noriyuki, who everyone in the US simply called Tommy. Thanks to cocktail historian David Wondrich, we know that a reporter from the Minneapolis Tribune followed the delegation’s trip making Tommy into something of a darling to the media. He really enjoyed the western lifestyle, including cocktails, and apparently he was a bit of a ladies man.

The Japanese Cocktail is one of the few cocktails that are known to be created by Jerry Thomas, often called “The Professor” for his ability to cater even to the most demanding customers. Being known for his showmanship he traveled around the United States only using solid silver bar tools and cups decorated with precious stones.

Jerry Thomas’s creation, the Blue Blazer, was definitely his most spectacular. It is made from a blend of whiskey, sugar and boiling water that he set ablaze and then poured between two tankards while on fire. A show that set The Professor apart from his competitors.

THE DESIGNER
The glass is actually a wooden sake cup called Tohka Souen, designed by Masaharu Asano.

Straight From Peanut Country

This cocktail is not, as you might assume, named after actress, movie star and serious cocktail and Bourbon enthusiast Tallulah Bankhead. Instead, the cocktail is a tribute to the Southern blue collar tradition of putting a handful of peanuts into a bottle of Coca-Cola as a quick snack. This particular way of mixing salty peanuts into the sugary soda, sometimes referred to as “farmer’s Coke”, started in the 1920s when shelled and salted peanuts were first sold in small packets in grocery stores. The practicality of being able to have both food and drink in one hand, leaving the other hand free to drive your car or work made for it to quickly spread through the Southern states from Texas to the Carolinas. Basically all States that grew peanuts. 

According to the National Peanut Federation it was convenient in another way too. Workers with dirty hands didn’t want to eat their peanuts without first washing their hands. When that wasn’t possible they could instead simply dump their snack into their bottle of Coke. 

The Tallulah was invented by bartender Zak Kittle while working at Ollie Irene, a gastro pub in Birmingham, Alabama. The co-owner of Ollie Irene, Chris Newsom, had a great-aunt called Tallulah and her love for whiskey made them borrow her name for the drink. 

The Tallulah is made with whiskey, typically Jack Daniel’s, peanut orgeat, instead of the regular orgeat made with almonds and featured in many tiki drinks, Coca-Cola and a garnish of salted peanuts. 

THE DESIGNER
The glass was designed by Akira Minagawa, in 2021 as a collaboration with Sugahara glassworks. It is called Peanuts.

TALLULAH

2 parts Tennessee Whiskey
1 part Peanut Orgeat
2 parts Coca-Cola

Shake first two ingredients and strain into the glass. Top up with Coke and garnish with salted peanuts.

Enjoy it like a peanut farmer.

An Iced Tea From Long Island

The Long Island Iced Tea hasn’t got anything in common with Iced Tea, it does however seem to have a lot to do with Long Island either Long Island, New York or Long Island, Tennessee.

In 1972, a bartender called Robert "Rosebud" Butt, working at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York entered a competition to create a new cocktail requiring the use of triple sec. The result, the Long Island Iced Tea, didn’t actually feature that much triple sec but it did contain loads of liquor. Some say that this blend of equal measures of vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple sec, lemon juice, sugar syrup and cola has the taste of a hangover but the fact is that it is oddly well put together. 

This is the most widely accepted origin story but there is at least one other often told claim. According to this, the drink was invented in the 1920s in Long Island, Kingsport, Tennessee by “Old Man Bishop”. This Prohibition era version was made with whiskey, rum, vodka, tequila, gin and maple syrup. During the 1940s Mr Bishop’s son Ransom Bishop added lemon and lime juice and a splash of cola to the drink. During Prohibition it was common for bar owners to mask the drinks by trying to make them look inconspicuous for example like an innocent glass of iced tea.

Interestingly the state of Tennessee had enacted their first prohibition laws as early as 1838 so bar owners were probably used to dealing with bootleggers in the 1920s. Especially in the eastern parts of the state, like Kingsport, where law enforcement officers were often in conflict with bootleggers and moonshiners. That said, it would have been very difficult to make a drink with five different types of liquor when spirits were already hard to come by, even with good contacts within the bootlegging world. Paired with the fact that vodka wasn’t widely used in the US until the 1940s, it isn’t very likely that the Long Island Iced Tea is native to Tennessee after all. Besides the drink wasn’t featured in print until the 1970s. 

Regardless of its reputation of being a drink ordered solely for its alcohol content the Long Island Iced Tea became immensely popular during the 1980s and remains so to this day. 

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Crystal Edge, was designed by Japanese glass designer Kenji Matsuura for Sugahara Glassworks in 2014.

The World Mai Tai Day

On August 30, 2009, the city of Oakland declared that from then on August 30 should be World Mai Tai Day. It was a day in August 1944 Victor Bergeron made the first Mai Tai.

THE MAI TAI
The history of the Mai Tai is a story of two tiki bar giants. Victor Jules Bergeron (aka Trader Vic) and Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (aka Donn Beach, or Don the Beachcomber). Donn Beach opened his first South Pacific style restaurant in Hollywood in 1933. He was a rum connoisseur and started making exotic rum drinks inspired by his many travels.

Trader Vic had his own restaurant called Hinky Dinks that he opened in 1934 in Oakland, California. After a trip to Cuba to refine his bartender skills and learn more about rum, the Trader remodeled Hinky Dinks into a Polynesian style tiki bar and changed the name to Trader Vic’s.

The Mai Tai was first made in 1944 for Ham and Carrie Guild, a couple of Tahitian friends of Bergeron’s. They liked it so much Carrie Guild exclaimed in Tahitian “Mai Tai-Roa A’e” meaning “Out of this world, the best”. “That was that”, as Mr. Bergeron said.

Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber fought over the invention of the Mai Tai for many years but when Mr. Beach claimed the drink to be his the Trader had enough. Donn was sued and lost. Trader Vic stated “There has been a lot of conversation over the beginning of the Mai Tai, and I want to get the record straight. I originated the Mai Tai, but many others have claimed credit … Anyone who says I didn’t create the drink is a dirty stinker.” Victor Bergeron might however have got the inspiration for the drink, along with making a tiki bar out of Hinky Dinks, from Donn Beach so without Donn we probably wouldn’t have the Mai Tai.

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Pitagora after its triangular base, was designed by Marco Zanuso in 1969.

The Whiskey Sour Day Celebrated With A New York Sour

The Whiskey Sour Day on August 25 each year is a perfect time to try this 19th century classic. Make it with bourbon or whiskey or try New York Sour by adding a Claret float.

THE WHISKEY SOUR
The first time the word sour was used in regards to a drink was in 1856 on a bar menu at Mart Ackermann’s Saloon in Toronto, Canada. In print the sour, brandy and gin, appears for the first time in 1862 in The Bartender’s Guide by Jerry Thomas. Eight years later, the Whiskey Sour makes the stage in Waukesha Plain Dealer, a Wisconsin newspaper. In 1883 the drink had already developed and many bartenders started adding a Claret float, to the drink. Apparently the word Claret was used a bit loosely at the time and didn’t necessarily mean a red wine from Bordeaux. This version came by many names but the bartending world finally settled on New York Sour.

The Whiskey Sour is traditionally made with whiskey, lemon juice, sugar and egg white, an ingredient that will smooth the tartness of the lemon juice and give the drink a frothy topping. The egg white was probably added in the early 1900s. Today the egg white is optional and you often find bars serving the Whiskey Sour without it.

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Dondolino, was designed by Setsu & Shinobu Ito in 2016 and is painted using a technique with Japanese lacquer called Urushi.

The Sneaky International Rum Day

August 16 is International Rum Day and a great way to celebrate is to make a Sneaky Tiki, a Dark ’n Stormy, a Mai Tai or any other rum based cocktail.

THE SNEAKY TIKI
This is a tiki drink that wasn’t created by one of the tiki bar giants, Trader Vic or Don
the Beachcomber. It was first made either at the Wheel Bar at Harvey’s Casino Resort in Lake Tahoe or at Tiki Bob’s in San Francisco.

Harvey’s first opened right after WWII by gambling pioneer Harvey Gross. The casino started small with just six slot machines and eventually grew to a casino empire. In fact, it was the very first casino in Lake Tahoe, right at the border between Nevada and California.

Another possible creator of the Sneaky Tiki was “Sneaky” Bob Bryant. He worked in San Francisco as a bar manager for Trader Vic’s, who taught him the tricks of the trade. After a falling out with Victor Bergeron, “Sneaky” Bob left and in 1955 he started his own tiki bar just down the street. A bar he named Tiki Bob’s.

Decorated with Polynesian and Asian artifacts and having the guests welcomed by a 50s style tiki column right outside the entrance, Mr. Bryant made a bar rivaling his former employer. The bar’s signature drink was called the Super Sneaky Tiki. “Sneaky” Bob had the foresight to introduce the tiki mug to his bar, a new concept at the time. The design for Tiki Bob’s logo and Tiki mug was made by Alec Yuill-Thornton, an illustrator who had previously worked with Bergeron, illustrating his book Kitchen Kibitzer. Being one of the first Tiki mugs ever created it is highly sought after by collectors.

THE DESIGNER
Alec Yuill-Thornton designed the Tiki Bob tiki mug in 1955.

A Sgroppino on Ferragosto

Ferragosto is celebrated on August 15 every year. It is usually one of the hottest days in Italy and most Italians try to leave the cities. The celebration actually dates back to the year 18 BCE when the Roman Emperor Octavianus Augustus decided to establish several days of formal rest for the hard working agricultural workers of the Roman Empire. Even farm animals were released from work and decorated with flowers. The festivities started August 1 with more days spread out over August. During Roman times it was called Feriae Augusti, Latin for The Holiday of Augustus. (Augustus actually gave name to the month). The Catholic Church eventually decided to move Ferragosto to August 15 to coincide with the Assumption of Mary m. However you celebrate Ferragosto, cooling off the August heat with a Sgroppino is a great way to do it.

THE SGROPPINO
The Sgroppino was probably first created in a wealthy home in Venice during the sixteenth century. To be able to make sorbetto for the Sgroppino you need ice and the only households that kept ice during the Renaissance were the aristocrats and the very upper class. Ice was collected form rivers and lakes during winter and stored in ice houses for use in summer.

The drink could either be served as a palate cleanser or at the end of a meal as you would a limoncello today. The name Sgroppino comes for the Italian word sgropare, in Venetian dialect sgropin, the name still used in Venice, meaning to untie a knot, referring to knots in the stomach after a big dinner. The Sgroppino is made by whisking together sorbetto and prosecco to create a froth. Over time vodka, sambuca or limoncello was added making it more complex.

THE DESIGNER
The Narcisso glass was designed by Italian-American designer and sculptor Isabel Antonia Giampietro-Knoll in 1957.

The Bellini and the Prosecco Day

Prosecco Day is celebrated each year on August 13, initiated by Riondo Prosecco to celebrate the sparkling wine from the Italian North-East an hour from Venice.

THE BELLINI
The 15th century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini, was famous for his vibrant colors and the bartender Giuseppe Cipriani was a big fan. When working at Hotel Europa in Venice in 1927 Cipriani got to know Harry Pickering, a young Bostonian, who was traveling with his wealthy aunt. After a fight his aunt left with her boyfriend and her money leaving Harry penniless with her dog. Giuseppe Cipriani lent Pickering 10,000 lire, an enormous amount of money for a bartender in 1927. Four years later, in February 1931, Pickering returned, not only with the 10,000 he borrowed but adding another 40,000. Enough money for Cipriani to open a bar of his own. His wife Giulietta found the perfect spot. A small old warehouse at the end of a cul-de-sac, just a stones throw from Piazza San Marco. It was exactly what they were looking for, a discreet 45 square meter bar right by the canal, a place customers had to know to go there. As a gesture of gratitude he named it Harry’s Bar.

Cipriani loved white peaches, which are plentiful in Italy from June to September. In 1948 he started making a white peach puree and adding prosecco. His customers loved it and a classic cocktail was born. He named it after his favorite painter due to the pink glow of the drink resembling a pink toga in a Bellini painting.

Over time Harry’s Bar became the favorite hangout for writers, actors and artists like Ernest Hemingway, Huphrey Bogart, Peggy Guggenheim, Charlie Chaplin and Lauren Bacall. In 2001 Harry’s Bar was declared a national landmark.

THE DESIGNER
The Jellies Family Flute was designed by Patricia Urquiola for Kartell in 2014.

The Perfect Cocktail for The World Tequila Day

The origins of tequila dates back to the Aztecs who used fermented sap of the agave plant for religious ceremonies. In the 16th century Spanish conquistadors arrived and introduced the distillation technique and the national spirit of Mexico was born. Tequila is divided into three different categories: Blanco, Reposado and Añejo. The blue agave is only allowed to be grown, and the tequila has to be distilled, in five designated regions in Mexico. Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit, Tamaulipas and Jalisco. On World Tequila Day, July 24 this very Mexican spirit, on the rise all over the world, is celebrated.

EL DIABLO
El Diablo was first mentioned in Bergeron’s “Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink” from 1946 and started out as The Mexican El Diablo. It was marked with a TV in his book, to show that it is a Trader Vic original. Bergeron added a little warning to the recipe remarking that “I hate like hell to bring up unpleasant things at a time like this but go easy on this one because it’s tough on your running board”. The drink was taken off the Trader Vic’s menu in the 1950s but reappeared some years later in Bergeron’s next venture. In the early 1960s Bergeron was asked by a friend to open a restaurant in Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco. Wanting to open something Mexican he traveled all over Mexico for inspiration and was surprised he couldn’t find many drinks made with tequila, apart from the occasional Margarita or Tequila Sunrise (the original version created made with tequila, crème de cassis, lime and soda water). When opening his new Mexican restaurant, Señor Pico, in 1964, Bergeron added the drink to the menu and simplified the name of the drink to El Diablo, a name has been used since.

THE DESIGNER
The glass called Ginette was designed by Kenji Matsuura for Sugahara in 2010.

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing and the Moonwalk Cocktail

It took the crew on Apollo 11 only 12 minutes to leave Earth and start orbiting the planet but another three days to reach lunar orbit. With 650 million people watching on television all over the world and with only 30 seconds of fuel remaining the Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility. At 10:56 p.m. EDT Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder and became the first human to ever set foot on the lunar surface proclaiming “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. During two hours Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin collected samples and took photos before leaving an American flag to returning to Collins waiting in the orbiting command module, Columbia. After another four days they landed in the ocean outside Hawai’i in July 24.

THE MOONWALK
The Apollo 11 moon landing in the Sea of Tranquility was an incredible feat of engineering, effectively making the United States take the lead in the space race.

After returning to earth and a 21 day quarantine (nobody knew what disease or bacteria could be caught during space travel) the crew went on a 45 day, 24 country celebratory Apollo 11 “Giant step Presidential Goodwill World Tour”.

Before traveling across the globe they celebrated with cocktails and the first cocktail they had after returning from space was a Moonwalk. The cocktail was the invention of Joe Gilmore, head bartender at the Savoy’s American Bar in London. Even though the world tour took the astronauts to London Mr. Gilmore never got a chance to serve them his concoction at his bar. Instead he made the crew a batch of the cocktail and sent it to the US along with champagne and glasses.

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Moonshot, was
made to honor the Apollo 11 expedition. Designed and produced by Libbey in 1969.

The Daiquiri Day

In 1898 an American engineer, Jennings Stockton Cox, led a mining exhibition in the small town of Daiquiri in Cuba. While entertaining guests when he ran out of gin. To keep the party afloat Cox went out and bought rum that was readily available in Cuba. July 19 is Daiquiri Day, a perfect day to raise your glass to Jennings Stockton Cox, to Constantino Ribalaigua or to Ernest Hemingway for that matter.

THE HEMINGWAY DAIQUIRI
”El Rey de los Cocteleros”, or Constantino Ribalaigua Vert, was born in 1888 and learned the trade from his father. At 26 he tended the bar at El Floridita, at 30, in 1918, he had made enough money to buy the bar. During thirty years Constante, as his customers called him, invented more than 200 cocktails, catering to a flow American tourists. The amount of tourists coming to Havana doubled during Prohibition from 45,000 per year in 1916 to 90,000 in 1926.

One of the most famous of El Floridita’s customers was undoubtedly Ernest Hemingway. In the early 1930’s being fairly new to the city, Hemingway was on the way back to his hotel when he ventured into El Floridita in search of a restroom. Some guests were going on about their excellent daiquiris. Hemingway ordered one, then asked for another, this time with less sugar and double the rum. That was the birth of the Papa Doble (Papa after his Cuban nickname and Doble for the double amount of rum). This first version was way too strong to be enjoyed by any other than Hemingway. He boasted having had 17 Papa Dobles in one go in 1942, amounting to about 1.5 liters of rum.

Over time Ribalaigua added grapefruit juice and maraschino to the rum and fresh lime juice. Ribalaigua gave this modified Papa Doble the name Hemingway Daiquiri.

THE DESIGNER
The glass, Model I-103 was designed in 1956 by Timo Sarpaneva.

The World Mojito Day

The Piña Colada Day was declared a holiday by Ricardo A. Cofresí in Puerto Rico in 1978, in honor of the drink, now known as a symbol of Caribbean culture. The best place to experience it is definitely at its birth place at the Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico.

THE PIÑA COLADA
Piña Colada, means strained pineapple, and is referring to the freshly pressed and strained pineapple juice in the drink. The first time a drink named Piña Colada was mentioned in print was in an issue of Travel Magazine from December 1922. It was made with Bacardi Rum, pineapple juice, lime and sugar but most importantly, it did not include coconut. The name however, fits very well with this pineapple cocktail.

Nowadays, a Piña Colada is generally thought of as a creamy coconut-tasting drink and the original is usually referred to as a Cuban-style Piña Colada. The modern Piña Colada was invented on August 15, 1952 (the Caribe Hilton say 1954), after three months of hard work. Ramón “Monchito” Marrero Perez, the head barman at the Caribe Hilton in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico was trying to create a signature cocktail for the hotels Beachcomber Bar. He eventually landed on the Piña Colada possibly just adding Coco López cream of coconut, a new product in Puerto Rico at the time, to the existing Cuban drink. The change was big enough though to be considered an entirely new drink.

For 35 years Mr. Perez personally served Piña Coladas at the Caribe Hilton, making it so popular it was made the official drink of Puerto Rico in 1978. In 2004 the Caribe Hilton was presented with a official proclamation signed by Sila María Calderon, the Governor of Puerto Rico, in honor of the 50 year anniversary of the famous cocktail.

THE DESIGNER
The glass was designed by Agustina Bottoni in 2020 and is called High Spirits.

The Piña Colada Day

The Piña Colada Day was declared a holiday by Ricardo A. Cofresí in Puerto Rico in 1978, in honor of the drink, now known as a symbol of Caribbean culture. The best place to experience it is definitely at its birth place at the Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico.

THE PIÑA COLADA
Piña Colada, means strained pineapple, and is referring to the freshly pressed and strained pineapple juice in the drink. The first time a drink named Piña Colada was mentioned in print was in an issue of Travel Magazine from December 1922. It was made with Bacardi Rum, pineapple juice, lime and sugar but most importantly, it did not include coconut. The name however, fits very well with this pineapple cocktail.

Nowadays, a Piña Colada is generally thought of as a creamy coconut-tasting drink and the original is usually referred to as a Cuban-style Piña Colada. The modern Piña Colada was invented on August 15, 1952 (the Caribe Hilton say 1954), after three months of hard work. Ramón “Monchito” Marrero Perez, the head barman at the Caribe Hilton in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico was trying to create a signature cocktail for the hotels Beachcomber Bar. He eventually landed on the Piña Colada possibly just adding Coco López cream of coconut, a new product in Puerto Rico at the time, to the existing Cuban drink. The change was big enough though to be considered an entirely new drink.

For 35 years Mr. Perez personally served Piña Coladas at the Caribe Hilton, making it so popular it was made the official drink of Puerto Rico in 1978. In 2004 the Caribe Hilton was presented with a official proclamation signed by Sila María Calderon, the Governor of Puerto Rico, in honor of the 50 year anniversary of the famous cocktail.

THE DESIGNER
The glass was designed by Agustina Bottoni in 2020 and is called High Spirits.

The 1962 Seattle World's Fair

These fantastic vintage glasses from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair are the perfect vessel for a summery long drink, specially The Space Needle created by Trader Vic. Thank you @vignettesbymelissa for this amazing addition to the home bar. I absolutely love them!

THE SPACE NEEDLE
1 1/2 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum
1 1/2 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz Curaçao
1 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Orgeat

Blend in a mixer with one scoop of ice.

THE HISTORY
The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, known as Century 21 Exposition, was a transformative event for Seattle. Held from April 21 to October 21, it attracted nearly 10 million visitors. The fair’s theme focused on science, space, and the future, reflecting the era’s Space Race.

Key attractions included the iconic 605-foot Space Needle, the U.S. Science Exhibit (now Pacific Science Center), and the Monorail. The fair required significant infrastructure improvements, including downtown beautification and transportation upgrades.

Century 21 served national interests during the Cold War, showcasing American scientific prowess. It also aimed to inspire youth to pursue science careers and influence international opinion favorably toward the U.S.

The fair’s legacy is still evident in Seattle Center, a permanent cultural complex. It contributed to Seattle’s transformation from a regional city to a global player, laying groundwork for its current status as a tech hub.

The event embodied a spirit of innovation and forward-thinking that continues to shape Seattle’s identity. Its impact on culture, architecture, and aspirations makes it a defining moment in Seattle’s journey to becoming a 21st-century global city.