The Flower and the Cocktail (Mimosa Day)

Being Mimosa Day, why not give the Mimosa an extra kick by adding some Grand Marnier to the drink, making it a Grand Mimosa. Since it’s supposedly a favorite aperitif in the British Royal Family (along with the Dubonnet Cocktail) it is a perfect drink to enjoy on a warm day in May.’

THE MIMOSA
The Mimosa got its name from the delicate yellow Mimosa flower. It is essentially a fruitier Buck’s Fizz and was created in 1925 by a bartender called Frank Meier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Interestingly, in Frank Meier’s own cocktail book “The Artistry of Mixing Drinks” from 1936 Meier listed 300 cocktails marking the ones he had created with a symbol. The Mimosa never got one. It might have been a printer’s error or he never actually invented it. The Mimosa calls for equal measures of champagne and freshly squeezed orange juice served over ice whilst the Buck’s Fizz uses 1 part orange juice to 2 parts champagne without the ice. Some suggest the Mimosa was first made in San Francisco in the 1940’s by none other than Sir Alfred Hitchcock but as it appeared in Frank Meier’s cocktail book in 1936, that’s not very likely. That said, Hitchcock was, along with Royal Family, essential in making the Mimosa popular in the United States. In 1961 the London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald reported that “The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Queen Mother all have adopted a champagne cocktail they call Mimosa.” Apparently the Queen had been introduced to the drink by Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who in turn had picked it up on a visit to France. The Mimosa appeared on brunch menus in New York in the early 1970s and has stayed ever since. 

THE DESIGNER
Cesare Colombo, more known as Joe Colombo, designed the Smoke glass in 1964. It is made so that you can drink while keeping your cigarette at the ready in the same hand.

When Snail Mail Got Faster

Sending messages by air started a very, very long time ago. It was the Egyptians that figured out how to use pigeons for the job around 3,000 B.C. It took almost 5,000 years until a the son of Benjamin Franklin, William Franklin, in 1784 used the, at the time, ultra modern hot air balloon to send a letter to his son William Temple Franklin on the other side of the English Channel. Using balloons never did catch on though, since they aren’t very reliable, so as far as airmail went, pigeon post was the best option. That is until the first airplanes came along. 

The first recorded use of mail by airplane was three letters sent from Petaluna to Santa Rosa in California on February 17, 1911. But since the postmaster wasn’t involved the first official use of airmail was the very day after when Sir Walter Windham in India convinced the Indian postmaster general to let him operate an airmail service.

Cuba started their own airmail service in 1930 and this is where we get to the Airmail cocktail. Shortly thereafter the Bacardi Rum Company issued a pamphlet, Bacardi and Its Many Uses, promoting a cocktail called the Airmail, possibly to celebrate this event. The original drink was elegantly garnished with a real postage stamp. 

During the 1940’s the Airmail started appearing more commonly in bartender guides like in W.C. Whitfield’s 1941 book, Here’s How, where he described the drink as “It ought to make you fly high”. The Airmail also appeared in David Embury’s 1948 The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks and in Esquire’s 1949 Handbook for Hosts. 

The glass was fittingly designed for Scandinavian Airlines in 1998 by the Swedish designer Gunnar Cyrén. 

Airmail

2 oz Gold Rum
1 oz Lime juice
1 oz Honey syrup
3 oz Champagne
1 Lime twist

Shake rum, lime juice and honey syrup until well chilled. Strain into chilled glass, top with champagne and garnish with a lime twist and/or a postage stamp.

Santa's Favorite Drink

This festive cocktail is a riff on the pre-prohibition cocktail Stinger and it’s a perfect yuletide drink to enjoy in front of the fireplace when the gifts are wrapped and the Holiday calm sets in. Or by all means while sitting in the shade of a palm tree watching the ocean in the tropics.

The original first appeared in print in the 1914 book ”Drinks” by Jacques Straub. According to David Wondrich’s cocktail book ”Imbibe” an Ohio newspaper credited Reginald Vanderbilt with the cocktail in 1923 writing that he had served his guests Stingers since the beginning of the 1900s. It is said that Vanderbilt spent three hours a day mixing them for his guests during cocktail hour at his Fifth Avenue mansion. The cocktail has since the days of the Vanderbilts been associated with the upper class and was featured in many movies like ”High Society” from 1956 with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Cary Grant orders one in the 1957 ”Kiss Them for Me” and James Bond drinks a Stinger in the 1956 ”Diamonds Are Forever”.

The glass called “Sukat Makkaralla”, Finnish for “Socks rolled down” was designed in 2010 for Marimekko by the Finnish designer Anu Penttinen.

To the Moon And Back

On July 20 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first human setting foot on the moon after safely landing the Apollo 11 Eagle lunar module in the Sea of Tranquility. It was an incredible feat of engineering seen by 600 million people glued to their tv screens across the planet, effectively making the US take the lead in the space race. Four days, six hours and 45 minutes after leaving earth the crew of three, Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins returned safely to Earth. After 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 “Giantstep 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 and this was the very first cocktail they had after quarantine.

Commemorative cocktails seem to have been something of a speciality of Joe Gilmore’s. Apart from the Moonwalk he made several specialty cocktails for Winston Churchill’sbirthday parties as well as many drinks honoring royal weddings and births. He also made yet another space themed cocktail in celebration of the first international space mission in 1975, a drink called Link Up.

The cocktail glass, another product made in honor of the Apollo 11 expedition, was made by Libbey in 1969 and is called Moonshot.

Moonwalk

1 part Grand Marnier
1 part Grapefruit juice
1 dash Rose water
2 parts Champagne

Shake all but Champagne with ice. Strain into a Moonshot glass and top with Champagne.

Enjoy while looking at the amazing photos on nasa.gov or watching your favorite sci-fi movie.

God Save the Queen

Considering the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled for longer than any other Monarch in British history, the Black Velvet seemed a proper tribute honoring the Queen’s memory.

The Black Velvet was first served in 1861 as a tribute to another British Royal, Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, after his death of typhoid fever. It was created after a steward at Brook’s Club in London ordered that even Champagne should be in mourning, dressed in all black.

Prince Albert was famously supportive of the working class whom he described as “that class of our community who have most of the toil and fewest of the enjoyments of this world”. At the time of Prince Albert’s passing, porter (getting its name from the porters working on the streets of London) and stout were the preferred drinks of the working class so combining stout and the upper class Champagne was like making the British come together in mourning. 

The Fujiyama glass was designed by Keita Suzuki in 2012 and made at the Japanese glassworks Sugahara. The design is inspired by Mount Fuji and when used for beer the head will form a snowy top on the mountain.

Black Velvet

1 part Guinness
1 part Champagne

Slowly pour the Guinness and then the Champagne in a chilled glass. Stir gently.

Island Happy Hour

Time for a new exhibition at the fantastic Sempre espresso-bar in the center of Stockholm. This time mobilità will show a combination of two great things, islands and cocktails, each cocktail with an island connected to it (in more or less obvious ways). Singapore Sling, created at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore with the island of Singapore. Sgroppino, made with vodka and lemon sorbet with Capri, the island famous for its lemon groves. Mai Tai, actually created by Trader Vic in California but with its Tahitian name meaning “Out of this world” it fits perfectly with the Tahitian island of Bora Bora. Dark and Stormy, that was invented by Gosling Rum (and has to be made with Gosling Rum) with Gosling’s home island of Bermuda. And finally Champagne Cocktail that ought to be the drink of choice whenever you visit the luxurious island of Saint Barthélemy.

If you’d like to continue drinking cocktails with an island theme you can always have a Piña Colada from Puerto Rico, a Mojito a Daiquiri and more from Cuba, a Pimm’s Cup and Black Velvet from the UK and, of course the classic Manhattan.

Enjoy the Island Happy Hour at Sempre on Jakobsbergsgatan 5, Stockholm, Sweden.

The Perfect Brunch Cocktail – Mimosa

Whether you go straight for the eggs benedict, the huevos rancheros, the chicken waffles or a short stack it is hard to imagine a brunch without a Mimosa or two.

The Mimosa, essentially a fruitier Buck’s Fizz, was created in 1925 by a bartender called Frank Meier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. (Buck’s Fizz was first made in 1921 at the Buck’s Club in London). The Mimosa calls for equal measures of Champagne and freshly squeezed orange juice served over ice whilst the Buck’s Fizz uses 1 part orange juice to 2 parts Champagne without the ice.

Some suggest the Mimosa was first made in San Francisco in the 1940’s by none other than Sir Alfred Hitchcock. A story that isn’t very likely since it first appeared in Frank Meier’s own cocktail book ”Artistry of Mixing Drinks” in 1936. That said Hitchcock did make the Mimosa popular in the US making it the brunch cocktail we know and love.

The Smoke Champagne glass was designed by Joe Colombo in 1964.

Mimosa

2 parts Champagne

2 parts orange juice

Pour half the Champagne into ice-filled glass. Then pour the orange juice and finally the rest of the Champagne. Stir gently. Garnish with a half orange wheel.

December 8 – French "75"

The French ”75” cocktail got it’s name from the 75-millimeter field gun used by the French military during WWI. It was probably created at Henry’s Bar in Paris by Henry Tépé in 1914/15 or even earlier and was originally called ”Soixante-Quinze” (Seventy-Five) since both the drink and the field gun would knock you out flat.
The Paro glass was designed by Achille Castiglioni in 1983.

December 1 – Champagne Cocktail

Champagne cocktails were mentioned by Mark Twain in 1869 in his book Innocents Abroad but was surely drunk long before that. This version, also called Maharajah’s Burra-Peg(burra meaning big or important in hindi and peg being old British slang for drink) is taken from Charles H. Baker’s book The Gentleman’s Companion from 1939.

The Tulip glass was designed by Nils Landberg for the Swedish company Orrefors in 1957.