December 12 – Mai Tai

The history of the Mai Tai is a story of the two most influential people in the world of tiki bars. Victor Jules Bergeron (aka Trader Vic) and Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (aka Donn Beach, aka 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 the world of rum, and possibly after visiting Don the Beachcomber, the Trader remodeled Hinky Dinks into a Polynesian-style tiki bar and changed the name to Trader Vic’s. This made it the first in a long line of restaurants around the world.

The Mai Tai was first made in 1944 for a couple of Tahitian friends of the Trader. They liked it so much that they exclaimed “Mai Tai-Roa A’e” meaning “Out of this world, the best” so the name of the cocktail was right there.

Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber fought over who had invented the Mai Tai for the better part of their careers but when Donn Beach launched his own Mai Tai mixer claiming the drink to be his invention the Trader had enough. Donn was sued and lost the court battle. Trader Vic announced “Anybody who says I didn't create this drink is a dirty stinker”.

It is most likely though that Trader Vic got his inspiration from Donn Beach’s Hollywood restaurant so without Donn we probably wouldn’t have the Mai Tai.

The glass was designed by Marco Zanuso in 1969 and is called Pitagora after its triangular base.

December 11 – Barbados

The Caribbean island of Barbados in the Lesser Antilles is the most eastern of all Caribbean islands. According to archeological findings the first settlers or visitors to Barbados may have landed on the island in 1600 BC. A more permanent Amerindian settlement was established around the 4th to 7th centuries AD. Barbados was populated by the Kalinago people since the 13th century.

Spanish navigators claimed the island for the Spanish Crown in the 15th century and it first appeared on maps in 1511. After the Spanish the Portuguese took it over in the 1530s until they gave way for the English when they arrived in Barbados in 1625 and later made it into a British colony. Even after the islands declaration of independence in 1966 it was actually part of the British Commonwealth until December 1st 2021 when Barbados transitioned to a republic and thus removed Queen Elizabeth as head of state.

Barbados is also the birthplace of rum. Mount Gay is the oldest operating rum distillery in the world and was founded in 1703. Thanks to its almost perfect conditions for growing sugar cane and the fact that its limestone bedrock is a fantastic filter for rainwater Barbados was almost destined to become a great rum producer. 

Rum aside, Barbados is famous for its green monkeys, flying fish, fish fries and, of course, Rihanna who in November 2021 was named national hero and received the title, the Right Excellent Robyn Rihanna Fenty.

Barbados is the only Caribbean island (and one of only four countries) to have had regular Concorde service. The route from London to Barbados was kept from 1987 until 2003. The flight took only three hours and 45 minutes instead of almost 9 hours.

December 10 – Hurricane

The Hurricane is another true classic of New Orleans even though there is said to have been a cocktail called Hurricane served at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Queens. Little is known about this version apart from it probably being made with rum and that it was served in a hurricane glass.

The second time a cocktail called Hurricane saw the light of day was at Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans during the 1940s. This is the version that is still served today and it came into being out of necessity. During and after WWII Scotch and Bourbon were hard to come by but New Orleans had rum arriving from the Caribbean by the boatload. The spirits distributors thought up a clever way to deal with this. They required the bars to buy several cases of rum with each case of Scotch. This left Pat 0’Brien’s with more rum than they knew what to do with. Benson “Pat” O’Brien and his partner Charlie Cantrell, probably together with their head bartender Louis Culligan, decided to create a new cocktail to help use up the excess cases of rum. A potent cocktail with 4 oz (120 ml) rum.

The hurricane glass, giving the cocktail its name, is modeled after the classic hurricane lantern. This glass is called Riflesso and was designed by Isabel Antonia Giampietro in 1958.

December 9 – Martini

The Martini is likely to be a descendant of the Martinez, a cocktail first appearing in the 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco. Exactly when the Martini was invented though is impossible to say. 

The first published recipe for a cocktail named Martini was in 1888. This version was essentially the same cocktail as the then already established Marguerite, made with equal parts Old Tom Gin (sweeter than the London Dry Gin), Vermouth, sugar syrup and a hint of Orange Curaçao and orange bitters. 

Over the years the Martini became increasingly dry with the London Dry Gin taking over from the Old Tom and the bar goers starting to favor Dry Vermouth (also called French Vermouth) over the sweet one. At the turn of the 19th century Martini & Rossi started marketing a Dry Vermouth on the American market with the tag line “It’s not a Martini unless you use Martini”.

Today a Martini, or Dry Martini, can mean anything from a 1:5 ratio to a 1:32 ratio or even just a quick Vermouth spray with an atomizer on the inside of the glass before pouring ice cold gin. 

When ordering a Martini it might be good to know that James Bond’s catchphrase “Shaken, not stirred” will render the cocktail cooler than stirring it but the reason a bartender will, almost by default, stir it instead is that this way you will achieve a less cloudy Martini without shards is ice floating on the surface.

The glass is called Delta and was designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec for Alessi to be used on Delta Airlines.

December 8 – Seagram Building

The Canadian distiller the Seagram Company announced plans for its new headquarters in 1954 designed by Periera & Gluckman. The plans were however rejected after Phyllis Lambert’s objection. She was the director of planning and the daughter of Seagram’s owner Samuel Bronfman. Her masterstroke was to choose Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe as the architect instead with Philip Johnson designing the interiors.

The Seagram Building sits on 375 Park Avenue, between East 52nd and 53rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City and stands 515 feet (157 m) tall with 38 stories. The construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1958.

When designing the Seagram Building, Mies van der Rohe made a bold move to create a pink granite plaza in front of the building. Complete with two large fountains the plaza leads into the floor to ceiling glass lobby that erases the boarder between interior and exterior.

The Seagram Building was used as a model for several neighboring buildings and is still today a great example of the International Style New York skyscraper.

Until 2019 the Seagram Building housed the iconic restaurant the Four Seasons with its two separate sections the Grill Room and the Pool Room, both designed by Philip Johnson.

December 7 – Espresso

Espresso is not a bean, blend or roasting method, it is a method of preparation. The first single-shot espresso machine was made by Luigi Bezzerra in 1901. It was enhanced by Desiderio Pavoni in 1903 but not until after WWII the espresso with crema was born. This was thanks to a Milanese café owner called Achille Gaggia who found a way to increase the water pressure from 2 to 8 bars.

The espresso cup is called Coffee & Cigarettes and was designed by Carlo Trevisani in 2006.

December 6 – El Diablo

A little bit lesser known than the Margarita or the Paloma the El Diablo is still a classic tequila cocktail.

Originally it was called Mexican El Diablo it was created by Victor Bergeron and first printed in his “Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink” in 1946. 22 years later in “Trader Vic’s Pacific Island Cookbook” the name was shortened to El Diablo, the name that is most often used today.

The original recipe calls for ginger ale but at the time ginger ale was spicier than most versions today and was closer to a modern day ginger beer.

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

December 5 – Capri

Just a short boat trip from Naples, and an even shorter one from Sorrento, lies the beautiful island of Capri. Famous for its lemon groves it is overlooking the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. Capri is a must see when traveling the south of Italy. And of course, Emilio Pucci opened up his very first boutique, La Canzone del Mare, in Capri's Marina Piccola in 1951.

December 4 – Boulevardier

This cocktail is essentially a rough version of a Negroni, the classic Italian cocktail invented by Count Camillo Negroni in 1919. The name Boulevardier can loosely be translated to “Man about town”. This drink was created in the 1920s by Erskine Gwynne, an American writer, socialite and nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt.

Gwynne started a magazine by the same name, “Boulevardier”, in Paris for American expats and the cocktail was presumably named after the magazine. Erskine Gwynne often frequented Harry’s American Bar in Paris and the Boulevardier became popular after Harry MacElhone added it to his book “Barflies and Cocktails” in 1927.

The glass was designed in 1932 by Finnish designer Aina Aalto and is called Bölgeblick.

December 3 – Lynchburg Lemonade

In 1980 Tony Mason, a restaurant owner in Huntsville Alabama created the Lynchburg Lemonade. It was named after the city of Lynchburg Tennessee, home to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. Jack Daniel’s was established in 1866 and was one of the first distilleries registered in the United States. To this day the original recipe is used when producing Jack Daniel’s and even though they refer to the product as Tennessee Whiskey, the product meets every legal requirement to be called a Bourbon.

Interestingly, Lynchburg is in Moore County, a county that has been dry since 1910 so visitors to the Jack Daniel’s Distillery will not be able to sample any of the products.

The glass is called Puzzle and was designed by Ettore Sottsass in 2003 for Venini. Sottsass is most famous for starting the Memphis Design Group in Milan in 1980.

December 2 – Guggenheim Museum

In 1943 Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to design “a monument” for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. After 6 separate sets of plans and a 16-year delay due to WWII and the death of Mr Guggenheim the museum was finally ready to open in 1959. This was 6 months after Frank Lloyd Wright himself passed away. The building was immediately recognized as an architectural gem and is by many thought to be the the most important building in Frank Lloyd Wright’s career.

December 1 – White Lady

The White Lady was invented by Harry MacElhone, twice. First in 1919 at Ciro’s Club in London when it featured crème de menthe, triple sec and lemon. This version had a 10 year run. In 1923 Harry bought his own bar, the legendary Harry’s New York Bar, in Paris and in 1929 he reinvented the cocktail and changed the crème de menthe to gin creating yet another classic cocktail.

The glass is called Marja and was designed by the Finnish designer Saara Hopea in 1956.

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What Is A Sidecar?

As often with old classic cocktails there are many different stories about the origin. The Sidecar, possibly the most famous of the cognac cocktails, is no different. The two most common stories both involve an army captain arriving to a bar in the sidecar of a motorcycle sometime during World War I. The bartender mixing the first Sidecar was either Harry MacElhone at the famous Harry’s New York Bar in Paris or Pat MacGarry, bartender at the Buck’s Club in London and inventor of the Buck’s Fizz. However Harry MacElhone himself gave MacGarry credit for the cocktail in his book ”Barflies and Cocktails” from 1927.

Another explanation for the name is that it rather derives from a bartending term for the leftovers in the shaker after pouring the drink. This is poured into a shot glass and served alongside the cocktail and is called the ”sidecar”.

The cocktail was first published in two books in 1922, “Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails” by Harry MacElhone and “Cocktails and How to Mix Them” by Robert Vermeire. Both original recipes calls for equal parts Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice but as time passed the ratios have been altered to two parts Cognac, one part Cointreau and one part lemon juice.

The silver cocktail glass is called Millennium and was designed in 2000 by Lella & Massimo Vignelli.

Sidecar

2 parts Cognac

1 part Cointreau

1 part Lemon juice

Shake ingredients with ice. Strain into chilled glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

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