I heard about this interesting book on CBC on the way home from the Superstore. It is essentially a recipe book of tribute cocktails for influential women. The author said that it was like making an invitation list to the best ever all-women dinner party.
She described the “Margaret Atwood” which is a red cocktail featuring pomegranate juice that harkens back to the red clothing worn by the child bearing women in The Handmaiden’s Tale.
If someone were both a book worm and a bartender I bet that they could make a whole book of tribute cocktails for book clubs. Wouldn’t that be fun!?
I was sitting at the stoplight by Canadian Tire, thinking about Free the Tipple, and wondering for what sort of women I would choose to make a tribute cocktail. Literary figures? Authors? Criminals? Law Makers? Social Reformers?
For some reason I settled upon the category of Misunderstood Women. So, really it could be literary figures, authors, criminals law makers or social reformers.
How about a cocktail based on Cleopatra?
How is she misunderstood? For starters, she wasn’t Egyptian. She was Macedonian. And she might not have been all that beautiful. I think that she was beguiling and intelligent. She spoke up to a dozen languages and was highly educated in maths, philosophy and astronomy. More than a pretty face for certain.
As a tribute drink for Cleopatra I suggest Corpse Reviver #2. Typical ingredients are:
- 3/4 ounce gin
- 3/4 ounce lemon juice
- 3/4 ounce Cointreau (curaçao)
- 3/4 ounce Kina Lillet, Amber Vermouth or Cocchi Americano
- 1 dash absinthe
Mix these ingredients in a shaker. Shake them hard. Then strain into a glass and serve with a mint leaf.
Why this drink? Absinthe.
The most misunderstood spirit ever. It has even been outlawed and rumoured to be psychotropic. One thing about the stuff is that it is massively alcoholic; so a dash is all you want. I have seen bartenders put it into a spray bottle and spray the sides of a glass just before they pour in the rest of the drink. This seems like a smart way to do it.
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