Some kind of convergence happened this year and a whole bunch of snake-themed drinks have appeared on our radar for Halloween. Not exactly a classic symbol of Halloween, but they certainly inspire plenty of dread. I recall, as a child, being enamored of the brave Rikki Tikki Tavi when he challenged Nag and Nagaina—what sane person (or mongoose) would fight down two cobras?

Though we are all familiar with the hooded snake who came face-to-face with Indiana Jones, cobras are part of a larger (and scarier) family of snakes called Elapidae, which makes them kin to death adders, copperheads, mambas, corals and sea snakes. Being in such abjectly terrifying company would certainly earn them a fearsome reputation without their intimidating hoods, large fangs and fatal neurotoxin. Some species of cobras even have the ability to spit venom at their prey via small holes in the tips of their fangs. Yikes.

All of which is a long way of saying that a cobra’s fangs are no joke, and the sting delivered by this drink is serious business. As with most tiki drinks, the genesis and exact recipe for the Cobra’s Fang are unclear. There are a few primary sources: the Cobra’s Fang recipe found in Hawaii Tropical Rum Drinks & Cuisine by Don the Beachcomber written by Phoebe Beach, Donn’s wife at the time of his death; and two related recipes unearthed by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, the Cobra from the Kon-Tiki in Chicago and the Sidewinder’s Fang from The Lanai in San Mateo. Both recipes date from the early 1960s. And, of course, our beloved Tiki-Ti serves the Cobra’s Fang (but good luck getting them to divulge the recipe). In digging through all of this backstory, I found an interesting mash-up recipe posted on Tiki Central by a user called arriano; this recipe incorporates elements from all three recipes and substitutes passion fruit syrup for fassionola (a defunct fruit punch-like ingredient). It sounded intriguing, if not wholly historically accurate—but if it’s delicious, does the accuracy truly matter?

½ oz lime juice
1½ oz orange juice
½ oz passion fruit syrup (B.G. Reynolds’ or homemade)
1 oz dark Jamaican rum (Plantation Jamaica, but Appleton 12 or V/X would also be good here)
1 oz 151-proof Demerara rum (such as Lemon Hart 151)
6 drops Pernod (or Herbsaint)
dash grenadine
dash Angostura bitters

Add all ingredients to a blender along with 4 ounces crushed ice and blend at high speed for five seconds. Pour into a tall glass and, if necessary, add ice to fill. Garnish with an orange spiral and serve.

Tiki drinks don’t exactly spring to mind when considering Halloween but this one certainly fits the bill for the holiday, beginning with its lovely burnt orange color. The tart of citrus and sweet of passionfruit and rum play very well here, with just a hint of a fresh herbaceous flavor from the Pernod. The delicious clove and allspice notes of Angostura tie all the flavors together, teasing out a hint of the tastes and scents of fall. Be careful, though—the equivalent of three ounces of 80-proof liquor are in this drink and you can’t taste them. Too many of these and the Cobra’s Fang will definitely bite back.

Content © 2011 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bitters, cocktail, grenadine, lime, orange, passion fruit, tiki

Mary Pickford was the star of silent films, one of the first female media celebrities and an early power player in the Hollywood machine. Though her place in cinema history is well documented, she’s one of the few early film stars whose legacy you can still see around town. She and her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks, were two of the primary investors in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which opened in 1927. It has been a Hollywood Boulevard landmark since it opened, which is also the year it hosted the first Academy Awards ceremony. Nearly a century’s worth of stars have stayed in the hotel, resulting in another of its claims to fame: the Roosevelt is consistently named one of the most haunted sites in Los Angeles. (Purportedly, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift haunt different parts of the hotel.) The hotel was renovated in 2005 and is once again a happening spot—the interior of the Roosevelt is absolutely gorgeous—and it now holds a number of bars, among them the cocktailian favorite Library Bar.

The cocktail named for Mary Pickford is variously attributed to a few different people, but the most likely creator is Eddie Woelke, who moved to Cuba during Prohibition and helmed the famed Jockey Bar in Havana. Though the Mary Pickford is not unknown, Woelke is better known as the creator of the El Presidente, a similarly rum-based tipple that has been enjoying a resurgence in popularity. The Mary Pickford is particularly interesting, as its composition is sort of proto-tiki, foreshadowing the tropical concoctions that would become all the rage in Hollywood (and elsewhere) after Prohibition. (...) Continue reading Mary Pickford Cocktail

Content © 2011 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cocktail, grenadine, maraschino, pineapple, rum

In that spirit, I have a final cocktail for your Christmas Eve imbibing. The Hallelujah Cocktail comes from The Gentleman’s Companion, another in the long line of interesting concoctions put to paper by Charles H. Baker, Jr. This one is something like a Manhattan, and it’s great for company because you can adjust the sweet and spicy notes to suit your tastes, or your guests’. I went for a drier drink and used Punt e Mes vermouth, and with it this cocktail pulls on the palette much like an amaro. Whether you make it dry or sweet or spicy, it would make a lovely drink before or after a big holiday meal. (...) Continue reading Hallelujah Cocktail

Content © 2010 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brandy, cherry, cocktail, cognac, grenadine, lime, rum, rye, vermouth

Most of the cocktail-types I know—be they bartenders or just appreciators of the craft—are also into food to some degree. Many of the best cocktail bars are located in very nice restaurants, so good drinks and good food naturally go hand-in-hand. As such it’s probably no surprise that I have a huge stable of cookbooks that I’m constantly poking around in and cooking from, and one of my absolute favorites is Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican. Every single recipe I’ve made has been a winner, and I even spent an entire day making a four-course dinner from its pages: Spicy Jicama and Tangerine Salad, Queso Fundido, Refried Beans and Nuevo León-Style Tamales. It’s was all amazingly delicious, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw this on Rick Bayless’ Twitter feed:

I’m gving 10 personalizd ‘Fiesta at Rick’s’ 2 winners of my cocktail contest! Details: http://bit.ly/ij7etC nxt post:recipe ,makes 12 drnks

Translated from Twitter-speak, hopefuls were charged with putting a holiday twist on the classic Topolobampo margarita and submitting the recipe for a chance to win a personalized copy of Bayless’ new cookbook, Fiesta at Rick’s. Naturally, my interest was piqued and I set about digging through the bar and cupboards in search of flavors that I associate with the holidays: cardamom, cloves, ginger, saffron and lingonberries. Slightly unusual, but I’m half Swedish. We eat, um, interesting things. (...) Continue reading Margarita Svenska

Content © 2010 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cocktail, curaçao, ginger, lime juice, lingonberry, tequila, triple sec

Gifted last year with a giant bag of persimmons from a friend’s tree, my family was in a bind. See, persimmons didn’t appear on our table much—ever—during my childhood, so none of us had any idea what to do with the cute, squat orange fruits. I hit the cookbook shelves and internet for inspiration, and found that you can eat them firm or ripe, plus they lend themselves to a delightful array of preparations: sliced, pureed, baked, mixed in custard, atop a cheesecake, made into jam. Their versatility is rather extraordinary.

Fast forward to this year and I nibble firm, crunchy persimmon slices whenever I can get my hands on them; they never seem to last long enough to ripen for other uses. But I exercised all of my restraint and allowed four to go deep red-orange and soft in anticipation of this Thanksgiving day treat. While I think that this margarita could go well with dinner—the tartness of the lime cutting through all the fatty, buttery goodness—my impulse is to mix these up after the meal when the sweet-tart bite of the drink will whet everyone’s appetite until dessert. (...) Continue reading Persimmon Margarita

Content © 2010 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cinnamon, cocktails, Cointreau, lime, persimmon, tequila, triple sec

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

This particular recipe comes from Beach Bum Berry Remixed, one of the many fine punches that Jeff features. Blood of the Kapu Tiki can also be found on the menu at the Tiki-Ti, which is where I first encountered it (though it was in a single-serving form). It’s a pretty mellow punch, so it’s great for parties and you really can’t beat the color for drinking on Halloween. (...) Continue reading Blood of the Kapu Tiki

Content © 2010 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bitters, cocktail, grapefruit juice, grenadine, lime juice, orange juice, punch, rum

It was such a good idea, in fact, that a publisher thought it would make a great book—the kind with glossy photos that you find on the shelf at Borders. The brother called Ted decided to take on the re-imagining of the wee LCL and refined the concept: a book of recipes by the best bartenders from cities up and down the west coast. Naturally, this meant that all the sad, misshapen gnomes who live in caves and write cocktail blogs could not submit recipes for the professional book, and so were relegated to working as spies for Ted, ferreting out the brightest talents to be featured.

One such gnome from Los Angeles (coughcough) suggested John Coltharp, bartender extraordinaire at Seven Grand and Caña downtown and now Copa d’Oro in Santa Monica. John is a very talented and supremely knowledgeable bartender; he consistently creates drinks that showcase but don’t overwhelm their base spirits. He has long been one of my favorite hooch-slingers in town and I was excited to try the drinks he submitted to the new Left Coast Libations, including this loverly fall cocktail. (...) Continue reading Seven Sins

Content © 2010 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cocktail whiskey rye applejack lemon grenadine cinnamon

Starring Béla Lugosi as evil voodoo master Murder Legendre, the plot revolves around the transformation of a young, beautiful woman into his zombified slave. More faithful to the original folklore about zombies being the living, rather than reanimated, dead, it is never-the-less considered the earliest example of a genre that has spawned countless excellent (and absolutely terrible) re-workings of the subject. Though relatively little known on its own merits White Zombie influenced a number of filmmakers and artists, and aside from inspiring the name of this cocktail it is also where Rob Zombie got the name for his eponymous band.

This particular White Zombie comes from the last year’s Halloween cocktail menu at The Hungry Cat in Hollywood. Last year the restaurant and bar used a South Pacific theme for the holiday and this tropical concoction was one of the featured cocktails. (...) Continue reading White Zombie

Content © 2010 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chili, cocktail, coconut, grenadine, halloween, lime juice, rum

Happily, my wee plants are all getting big and strong (at least the ones that can be at this time of the season), so we snipped some fresh thyme from the garden and made use of our delicious fresh batch of homemade limoncello (thanks, Maria!). We found the Precious Thyme in the pages of The Essential Bartender’s Guide, on the hunt for a limoncello cocktail. The drink is a variation on a Negroni put together by Francesco Lafranconi; the limoncello subs for gin and the drink is topped off with club soda for a light, refreshing highball. If you really want to gild the lily a few dashes of lemon or orange bitters would be tasty, and subbing Aperol for the Campari would be a nice variation here too. (...) Continue reading Precious Thyme

Content © 2010 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Campari, cocktail, limoncello, negroni, thyme, vermouth

Content © 2009 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | No comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: pineapple

Naturally, being obligated to stay inside has me contemplating the bar and its many wonders as I warily eye the columns of smoke rising above the mountains to the north. Police and firefighters from all over SoCal have been cruising past the house to spot trouble from the vantage of our neighbors’ hilltop view, and fire season always brings about sincere feelings of gratitude for the hardworking firefighters, whom we frequently see catching quick cat naps and meals on our road. (...) Continue reading Fireman’s Sour

Content © 2009 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cocktail, grenadine, lime, rum, sour

The Picon Punch is a very specific sort of drink—savory, refreshing, tall and, if you’re into this sort of thing, exceptionally good. My first proper Picon Punch, which came after many not terribly successful attempts on my own, was had at the hands of Dr. Cocktail. He, being the purveyor of all manner of great cocktails, made one for Dan and I while we were over; realizing that the error of the Picon Punch was, as we had suspected, in our incompetence rather than the drink itself, we’ve spent the last few years practicing and perfecting it. These days we burn through a bottle of Torani Amer every month or two, making both the traditional recipe (below) and a modified, brandy-less version given us by Eric Alperin of The Varnish. (Where you can, by the by, get a fabulous Picon Punch.) (...) Continue reading Picon Punch

Content © 2009 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brandy, cocktail, grenadine, lemon, picon

Our friend Matt—rum aficionado, bearded alchemist, devourer of exotic meats—has a really bad habit: he leaves booze over at our house. It doesn’t Matter (look, I’m an advertising hack!) whether it’s TV night or a gathering of friends old and new, he never arrives with less than four bottles and always leaves with nothing. While we here at Sloshed! have abided this naughty behavior (not mention other unspeakable acts of generosity and antiquated manliness), the line in the proverbial sandy beach has been drawn, and our revenge—naturally, in the form of a highly intoxicating cocktail—is at hand. Behold the El Centro Cooler, forged in blood, named after Matt’s hometown, and made almost entirely from the still-warm corpses of ingredients he has thoughtfullylessly orphaned at our bar. Proceed if you dare! (...) Continue reading El Centro Cooler

Content © 2009 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cocktail, falernum, ginger, ginger beer, lime, MxMo, rum

Given that I had the Rosangel base selected for me by the nature of the competition, for this drink I launched straight into tasting the spirit and developing my notes on the flavor. The floral notes of the hibiscus come through most prominently on the nose, giving it a fruity, heady scent. The tequila’s flavor was not affected by the infusion as I had feared it might be; the warm bite of the agave is dominant, but there is a very subtle sweetness imparted by the port barrels and the faint sweet-tart tang of the hibiscus. Complex but very straightforward, it presents a unique challenge to the would-be mixologist: complement but don’t overwhelm.

With that in mind, I had a terrifically fun day at the grocery store in preparation for my experiments. Grapefruits, mangoes, peaches, kiwis, dried hibiscus, piloncillo, jalapeños, lemons, limes—I grabbed up pretty much anything that wasn’t nailed down with possible uses drumming through my head. Being a SoCal native, tequila is one of my favorite spirits; my gateway liquor, as I call it. Tequila turned me on to the serious side of spirits after years of cheap beer and even cheaper vodka. Fortunately, California’s markets are filled with a profusion of Latin ingredients from Mexico to the furthest tip of Chile, giving me an incredible array of choices. After my Leaving Las Vegas-style shopping spree, it was inevitable that I would manage to use nearly every dish and pan I own while juicing, simmering and shaking my way to the end result. And now, with those mountains of dishes vanquished, I can leave you with the end result: the Mojave Fix. (...) Continue reading Mojave Fix

Content © 2009 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chipotle, cocktail, hibiscus, lemon, piloncillo, sherry, syrup, tequila

And now on to our regularly scheduled programming.

As you may already know, once a week the congress of nerdery known as the Mixoloseum hosts Thursday Drink Night in its chatroom. Bloggers, enthusiasts, brand reps and the occasional distiller convene to shake the night away bound by a common theme, which range from a type of spirit to a specific brand to a specific cocktail and everything in-between. Last week, in honor of the amazing conflagration of Friday the 13th and America’s favorite pink-tinged fake holiday, Thursday was dedicated to Zombie variations great and small. There are many, many, many variations on the Zombie already; the inconsistencies depend on which reference you consult, which year the recipe was written and whether or not you’re using a Donn the Beachcomber recipe. (You should be.) Given such a wide base, we determined that the recipes should use at least three rums, two syrups and one juice. Pretty broad, but when dealing with thirty different people with a host of available ingredients, it’s hard to be too specific. (...) Continue reading Zombies! Finally!

Content © 2009 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: allspice, blood orange, cocktail, lime, orgeat, pineapple, rum, tiki, vanilla