The Spirits #109: The Morning Glory Fizz

~ Good Morning Absinthe! ~ Much Better Than I Expected ~ Past Lives ~ Skepta's Misgivings ~ Michael Stipe's Aperitifs ~

HELLO. As a September special, I am offering a lifetime discount on all subscriptions taken out this month. Tell your friends.

~ THE MORNING GLORY FIZZ ~

40ml Scotch
10ml lemon juice
10ml lime juice
20ml sugar syrup
~20ml egg white
Dash absinthe
~60ml Fizzy water

Introduce the Scotch, citrus, sugar syrup, egg white and absinthe into the shaker and agitate hard, without ice to fluff up the egg white. Now add ice and shake again - this time to cool. Strain through a fine mesh into a tall glass filled with ice. Top with fizzy water and stir well. No garnish required but you must do as you see fit.

Some Morning Glory notes:

1. Yes it is aperitif time as this goes out in Europe but our American friends are just waking up. And this week, I discovered that there are Spirits subscribers in every single US state with the exception of… North Dakota. So good morning to everyone except North Dakota!

2. (This revelation put me in mind of the Parquet Courts song, N. Dakota: “Cigarette advertisement country / Wild and perfect, but lacking something”. Lacking the Spirits newsletter.)

3. As ever with fizzes (see also the Ramos Gin Fizz and the Bird of Paradise) be careful not to over-dilute and to stir well to ensure that the fizzy water and the cocktail are well-combined.

4. Use a decent blended Scotch here - not one of your prized single malts. Personally, I went for Famous Grouse.

5. I had to push past a bottle of John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum to reach it. A scant 5ml proved an inspired addition.

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🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑‍🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
⚗️ My bottle recommendations are here.
📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here. 
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.

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THE Morning Glory Fizz is a proper classic, first listed by Harry Johnson in 1882 and fairly venerable too - im that it made it to the “fizz” sections of many later cocktail books. It has a genetic similarity to a couple of other drinks. One is the Ramos Gin Fizz, with which it shares the lemon-lime connection. That might seem a little fussy - most drinks make do with one citrus or the other - but actually, both bring something here, lemon for warmth, lime for that zesty uplift (lime and Scotch = a surprisingly good combination). The other drink it put me in mind of is the Corpse Reviver #2, also a morning drink with a little wisp of absinthe.

Sometimes you make these things dutifully. “Hmm, better try this one.” But actually the Morning Glory Fizz exceeded my expectations. I swore to myself, after I took the above photograph just now that I wouldn’t drink it - but somehow, between 10:01am and 10:04am, the drink disappeared. I blame the absinthe.

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CABINET POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

🌿Green Chartreuse
🍒 Maraschino
🍑 Apricot Brandy
🍫 Crème de Cacao
🌷Cynar
🏝️ Falernum
🌵 Mezcal
🐂 Sherry
🧡 Aperol
🍌 Crème de Banane
🐻 Kümmel
🕊️ Bénédictine

Coming soon: Fernet-Branca

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PLAYLIST

At last! A cocktail that lends itself to a good old-fashioned themed playlist: MORNING SONGS. I was contemplating which aubades to put on this when I went to the cinema to see Past Lives, the Korean-Canadian romance directed by Celine Song, currently winning rave reviews in the popular press. JTC I were of the opinion that it was actually quite banal and disappointing. But there was one little scene that lifted my jaded heart: when an LP of Leonard Cohen’s Hey That’s No Way to Say Goodbye plays in a Seoul apartment. “I loved you in the morning / Your kisses deep and warm…” But it has only occured to me now that this heavy symbolism (our heroine is at this point, saying goodbye… and not doing it properly) is rather of a piece with the movie. Still. Wonderful song!

Also note: the most underrated Beatles song? A cover from the National that I only just discovered (along with the original!); and those two queens of morning misery, Billie and Amy.

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WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING

Credit: Renell Medrano for ES Magazine

I interviewed the grime legend Skepta about his reinvention as a house DJ, the birth of his son, how he used to make his own clothes when he was a kid, how deeply unsatisfying his relationship with Nike was, and also, his rejection of mainstream politics. Most interesting, I thought, was his admission that he finds it almost impossible to rap now - as he has come to think of many mainstream hip-hop tropes as “coonery”, i.e. perpetuating damaging racial stereotypes. The “subliminal disses”; the champagne poses; the confrontational raps to camera: these are all things that white record executives encourage black rappers to do… “And we’re not doing that anymore. We don’t have to be like that.” (ES Magazine).

There has been a lot of debate about pets in the press again prompted by a spate of vicious attacks by a dog called the American Bully XL. I mean who could have imagined an animal thus named could post any sort of menace? Time to re-up my definitive dogs piece from a couple of years ago! Christ I need to get that byline changed. (Observer)

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING

Rory Stewart’s memoir, Politics on the Edge, about the nine years he spent as a Conservative MP and, eventually, leadership candidate. It is incredibly revealing about Westminster politics - and, basically, why we get people like Matt Hancock and Priti Patel running our great departments of state. James Marriott wrote an extravagant rave about it in the Times and I enjoyed Kathleen Stock’s more sceptical take in Unherd. But you can read my interview w/ Stewart in Monday’s Evening Standard.

Brexit as national therapy (Financial Times)

The War on Motorists is a myth (New Statesman)

Why no one posts anything on social media anymore. (Embedded)

And R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe on aperitifs (Blackbird Spyplane)

“No, I don’t feel very empty on the inside, but I do get sad at dusk, like every animal does, and it’s nice to have people around during that moment. I was just reflecting the other day on the importance of having an aperitif and a plate of olives, some good cheese, and good company at dusk to talk about where your day took you.”

Michael Stipe gets it.

🌰🫒🧀🍸