The Spirits #116: The Bobby Burns
~ Exactly the sort of thing one wants to sip on a damp November evening ~
~ THE BOBBY BURNS ~
50ml Scotch
25ml Italian vermouth
5ml Bénédictine
Dash of absinthe
Stir all the liquids together with a great deal of ice for an inordinate amount of time (20 seconds). Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a lemon zest twist.
Some BB Notes:
1) This is Frank Caiafa’s modern update of the old Scotch classic from the Waldorf-Astoria. I included it in my Bénédictine opus but I figured it was worth releasing as a single as it’s just exactly the sort of thing one wants to sip on a damp November evening. I’ve seen versions with Drambuie in place of the Bénédictine; both logical and delicious. If you have neither, a dash of honey syrup and a splash of something bitter?
2) Forgive the brevity. I’ve become pleasantly mired in a longer-term project this week that has consumed all of my writing energies but which I think might finally be coming together. Naturally, of course, I didn’t want to leave you thirsty.
3) Further Autumnal cockle warmers? Ooh, I’d go for the Treacle; the Apple Pie Punch; the Short Rib; or maybe a nice Sazerac.
4) Next week, by popular demand, I’m going to ship out a full and comprehensive guide: how to host a cocktail party. (And also, why you should host a cocktail party). Hopefully in time for party season.
CABINET POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
🌿Green Chartreuse
🍒 Maraschino
🍑 Apricot Brandy
🍫 Crème de Cacao
🌷Cynar
🏝️ Falernum
🌵 Mezcal
🐂 Sherry
🧡 Aperol
🍌 Crème de Banane
🐻 Kümmel
🕊️ Bénédictine
🦅Fernet-Branca
❄️Brancamenta
🐿️Amaretto
Coming soon: Suze
WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING
Oh yes, my piece on 2023, the year of the dupe, is up online. I interviewed the prolific art forger David Fenty - he’ll do you a Basquiat for £10,000, a Da Vinci for £20,000, a Banksy for much less - and he was a novel-worthy character in himself. But he also got me thinking about fakes and replicas, duplicates and copies, and how we live in an age of imitation. Which is, as it happens, a theme at the heart of the aforementioned longer project. (ES Magazine)
“It can’t be entirely coincidental that this pandemic of duplication should have occurred in the same year that everyone has become terribly worked up about generative artificial intelligence — that is, computer programmes such as Dall-E, which can produce a picture of a Celine handbag as painted by Basquiat at the touch of a button, or ChatGPT, which will write you a sonnet about dropshipping in the style of Shakespeare.
… When I’m on Instagram, swiping past adverts for duped T-shirts from David Bowie’s Japanese tour of 1982, or fig leaf candles that smell just like the Diptyque ones, I often have the eerie feeling that the material and virtual worlds have converged. All it takes is two or three touches and in a couple of days these miraculously desirable items will appear in my home, as if by magic. A constellation of forces — surveillance capitalism, AI inventory management, a globalised labour force, just-in-time supply chains, print-on-demand technology, easy credit, touch ID, Chinese industrial policy, etc — have created a world in which thought becomes material almost without friction. It sometimes reminds me of the giddy rush of MP3s and BitTorrent in the early 2000s, when suddenly music, which had previously been rare and expensive, became infinitely replicable and almost free.
Napster: but for things.”
And here is where you should eat in Bristol - if you fail to swing an invite to my house. (CN Traveller)
I keep making this, absolutely love it!