The Spirits #140: The Revolver

A drink for high summer

~ THE REVOLVER ~

50ml bourbon
10ml coffee liqueur
5ml orange liqueur

Stir with ice and strain into an ice cold coupe. Orange zest garnish. Flame it if you feel able.

Some Revolver notes:

1. There were many more coffee liqueur cocktails in last week’s CABINET post. I thought it was worth highlighting this one as it’s simple but good. But if you want to know all about White Russians, Daiquiri Mulatas and the drink that made me go “oh my God that’s so good” - well I suggest you take a look.

2. The Revolver was discovered by Jon Santer in San Francisco in the early 2000s. It’s kind of a coffee-Old Fashiond served up. Santer used Bulleit bourbon which I assume inspired the name and specificed that you must flame the orange twist.

3. He also called for orange bitters as opposed to liqueur. But I don’t like orange bitters. (I feel I’ve mentioned this before). And I feel the drink benefits from just a touch of extra sweetness. So if you must know, my particulars were: Elijah Craig bourbon, Café Solo coffee liqueur and Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao.

4. I’m going to take a couple of weeks off! The usual summer madness: I’ve children to entertain, anti-fascist marches to attend, a novel to revise, and then at the end of the month we’re off to Ischia and Capri. So your regular Friday dispatch will return with the new term in September, freshly ironed, hopefully with a new pencil case. But I’m going to reprieve a few greatest hits to keep you lubricated until then. There’s also a new playlist, you’ll be pleased to hear.

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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.
🍉The situation in Gaza is dire. Please consider donating.

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CABINET POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

🐿️ Amaretto
🌶️ Ancho Reyes
🧡 Aperol
🍑 Apricot Brandy
🕊️ Bénédictine
❄️ Brancamenta
☕ Coffee Liqueur
🍌 Crème de Banane
🍫 Crème de Cacao
🫐 Crème de Cassis
🌷 Cynar
🏝️ Falernum
🦅 Fernet-Branca
🌿 Green Chartreuse
🐻 Kümmel
🍒 Maraschino
🌵 Mezcal
🐂 Sherry
🌻 Suze

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PLAYLIST

I simply couldn’t resist a Revolver-themed playlist. I detest guns and think they should all be destroyed obviously. But, much like cars, they do lend themselves to some great tunes - and great guitar solos, too.

This playlist “refreshes” with new songs every week (or month… or so). The idea is, you save it, favourite it, whatever - and you’ll always have a selection of fresh, new cocktail hour-appropriate tunes to listen to at while you’re mixing your aperitifs. I archive all the past playlists in one massive megalist here.

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WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING

I wrote the cover story of this month’s Men’s Health. I went to Cardiff Bay to interview Louis Rees-Zammit, 23, the poster boy for Welsh rugby, who sensationally quit the sport earlier this year in order to pursue a childhood dream of playing American football. He is now training with Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, in the hope of making it into their match day squad. Despite having little interest in either rugby or American football, I found his trajectory fascinating, in what it says about sporting fame in the modern age. Welsh rugby places a lot of value on community, tradition, togetherness. Rees-Zammit seemed to place most value on living the dream. “One of the reasons I wanted to do this is to inspire other people to make this move… to make their dreams come true,” he told me. (Men’s Health in print… but you can also read on MSN)

My article on the lost are of getting lost has finally gone up online. I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in this one - and I believe it might just be the first time someone has made a BESPOKE ANIMATION to accompany one of my pieces. (Telegraph)

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING

The Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg in an attempt to improve my Italian ahead of our late-summer trip. I’d been aware of Ginzburg as a mildly hip literary name to drop/key influence on Elena Ferrante/Sally Rooney/etc for a while, so was pleased to come across her story La Madre in an dual-Italian/English collection of short stories. Her writing is not only gratifyingly accessible from a language point of view: simple, direct, propulsive. She also hooks you in on a deep emotional level, providing a compulsion beyond mere vocab-learning - which is exactly what you want. Communication, essentially. Insomma: La Madre is one of the most devastating short stories I’ve read in a long while, deeply sinister in its depiction of a patriarchal society erasing the nonconforming mother of the title. I was about to say it’s almost like a ghost story. Actually it’s more like an exorcism. I’m now attempting Le Voci della Sera, The Voices of Evening, a slim novella from 1961. Harder going. But it sure beats Duolingo.

This Time It’s Worse - on the UK riots, I’m afraid (LRB)

How Kamala Harris became bigger than Donald Trump (New Yorker)

I enjoyed Jo Ellison enjoying the Olympians too (Financial Times)

Who said August is a quiet news month?!

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SEE YOU FOR MARTINIS IN SEPTEMBER

🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸