The Spirits #66: The Algonquin

~ The Algonquin Round Table ~ Sweet Vermouth ~ Turgenev's Can-Can ~

~ THE ALGONQUIN ~

40ml rye (or bourbon
20ml French vermouth
20ml pineapple juice
10ml golden sugar syrup
Dash Peychaud’s bitters (optional)

Put everything in the shaker bar the bitters. Fill halfway with ice and shake like a daemon. Strain into a chilled coupe. A couple of dots of bitters will do for the garnish.

Some Algonquinous notes:

1) So sorry, I should have got this to you last week. I have been in a thick forest of deadlines of late from which I have not yet emerged, truth be told… But I didn’t want to leave you cocktailless for a second week in a row and so, here is a curtailed Algonquin. The meandering ethnography of the Algonquian people of North America; the feuilleton about the famous Algonquin hotel in New York after which this cocktails is named and where the New Yorker magazine was founded; the choice apercus from the Algonquin crowd of Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Harpo Marx et al… All this will have to wait for another time!

2) As for the cocktail itself, well. The classic proportions are two parts rye, one part French vermouth, one part pineapple juice, stirred (I believe). This comes out too dry to may palate - which is inclined towards dry cocktails. So I’ve added 10ml of sugar syrup to help things along. Another alternative is to sub the French vermouth for a sweeter version of the same: Cocchi Americano, Lillet Blanc, Dolin Blanc, Mancino Bianco, etc.

3) The dash of bitters-as-garnish is my invention too. Looks pretty!

No new playlist this week but here is the archive!

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🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine 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.

And you like The Spirits, do please forward this to all of your friends.

WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING / READING

I interviewed FACE, aka Ivan Dryomin, the Russian rapper who has become one of the most prominent anti-Putin activists (Sunday Times)

This magnificent appreciation of Turgenev (LRB)

The End of Alcohol (Wired)

Thought this was the most interesting take on Elon Musk buying Twitter (New Statesman)

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SHOPPING LIST

It’s Cinco de Mayo! Cinnamon syrup ingredients (cinnamon bark, sugar), almond/rice/oat milk, tequila. There’s another idea I haven’t quite finalised too, but pineapple juice, honey, lager and lime might be worth getting in too.

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