Election Night

It’s Election Day in the UK and while voters shuffle to the polls to put a cross in a box and thus become entitled to complain about the Government for the next five years, The Times asked Luca Corradini, bartender at The American Bar at The Savoy to create a drink for each of the main UK parties.

As several Election Night traditions revolve around waiting up for the results and toasting the demise of some of the best-loathed members of the political establishment we provide reviews of each below and, with a nod to the democratic spirit of the day, give you the chance to vote for your favourite.

A General Election of booze – what’s not to like?

Conservatives

As the largest party in the Government that has run Britain for the last five years, the Tory drink is called Current No 10.  A floral gin-based drink with a hint of spice from the Kummel.  Many will find this one difficult to palate.

1. Stir 50ml gin, 15ml creme de violette, 10ml kummel, 10ml Cocchi Americano and a dash of rose water with cubed ice for sixty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with dried lavender.

Labour

The main challenger (at the ballot box at least) and determined to show their leader has what it takes to be taken seriously on the world stage.  The Labour drink is called the Anything But Mili-bland and is a bitter sweet combination of characters, so it’s a relief to see this one end up moderated somewhat with soda water.

1. Shake 50ml vodka, 10ml Campari, 30ml fresh lemon juice and 15ml grenadine with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled highball glass and top with soda water.
3. Garnish with a lemon twist and a raspberry.

Liberal Democrats

Once the darlings of the disaffected, but now battered and bruised by a punishing five year stint as junior coalition members.  Hoping their pleas to be allowed to moderate the extremes of the major parties will encourage the electorate to let them have another go in charge, albeit under close supervision.  The drink, the Señorita tries to appeal to a broad range of tastes, but ends up putting a lot of people off as a result.  Some of its decisions may take a long time to be forgiven.

1. Shake 50ml tequila, 15ml elderflower, 10ml fino sherry, 30ml pineapple juice and 15ml (2:1) pineapple syrup with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a cobbler glass with ice.
3. Garnish with a slice of cucumber and mixed berries.

UKIP

Angling to replace the Liberal Democrats as the protest vote for those disaffected with the ‘old way of doing things’ UKIP advocate a return to a more insular protectionist time when Britain still had an Empire. The Love It Or Hate It shows a nod to this with a combination of dark rum, spice, egg white and pale ale which will make a handful of adherents go crazy, but leave most people mildly disgusted and hoping it will go away.

1. Shake 50ml dark rum, 15ml Grand Marnier, 10ml pimento dram, 20ml fresh lemon juice, 15ml sugar syrup and 10ml egg white with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled pint glass and top with pale ale.
3. Garnish with a small broken meringue.

Green Party

Hoping to build on the breakthrough the made in 2010 winning their first MP the Green party is striving to move away from its single-issue image with some daring economic policies.  The drink appears to be the most attractive of the lot, and as a result is unlikely to garner much attention and will be largely overlooked on a menu of brash extremes.

1. Blend 50ml vodka, 10ml green Chartreuse, 20ml fresh lemon juice, 15ml sugar syrup, four basil leaves, three dashes of absinthe and an egg white and then shake with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with a basil leaf.

SNP

The Scottish Nationalists have been the rising stars of British politics since coming so close to achieving their main aim of secession in the 2014 referendum.  Having dropped their promise to abstain on non-Scottish matters in Westminster they look set to wield real influence in the next Parliament.  This drink, Sturgeon’s Sharper, serves as a reminder of what the UK would lose if Scotland went its own way.  Built on reassuringly familiar foundations, the addition of cacao seems a rash decision, and an unnecessary amount of sugar, which may have far-reaching consequences.

1. Stir 50ml Mortlach 13yo whisky, 20ml Grand Marnier, 15ml creme de cacao and 10ml Cocchi Americano with cubed ice for sixty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with an orange zest.

Plaid Cymru

The Welsh national party is not going to cause as much of a stir on the Westminster stage as the SNP, but a strong showing could eat into the Labour vote and make another Conservative-led coalition more likely. The Red Dragon is a welcoming and quite one.  While cynics may say it is just here to make up the numbers, if they were to look a little more closely they may well be surprised by how much they like what they see.

1. Blend 60ml Penderyn Welsh whisky, 30ml fresh lemon juice, 15ml calvados, 10ml raspberry eau de vie, half an egg white and a small piece of red apple and then shake with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe.
3. Garnish with a dehydrated apple slice.

Now, for the enfranchisement – vote for your favourite below:

Repeal Day: The Scofflaw

Photo courtesy of ReeseCLloyd (Flickr), some rights reserved

Today is the anniversary of a magical day that many Americans thought would never come. The anniversary of the passing of the Twenty-first Amendment to the American Constitution. And what did the Twenty-first Amendment to the American constitution achieve? The revocation of the Eighteenth Amendment to the American Constitution. And what was the Eighteenth Amendment to the American Constitution? The worst amendment of all:

“the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.”

The Prohibition era was a contentious period in American history. Although driven by an almost untouchable combination of patriotism, medical evidence, religious fervour and social hysteria, American’s experiment with prohibition was, by 1925 widely perceived to have failed. The temperance movement had hoped for a reduction or elimination of a range of social problems – drunkenness, crime, mental illness and poverty, but instead:

“Five years of Prohibition [have] had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished.” – HL Mencken

Ultimately the failure of Prohibition was due to the determination of the populace to continue to produce and drink alcohol. In particular, bootlegging and organised crime flourished and the underground drinking dens, the speakeasies, the blind pigs and the blind tigers rose to a level of popularity that would not be matched for another seventy-five years. Ultimately, irony of irony, many of those who supported the repeal movement began to argue that prohibition had exacerbated the problems it had set out to eradicate – largely due to the popularity and allure of speakeasy culture.

The repeal movement had permeated the American consciousness to such an extent that in 1932 Franklin D Roosevelt ran for election on a promise that he would repeal the federal Prohibition law, and in March 1933 he proved true to his word.  Finally, thanks to the Cullen-Harrison Act, Americans were free to purchase wine and weak beer (no Budweiser jokes here, please) after a thirteen year wait.  What a summer it must have been.  By 5 December 1933 the Amendment had been fully ratified and the federal laws enforcing Prohibition were repealed.

Between 1920 and 1933, however, Prohibition had had a noticeable effect on the drinkers of Europe.  Faced with the Prohibition of their profession back home, many American bartenders fled to London and Paris and set up local bars offering American cocktails to the bemused Europeans.  Of these, the most famous examples include Harry’s Bar, Paris and The American Bar at The Savoy.  In keeping with the name that had been coined (in 1924) to refer to those who continued to drink illegally in America, the new ex-pats were also called scofflaws.

So as a result, we Brits have plenty to thank these Americans for – and can look back wryly on the clearly wrong-headed idea of banning alcohol in the first place.  For them, today seems a fitting day to raise a toast to these pioneers, and what better drink to choose than the Scofflaw – a drink created by a scofflaw at Harry’s Bar, Paris, to celebrate his escape from the parched lands of America:

1. Shake 40ml rye whiskey, 20ml dry vermouth, 20ml fresh lemon juice and 10ml grenadine with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with a twist of lemon.

Jack Rose

Photo courtesy of Michael Dietsch, some rights reserved

The Jack Rose manages to neatly combine two things that have been on my mind for some time.  The sourcing of a bottle of Laird’s Applejack, and my study of ‘Fiesta’ (The Sun Also Rises) by Ernest Hemingway.

Applejack is a Calvados-style apple brandy, which has claims to being the oldest American spirit due to its roots in the colonial period.  It is made by ‘jacking’ (freeze distilling) cider, and may have been discovered by North American apple farmers who found that by periodically removing the ice that formed on their cider, they could create a ‘jacked up’ drink as a result of the concentration of the remaining unfrozen alcohol.

Because ‘jacking’ could be done without any complicated distilling equipment, a rough version of applejack (and by rough we mean head-splitting) could be formed by anyone with a surplus of apples in a cold climate.  Given its rough heritage, it is perhaps not surprising that applejack has been supplanted in popularity by the more cultured Calvados and traditional apple brandies.  Although applejack is no longer made by leaving cider out to freeze, it does only consist of 35% apple brandy to 65% neutral grain spirit (effectively vodka), so it is easy to get snobby about its composition when compared to even its sibling Straight Apple Brandy which is 100 percent proof and 100% apple-based.  Perhaps as a result, applejack is rarely found on the shelves of even the most comprehensive booze vendors in the UK, and tracking it down became somewhat of a quest.  Once found, however, I found it intriguing for its history, its promise and its fruit and butterscotch/caramel notes.

As for Hemingway, well, ever since the Death in the Afternoon, I have been itching to read some more of his work, and recently picked up a copy of The Sun Also Rises on recommendation from a friend.  One thing that struck me about the opening 90 pages or so (aside from the compelling imagery of Paris in the Roaring Twenties and the unadulterated coquettish nature of Brett) is the sheer volume of alcohol that is consumed.  From the Fines à l’eau (cognac and water), to the whiskey (with or without soda), via the Pernod and the wine, Jake Barnes and his band of lost souls drink their way through all that mid-1920s Paris had to offer.

Of these various libations, one drink stood out as somewhat of an unknown quantity.  The Jack Rose has many plausible origins, with the Jack either referring to the base ingredient, the Jacqueminot rose, Jack Laird, wrestling bartender Frank J May, Bald Jack Rose a 19th century New York gangster, or a 20th century brand of small cigars.  Of these, the gangster story is most widely-renowned, and I recommend you have a good read of the story of old Jack Rose and the Becker-Rosenthal trial as you sip the protaganist’s favourite tipple:

1. Shake 50ml applejack, 25ml fresh lemon juice, 10ml grenadine and two dashes of bitters with cubed ice for twenty seconds.
2. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass.
3. Garnish with a wedge of lemon.

A wedge?!  Well, it is an oldie…

Calvados or another apple brandy can be used in place of applejack which can be a little hard to find in the UK.  Sources also differ as to whether lemon or lime juice should be used, so feel free to experiment with that too.  If you find the lemon wedge gets in the way when drinking, a slice of apple or a cherry is also an acceptable garnish.