I’m not one to sit around bemoaning the unending and unyielding tsunami of Snickers- tinis and marshmallow-jitos that has flooded not just Denver, but the entire cocktail-guzzling world.
Well, maybe I am, a little.
Sure, magazines and newspapers and books and critics and soulful bars and restaurants from one end of the city to the other (Barolo Grill, Steuben’s, Cruise Room) do their level best to uphold the dignity of classic cocktails. But there’s only so much wall-building that can be done.
I’ve staked my position in a new book (“A Man’s Place is Behind the Bar,” Chronicle Books). While it has a few contemporary twists on original recipes, it mostly translates the classics (daiquiris, shandies, gimlets and slings) for contemporary drinks-hobbyists.
Still, I’m realistic. I know those s’more-tinis sell like crazy, and I bet peanut-brittle- rita drinkers tip pretty well, too. They aren’t going anywhere.
And, besides, as much as I poke fun at the frozen razzleberry juleps, there was a time when the Cape Codder, the stinger, the tequila sunrise were, well, radical. Cocktail purists of the day must have bemoaned the then-bastardizations as they muddled their old-fashioneds.
And I imagine that for every Shady Lady and piña colada that’s survived, we’ve lost dozens of cockeyed concoctions with less-durable legs.
Each of these cocktails has its own lore, some of it true, much of it not. Travel to New Orleans and ask three people where the Sazerac cocktail came from, and you’ll get three different stories, at least. Ask Key West bartenders how Hemingway took his daiquiris, and you’ll get a long list of recipes. The lore is part of the drink, a topic of contemplation to stew on while you sip.
One of my favorite now-classic cocktails is the mai tai, which was invented by Victor Bergeron back in the 1940s at his legendary restaurant, Trader Vic’s, in Oakland, Calif. Unless it was invented by Don the Beachcomber in the ’30s at his restaurant in Hollywood. Recipes were stashed and stolen, authenticities were declared and challenged, and reputations created and ruptured over the drink.
It was the razzle-tini of its day, and although its midcentury vogue eventually gave way to Harvey Wallbangers and Fuzzy Navels, the mai tai never died.
And who knows? Maybe in a half-century or so, we’ll be hunched over our marshmallow-jitos discussing who, exactly, invented them.
Or maybe not.
Mai Tai
Makes 1.
Ingredients
2 ounces dark rum
1/2 ounce Cointreau
Juice of 1/2lime
Splash orgeat syrup or amaretto
Lime round, maraschino cherry and mint sprig for garnish
Directions
Fill cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Add all ingredients and shake gently for 30 seconds. Place lime round in bottom of glass. Add three ice cubes. Strain cocktail into glass and garnish with cherry and mint.
