Peanut Butter Stout

Rather than a cocktail, I sipped on my favorite beer at the time, a Peanut Butter Stout from Lead Dog Brewing.

Seemed like a good choice for Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes, since my love of beer is likely a contributing factor…ok, it’s definitely a contributing factor…to my own fluffiness.

Mixed 12/05/2021

Edison’s Medicine

6 Basil Leaves

1 1/2 oz silver Cachaca

1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse Liqueur

3/4 oz Lime Juice

1/2 oz Agave Syrup

1/3 oz chilled water (only if you're using dry ice for the cocktail. If you're using wet ice, you can omit the water)

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a glass.

Edison’s Medicine was an ideally ironic pick to go with a book on Theranos on Elizabeth Holmes, who named her magical medical machine, The Edison and so as perfect for Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyou.

Mixed 05/01/2022

Dark Fairy Cream

1.25 oz Absinthe

1 oz Chocolate liqueur

0.5 oz Vodka

1.25 oz Half and half

chocolate shavings for garnish

Put all ingredients in shaker with ice, shake well, pour in to coupe glass and garnish with chocolate shavings.

The accompanying cocktail to this weeks book, The Psychedelic Handbook: A practical guide to Psilocybin, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, and DMT/Ayahuasca by Rick Strassman, MD, was not so easy to pick. Googling psychedelic cocktail kicked back a bunch of funky layered cocktails, which we know I can’t layer for anything, or cocktails with actual psychedelics in them, which I am not doing, for a variety of reasons, mostly the legality of it, but also because Dr. Strassman does not recommend mixing alcohol and psychedelics. So, I found an absinthe-based cocktail, absinthe being called the green fairy in the 19th century since it was believed the wormwood in the liqueur caused psychedelic effects.

Mixed on 12/04/2022

Silent Seance

1.5 oz. Mezcal

.5 oz. Overproof Dark Rum

.5 oz. Fresh Pineapple Juice

.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

.25 oz. Coffee Liqueur

.25 oz. Simple Syrup

1 dash Aromatic Bitters

Long Pepper (Garnish)

Add all ingredients except pepper to a shaking tin, add ice, and shake well. Fine strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a generous grating of long pepper.

Mixed up a Silent Seance, for this weeks book of the week, Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances by Lisa Morton.

Mixed on 10/15/2023

Cream Egg

1/4 Cup Whole Milk

3/4 Cup Seltzer

2 Tablespoons U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

Pour the milk in the glass, then pour in the seltzer. Add the chocolate syrup and push the syrup up against the walls of the glass without stirring. This drink was specifically mentioned in this weeks book, All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks, so I knew I had to try it.

Mixed on 08/18/2024

The Swindle

1 oz Cointreau

2 oz Mezcal

3/4 oz fresh lime juice

1/4 oz fresh lemon juice

1/2 oz orange juice

Optional garnish is chili-lime seasoning

Shake all with ice, pour over ice.

This was a perfect pick for Walter E. Williams book More Liberty Means Less Government, as he considers all government A Swindle.

Mixed 02/06/2022

Angry Spiced Rum

4 oz Angry Orchard Crisp Apple

1 oz Spiced Rum

1/2 oz Lime Juice

3/4 oz Simple Syrup

1 tsp Allspice Liqueur

The recipe says to shake it up. I experienced a small explosion. I recommend stirring.

Since Hard Cider is a perennial favorite in New England, at least according to my friend who lives in New Hampshire, I went with this offering from Angry Orchard for the book on New Hampshire’s native son, Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills by Roy Franklin Nichols.

Mixed on 05/29/2022

Mead

For this weeks book of the week, The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown, rather than a fancy cocktail, I went with a solid Viking libation, homemade mead, this particular mead was made up by friends of mine and as so so good.

Mixed on 03/05/2023

Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat Ale

And I know I usually do a topical cocktail, but all my mixers are boxed up somewhere, due to the ongoing remodel, so I’m keeping it simple, and having one of my favorite beers, a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Ale. It’s semi-topical. Sam Adams is not just a marketing gimmick, he was the cousin of John Adams, second president of the United States. Samuel Adams was initially an anti-federalist, who was swayed during the political debates following the constitutional convention of the rightness of the Federalist’s cause.

Mixed on 09/10/2023

Cup of Justice

1.5 oz Amaro

.5 oz Elderflower Liqueur

.5 oz Cognac

2 drops Chocolate Liqueur

Stir all with ice in a shaker, pour into a cocktail glass. Cup of Justice was an excellent pick for this week’s book, Just Power by Ari H. Mendelson.

Mixed on 06/02/2024

The Human Iceberg

2½ oz sweet & sour cocktail mix

2 oz Corona beer

1½ oz Sauza Gold tequila

1 oz Cointreau

1 oz simple syrup

¾ oz fresh lime juice

2 lime wedges

Kosher Salt for the glass

Use one lime wedge to prep the glass, then dredge the lime juice edge of glass through the salt. Put all the rest of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice (except for the second lime wedge....that is garnish). STIR...DO NOT SHAKE the cocktail. Pour into your salt rimmed glass and garnish with the second lime wedge.

The Human Iceberg was one of Harrison’s nicknames, so this is what I picked for Charles W. Calhoun’s book, Benjamin Harrison.

Mixed on 04/30/203

Hot Toddy

1 Cup Hot Tea

1 Shot Liquor

Lemon

Honey

A classic hot toddy is entirely to taste, so the liquor is your preference, although I have linked to The Tea Shelf for the cocktail as they have recommendations for which liquor pairs best with which tea. Lemon and honey are definitely to taste. I mixed this up today because I am fighting a cold while I record, and there really wasn’t a best cocktail to go with this weeks book, Craft: An American History by Glenn Adamson.

Mixed on 02/12/2024

Weihenstephaner

Usually I mix up a cocktail. However, googling paleo cocktail gets you a host of paleo diet friendly cocktails, but not really anything I wanted to mix up this week. So I was mentioning this to my husband, who asked what was the oldest alcoholic beverage. I said beer….which I learned from reading The Immortality Key last year. So then he asked what’s the oldest brewery. Good news! The oldest continuously operated brewery is Weihenstephaner, located in Bavaria, and in continuous operation since 1040 CE. So instead of a cocktail, I am enjoying some beer from the oldest brewery. Which is doubly appropriate since Neanderthal Valley is located in Rhine-Westphalia Germany, so German beer for Neanderthals, who played such a pivotal role in the advancement of homo sapiens. So I enjoyed a Vitus brew from Weihenstephaner while reviewing this weeks book, The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Williams.

Consumed on 12/08/2024

Hunter Gatherer

1 oz Jägermeister

1 oz Cocchi Americano

3/4 oz raspberry syrup with 1 dash bitters (for recipe on how to make the called for spicy raspberry syrup, follow the link to bevvy.com.)

3/4 oz lemon juice

Stir together in a Collins glass with ice. Garnish with raspberry and mint leaves.

A Hunter-Gatherer cocktail for this weeks book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life by Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein.

Mixed 03/19/2023