It’s Marlon Brando’s Birthday! Celebrate With A “Godfather” Cocktail!

It’s Friday, April 3rd in the year of COVID-19 two-thousand-and-twenty and it also happens to be Marlon Brando’s birthday today.

I almost wrote “the actor Marlon Brando,” but, really, what other Marlon Brando is there in the history of the world!? And if you’re only nominally familiar with the man, it’s probably from his portrayal of Vito Corleone, the “Don” and paterfamilias of the Corleone family in the 1972 film and cultural milestone “The Godfather.”

Of course, by now, it’s probably evident by the headline, the fact that it’s Marlon Brando’s birthday and that lead-in about the Francis Ford Coppola flick that the point of this post is to write about The Godfather cocktail.

About This Drink

A simple, understated scotch cocktail that adds slight sweetness and almond flavor to your favorite scotch.

And to think, I’ve already been drinking scotch this week!

In terms of the scotch going into your Godfather cocktail, grab whatever your go to scotch is — or call in a curbside pickup for a nice workhorse scotch whisky like Monkey Shoulder.

Ingredients

Search Google for Godfather recipes and you’ll come up with everything from scotch-heavy recipes with just a drizzle of amaretto to overly sweet recipes calling for equal parts spirit and liqueur.

I like to split the difference with this drink, skewing closer to the 2:1 proportions of a drink like the Manhattan, but without the bitters — though the addition of bitters, like Fee Brothers old fashioned bitters, would suit this drink just fine for me.

So for my Godfather cocktail I’ll be sipping tonight:

• 2 oz scotch
• .75 oz amaretto
• Orange peel garnish

Preparation

• Add all the ingredients into a rocks glass with ice cubes. Stir and garnish with a swath of orange peel.

Further Drinking:

•The Spruce Eats calls for 1.5oz whisky to .5oz amaretto: Link

•Esquire calls for 2oz whisky to .5oz amaretto: Link

•Many sites source the drink as having appeared in the 70s and cite that there’s no confirmed origin or creator: Link

•The Godmother cocktail: Link

•The French Connection cocktail: Link

National Moscato Day

Moscato Margarita

Cary Grant Drank Coffee Liqueur With A Lime

I’ve only tasted Tia Maria once, but I didn’t drink it like Cary Grant.

Some “Old Hollywood” stars and starlets had drinks invented and named after them as a tribute during and after their heydays. But then there are the actors and actresses with drinks named after them because that’s actually what they drank.

And apparently Cary Grant drank vodka and Tia Maria with a squeeze of lime.

I’m not going to knock it til I try it, but the idea of coffee and citrus did initially strike me as strange.

Of course, there’s nothing new under the sun, as a quick Google search always proves.

The following recipe for the Cary Grant cocktail comes from a post on the blog Mix That Drink.

Cary Grant was born Jan. 18, 1904.

Ingredients

• Vodka
• Tia Maria
• Lime wedge garnish

Preparation

• Combine equal parts vodka and Tia Maria in a rocks glass with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge that’s been squeezed for the juice and stirred into the drink.

Some recipes online call for “the juice of 1 lime” in the cocktail, but I have to imagine it’s the juice from the garnish and not a full ounce or so of lime juice.

Further Reading

• There’s a great many Cary Grant cocktails from films listed at CaryGrant.net

STARS AND SPIRITS

Cocktail: Cary Grant
Inspiration: Actor Cary Grant
Base Ingredients: Vodka
Why today? Cary Grant was born Jan. 18, 1904.
Origin: This drink is named after Cary Grant because it was allegedly his cocktail of choice.
Cocktail Groupings: Old Hollywood, Actresses & Stars And Spirits

Champagne With Henry VIII

Henry VIII has his very own champagne cocktail named after him!

He ascended the throne of England on April 21, 1509.

The Henry VIII was created by a bartender named Henry Besant in 2004 in London, England.

About This Drink

The drink is a curio comprise of two different vodkas, sugar, citrus, absinthe & champagne.

Ingredients

• Citron Vodka
• Pepper Vodka
• Champagne
• Absinthe
• Orange garnish

Preparation

Build this drink in a chilled champagne flute.

Start with the absinthe-soaked sugar cube and pour in a 1/2 oz of each the two flavored vodkas — then top with champagne and garnish with the orange wedge or swath of peel.

Further Reading:

• Check out Difford’s Guide’s recipe here.
• TheDrinkShop also has a write-up.

A Tribute To Maureen O’Hara

STARS AND SPIRITS

Cocktail: The Maureen O’Hara
Inspiration: Actress Maureen O’Hara
Base Ingredient: Irish Whiskey
Why today? O’Hara died yesterday, Oct. 24, 2015.
Origin: March 2013, from the blog The Straight Up
Cocktail Groupings: Old Hollywood, Actresses & Calendar Cocktails

Actress Maureen O’Hara died yesterday, Oct. 24, 2015.

You can read her obituary in The New York Times here, and The Guardian here.

Despite being known as the “Queen of Technicolor,” I grabbed a black-and-white photo from Google images because I liked the contrast and general look of O’hara in this photo.

In March of 2013, the blog The Straight Up posted the following original cocktail and named it the Maureen O’Hara:

INGREDIENTS 

• 1.5 Irish Whiskey
• .75 Dry Vermouth
• .75 Domaine de Canton
• 12 Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub
• 8 Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit Bitters
• Lemon Twist

PREPARATION

Add the Irish whiskey, dry vermouth, Domaine de Canton and habanero shrub and hopped grapefruit bitters to a chilled mixing glass. Add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

All The Stars & Spirits:
There are dozens of cocktails named after actors and actresses, and I’ve written about a few of them here:
•Charlie Chaplain — (Link)
•Clara Bow — Link)
•Fay Wray — (Link)
•Ginger Rogers — (Link)
•Lauren Bacall — (Link)
•Lillian Gish — (Link)
•Mary Astor — (Link)
•Mary Lee — (Link)
•Mary Pickford — (Link)

Happy Birthday, Lillian Gish!

STARS AND SPIRITS

Cocktail: The “8 East 83rd” Cocktail
Inspiration: Actress Lillian Gish
Base Ingredient: Rye Whiskey
Why today? Gish was born Oct. 14, 1893.
Origin: Nicholas Horton — Bar Noir, Beverly Hills
Cocktail Groupings: Old Hollywood, Actresses & Calendar Cocktails

Once upon a time the actress Lillian Gish was on par with the likes of Mary Pickford.

Today is the actress’s birthday. She was born Oct . 14, 1893.

She’s far from forgotten today, but in terms of a cocktail legacy there’s no actual drink named after Lillian Gish.

However, a California bartender did create something in 2012 as an homage to the actress — and the drink received a write-up in The LA Times. I’ve copied the recipe below comes from that newspaper article:

The “8 East 83rd” Cocktail
An homage to Lillian Gish

By Nicholas Horton
Bar Noir, Beverly Hills

INGREDIENTS
•1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey
•1 ounce simple syrup
•1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
•2 1/2 ounces Earl Grey tea

PREPARATION
Mix ingredients in a shaker and serve on the rocks in a tea pot.

Thirsty for more?
There are dozens of cocktails named after actors and actresses, and I’ve written about a few of them here:
•Charlie Chaplain — (Link)
•Clara Bow — Link)
•Fay Wray — (Link)
•Ginger Rogers — (Link)
•Lauren Bacall — (Link)
•Mary Astor — (Link)
•Mary Pickford — (Link)

Happy Birthday, Lauren Bacall

Today is Lauren Bacall’s birthday and I wasn’t expecting to find a cocktail named after the actress, but then I stumbled across this gem posted by a WordPress site called Wine Cocktails.

  
We’ve got a nice rose at the bar where I work, so I’ll definitely be trying this out later tonight.

Maybe if I get time I’ll search online later to see if there’s a Dark Passage cocktail. 

  
From what I can tell from Wine Mixology’s post, this cocktail is an original drink that two of their contributors came up with earlier this year — and I hope they don’t mind if I re-post their recipe. But for anyone reading here On this blog bout this drink for the first time, please click over and check out the original post!

From Wine Mixology:

This cocktail is a play on three classics with its own distinctive twist. One classic is obviously Lauren Bacall herself – the sultry actress of the Golden Ages of motion pictures. This cocktail also puts a twist on the classical gin and tonic as well as the “Greyhound” with its splash of grapefruit. It is very refreshing without being too heavy in body. 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 oz Pol Clement Rose Sec (French Sparkling Rose Wine)
• ½ oz Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin
• ½ oz Triple Sec
• 2 oz Organic Pink Grapefruit juice
• ½ oz Honey Syrup (1/2cup honey; ½ cup boiling water, stir)
• Top glass off with Tonic
• Grapefruit and basil for garnish

PREPARATION

Fill a Collins glass with ice and add in the rose, gin, triple sec, grapefruit juice and honey syrup, and then top the remaining room left in the glass with tonic water. Garnish with grapefruit and basil.

Still Thirsty For More?

—Got a minute-and-a-half!? Here’s a cute, quick video on how to make the Lauren Bacall.

Update:

I’ll be updating this post later tonight after I take a picture of my Lauren Bacal drink I’ll be making.

Happy Birthday, Fay Wray!

Fay Wray was one of cinema’s first “Scream Queens” and today is her birthday.

She was born Vina Fay Wray on Sept. 15 in 1907.

Not familiar with the actress? Well, read on… Because she’s got more than 100 acting credits to her name — including one gargantuan role for which she’ll always be known.

Fay Wray was born in Alberta Canada and in her life she amassed upward of 100 acting credits to her name.

She acted through 1980, and in the 50s she appeared on television shows such as Perry Mason and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but she’ll forever be know for a role she played in 1933 — as the female lead in King Kong:

  
Google search the name “Fay Wray and add the word “cocktail” and the first hit you’ll find will be this article on the website Punch.

It only makes sense that someone would have given this Old Hollywood actress her own cocktail, and that it would be related to her role in King Kong — or at least, I assume that’s why this drink has a banana flavor component.

The following recipe was created by Brooklyn-based bartender Matthew Bellanger.

About This Cocktail

The Fay Wray is a banana-flavored tiki drink made with rum and cognac.

Ingredients

• 3/4 ounce gold rum (preferably Barbancourt 4 Star Rum)
• 3/4 ounce cognac (preferably Dudugnon)
• 3/4 ounce banana liqueur, Giffard Banane du Bresil
• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 1/4 ounce rhum agricole, Rhum Clément
• 1/4 ounce demerara syrup (2:1, sugar:water)
• 1 small lime wedge

Preparation
Shake all ingredients over a small amount of crushed ice — including a lime wedge. Squeeze the lime wedge in with the other ingredients and drop it in the shaker. Pour all the ingredients, without straining, into a rocks glass and add more crushed ice. Garnish with a dried banana slice and a mint bouquet.

Further Reading:

— Do bananas belong in cocktails? The Savory wrote this article about that question.

National Whiskey Sour Day

I read on Good Spirits News that today is National Whiskey Sour Day!

As with all these random-seeming drink holidays, I won’t put up too much fuss or question its origin — as any reason to celebrate a cocktail is reason enough!

Whiskey Sour

About This Cocktail:

For my Whiskey Sour pictured above, I used Woodford Reserve:

Ingredients:

•2 oz rye or bourbon or other whiskey of preference. I actually used 2 oz of Woodford Reserve bourbon, which has a lot of rye in its mash bill.
•.5 oz simple syrup
•.5 oz fresh lemon juice
Preparation:

Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.

Some recipes for the Whiskey Sour cocktail call for an egg white, as a lot of old sours recipes do… But a lot of recipes these days list egg white as “optional.” I didn’t use egg white in the drink pictured above, but you’ll find it listed in some of the recipes I linked to in this post.

  

You’ve Got Airmail

Here’s some history: The song “Please Mr. Postman” was released on August 21 in 1961.

The song was released by The Marvelettes and it was the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart.

  
Rather than search the Internet for a “Postman” cocktail, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to celebrate the classic “Airmail” drink!

About This Drink:

The Airmail is a rum and champagne drink made with honey — or made with a honey syrup.

The recipe below is David Wondrich’s recommendation, which can be found online at Esquire.com:

Ingredients:
•2 ounces rum (golden or aged)
•1/2 ounce lime juice
•1 teaspoon honey
•5 ounces Brut champagne

Preparation:

Shake all ingredients (except the champagne) over ice and strain into a chilled champagne flut. Finish by topping the drink with champagne.

In his Esquire article, Wondrich points out that the drink is sort of like “a cross between the French 75 and the Honey Bee.” And additionally, he can’t explain its origin, but it does appear for the first time in Esquire’s 1949 Handbook for Hosts.

Further Reading:

—Check Imbibe Magazine here.
—This recipe includes Angostura Bitters.
—And the Cold-Glass blog has a really lengthy article worth reading.