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

Comics & Cocktails #3 • The Superior Iron Man Shares A Drink

Tony Stark, Tony Stark, Tony Stark.. It was only a matter of time before Iron Man showed up here in the “Comics & Cocktails” feature.

This is a more recent comic compared with the other two I’ve posted so far. Links to those are at the end of this post.

Here we have Tony Stark drinking Matt Murdock’s booze and berating Daredevil. See, Stark fixed Daredevil’s sight for him — without asking. And, as you can see here, Stark wants to celebrate, but Murdock’s not all that happy:

Stark’s back on the sauce in his new “Superior Iron Man” title and he seems to really be earning that new “Superior” moniker he’s been given. As a result of Marvel’s “Axis” storyline, some of the publisher’s heroes and villains have had their personalities flipped, so Tony Stark is even more of a pompous dick in the comics right now — and he’s pretty much extorting people with his “Extremis” app.

Earlier in this issue, as Daredevil’s waking up, Tony asks him where he keeps his good booze. Nothing like having an estranged friend knock you out and then rifle through your liquor bottles, am I right? But what would Daredevil have that Tony Stark would consider “Good Booze”?

This isn’t the sort of thing that Matt Murdock’s going to have on his shelves, but here’s a recent article from The Spirits Business about some premium bottles of Japanese whiskey selling at record prices. Tony Stark likes just about everything in his life to be expensive and extravagant, and so that article I’d just recently read came to mind when I started writing this post.

These next three panels come prior to the one posted above. Here Tony pours himself the drink which Daredevil slaps out of his hand.

Forget the dialogue balloons and keep your eyes on Iron Man in the background:

Not a jigger in sight! Looks like Tony’s a free pour guy.

•GOT A SUGGESTION?•
Do you know of a panel in a comic where a character is boozing it up? Shoot me an email at FrontierMixology@GMail.com with the details. I’d love to include it here on the blog.

•PAST POSTS•
•#1 — Darkseid Drinking Brandy (Link)
•#2 — Constantine Chugging From The Bottle (Link)

Comics & Cocktails #2 • Constantine Chugging From The Bottle

What comes to mind when someone says John Constantine? Is it that he’s always quick with a quip? Or is it his holy trinity of cigarettes, booze and black magic?

That’s right, it’s time once again for what I’m trying to make a regular series of posts on the blog: Comic Books and Cocktails!

Last time I posted a picture of Darkseid drinking brandy from a snifter. Today I’m writing about John Constantine, and more specifically, the “Hellblazer” Annual #1 titled “The Bloody Saint”:

•CONSTANTINE ON TV•
Season one of NBC’s “Constantine” is close to wrapping up, with 10 episodes having now aired.

“Constantine” is based on the DC/Vertigo book “Hellblazer” and stars Matt Ryan as John Constantine, a Brit with one foot in our world and the other in the supernatural realm.

The show has been an enjoyable one so far, with the writers taking storylines straight from the comics — such as John exorcising demons and butting heads with Papa Midnite.
It’s a great show, and I don’t know if a ton of people are watching it.

Cast members have come out and said that the hasn’t been canceled yet, but NBC hasn’t ordered any more episodes after the initial 13. There still is a chance for a second season, but it seems like the show is walking a fine line.

Don’t know much about John Constantine? Don’t let that stop you. This show’s a nice, easy introduction to the character as well as the darker side of DC.

So if you’re in need of something to watch, choose “Constantine” for the time being — because everything from “Flash” and “Arrow” to The Walking Dead” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” are guaranteed more seasons. But I don’t know where “Constantine” stands.

•GOT A SUGGESTION?•
Do you know of a panel in a comic where a character is boozing it up? Shoot me an email at FrontierMixology@GMail.com with the details. I’d love to include it here on the blog.

•PAST POSTS•
•#1 — Darkseid Drinking Brandy (Link)