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Mint Juleps were a hot weather favorite
in the days before central air. |
The May 10 opening of Baz Luhrmann’s
The Great Gatsby guarantees that some of us will either be hosting
or attending Jazz Age themed cocktail parties.
The Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties coexist (along with Prohibition)
during the 1920’s, a riotous, hard-partying, post-war era that began to fizzle
with the onset of the Great Depression.
Scott Fitzgerald is credited with coining the term “Jazz Age” in
1922. Three characteristics of the Jazz
Age are hot cocktails, hot music, and hot women (not necessarily in that
order). Think of your great-grandmother
(or don’t). According to the New York
Times of the period, "
gin
was the national drink and sex the national obsession." Pre-release reviews of the film lead one to
believe that Luhrmann has not underplayed the famous parties that Gatsby threw
nightly at his mansion in West Egg as he tried to attract the attention of
Daisy Buchanan.
While you may not be as rich as Jay Gatsby, you should be
able to drink as well as he did. Some of
that Prohibition hooch that Gatsby was bootlegging was probably pretty bad,
after all, even though it made him rich enough to buy the good stuff that he
probably served his guests. Although
Fitzgerald does not go into much detail on the drinks (strange for such a confirmed
drinker), we may assume that many of the classic cocktails known to have been
popular in the Twenties were the ones being served at his parties. A word to the wise: any cocktail either named
after Scott’s friend Ernest Hemingway (or invented by him) would not have been
served at one of Gatsby’s parties.
Highballs, while not cocktails, have been enjoyed since the
late nineteenth century. I can remember
my grandfather making them for my aunts and uncles at Thanksgiving Dinner in the
mid-twentieth century, so their popularity stood the test of time. Some of Gatsby’s guests are sure to have
ordered them. Highballs are mixed drinks
composed of a shot of liquor and a larger portion of a non-alcoholic mixer
served on rocks in a tall glass. "Scotch
and Soda," for example, is a highball made with Scotch Whisky and
carbonated water. Champagne, of course,
is de rigueur in a list of popular
drinks from any period, but it’s not a cocktail and requires no details. We will, however, start with a Champagne cocktail…
Many of Gatsby’s guests were doubtless in the mood for
something a little stronger than a run-of-the-mill Champagne cocktail. The
French 75, developed during the
Great War, would fill that bill deliciously.
Named after the famous French cannon of World War I, it has a nice kick
and never misfires. Assuming Gatsby
could get some decent Gin, this beauty would have been a hit.
The
Manhattan is a true American original,
originating in the 1870s. Today it is
commonly mixed with either Bourbon or Rye.
Named after the fabled island near West Egg, it would have been popular
during the Roaring Twenties, but chances are that, in the depths of Prohibition,
most Whiskey cocktails would have been made with Canadian Whiskey. Lately, my favorite Manhattan is made with High
West Double Rye and Lillet Blanc. Be
careful though, Manhattans are so good they can be addicting.
The classic
Mint Julep has been Churchill
Down's signature cocktail since 1938, but it was well over 100 years old by
then. It first appeared in print very
early in the nineteen century, so it may even have originated in the eighteenth. Daisy has Tom order up some ice for Mint
Julep to beat the heat at The Plaza Hotel, and Whiskey lovers would have been
clamoring for one at any Jazz Age party when mint was in season and the weather
was hot.
The
Old Fashioned is an especially
versatile cocktail to have in your repertoire because you can make an Old
Fashioned with just about any good liquor you have. A perennial favorite, and probably a favorite
of Gatsby’s guests, the venerable Old Fashioned gets its name because it is
perhaps the
first cocktail. It would not, of course, have been called “old
fashioned” at the time: back then it was the latest thing and even today, it never
goes out of style.
The
Martini
is the classic cocktail. It’s so iconic
that its name is often used to mean “cocktail,” and a cocktail glass is often
called a “martini glass”. Given that Gin
was often the booze of choice during the Roaring Twenties, and assuming that
Gatsby was pouring decent Gin (let’s hope, most of the time, the quality of the
Gin used back then was dubious), Martinis were surely a popular request at his
nightly parties at the mansion. Since
the primary ingredient of a Martini is Gin, you will be much happier if you use
your best for this cocktail.
Like many other classic cocktails,
the origins of the
Gin
Rickey seem to be lost in time. It is supposed to have been invented by
Colonel “Joe” Rickey who was a lobbyist in Washington, DC, again around the
turn of the century. A long drink, it is
useful if you want to moderate your consumption of alcohol. One of the few cocktail specifically
mentioned in the book, Gin Rickeys were mixed by Tom Buchanan for a lunch with
Gatsby and Nick Carraway. Tom probably
used Rose’s Lime Juice, but fresh lime is better.
The
Vodka
Gimlet is a very simple drink: Vodka + sweetened lime juice = Vodka Gimlet.
(A Gimlet
familiaris is made with Gin: originally this was probably bathtub
gin due to the cocktail’s birth during the Roaring Twenties, but we needed
something for the Vodka drinkers). Astute
readers will have noted that it’s a lot like a Rickey served “up” and without
the soda. Back in the day, they probably
used Rose’s Lime Juice, but I recommend Fresh lime juice and just enough sugar
to keep you happy.
The
Sazerac is reputed to be the
original cocktail, first concocted in New Orleans. The story goes that the Sazerac was invented in
the early nineteenth century by Antoine Amadie Peychaud, who also first
developed Peychaud’s Bitters. This brown
beauty is almost straight Whiskey (it was originally made with Cognac) and would
most likely only have been requested when good Whiskey was available.
Our final cocktail,
Corpse
Reviver #2, is not one that you would have drunk at one of Gatsby’s
bacchanals, as a putative hangover cure, it is intended to be drunk the
morning after. This classic was born at the dawn of the
twentieth century and the original recipe may be found in the
Savoy Cocktail Book, where one is
informed that “four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse
again.”
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