WEBVTT - From the Vault: Mixologia 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:07.880 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.799 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday. 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:13.480 Time to go into the Vault. And apparently today the 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.320 Vault is operating a pop up bar. That's right with 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.639 the delicious cocktails for all. This was our This was 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:24.000 our cocktail episode where we talked about the nature of cocktails, 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.239 some of the chemistry of cocktails, and and some of 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.960 the very interesting cocktail ingredients and where they come from. 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:33.440 I remember in this one we got into some of 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.360 the weird history of absinthe. Yes we did, Robert, have 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.080 you have you had any absinthe cocktails since we did 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.440 this episode. I had some absence just last night, but 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:45.960 not really. Well. What I've taken to doing is I 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.600 really enjoy making tiky drinks and uh, in some cases 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.600 teaky drinks do actually call for absinthe, but other times 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.560 I find that a missing of absence. I have some 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.120 absence that I've put into a little spray bottle for 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.240 making a sasserac. Yeah, but it works with an number 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.920 of different cock I enjoy it with my Taie, for instance, 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.800 But just to miss the glass of little absence before 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.839 before you pour it in it, it's marvelous. I had 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.080 one of when I was in New Orleans this year. 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.240 One of I had one of the worst cocktails I've 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.160 ever had in my entire life. It was from one 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.479 of those bars in the French Quarter where you can 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:20.840 walk up and get it to to take away. Well, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.319 now there's some very good bars that you can you 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:25.000 can walk up and take away. But saying there was 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.800 no inside, this was no, there wasn't inside. That's just 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.240 it looked like a cool bar. It had like old 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.920 wood fixtures and everything. Um. But yeah, I went up 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:35.800 and I was like, okay, time to get an absinthe 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.000 frap a right, I got a prey to the green Ferry. 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.679 But yeah, I I tried to get It was basically 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:47.160 just equal parts cheap absinthe and simple syrup, and it 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.000 was undrinkably disgusting. I had to throw it in the trash. 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.440 Well that's a shame, but but yeah, I do want 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:55.400 to drive home that that New Orleans is a place 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.600 where you can walk into some very nice bars and 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:00.760 get a very nice cocktail to walk the streets with, 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.200 including beach Bumberri's latitude twenty nine, which is one of 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.600 my absolute favorite Tiki bars. Man with you it is 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:10.799 Tiki's all the Way Down. Well, I still enjoy a 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.480 nice Manhattan as well. Yeah. Well, hey, well we're we're 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.480 delaying too long. Let's get into this episode, which originally 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:26.160 published January twelve, two thousand seventeen. Welcome to Stuff to 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:35.960 Blow your Mind from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey you, 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:37.639 welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.560 Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe mccormickin today in the I 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.359 guess this will be the final installment of our totally 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:50.280 unplanned run of food Stuffs and drink Stuffs science podcasts. Yeah, 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.160 we kind of had a post New Year's run of 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.080 foodie topics think with some exorcism there in the middle. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.480 What did you you did green tea with Christian Yes, 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.920 we did. There there's a green tea and butter and 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.400 butter and now we're going to get into a little 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.720 mixology and and and we'll even come back to exorcism 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.040 at one point, believe it or not, No way, Yeah, yeah, 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.720 it comes up. It's important. When you're talking about cocktails, 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.799 you're inevitably going to talk about exercisse. Wait, is that 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:23.000 what they always meant by holy water. Um well wait 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.240 and initi'll see. But one of the important things we 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.239 want to get out at the top of this episode 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:29.960 is that, yes, in this episode we are going to 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.280 talk about mixology. We're gonna talk about the history and 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:40.000 science and botany of mixed drinks that involve various alcoholic substances. Right, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:41.720 But we do want to make clear that we know 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.920 we've got some younger listeners out there, and so you 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.800 shouldn't take this podcast is an encouragement to go out 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.480 and try all the drinks we're gonna be talking about, right, 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.880 And we certainly have non drinkers out there as well. Uh, 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:58.040 don't worry. This is not going to be a scandalous, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.120 um out of control exploration of cocktails by any means. 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:04.040 And on our personal note, I want to add that 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.120 my wife and myself we are currently doing a dry January, 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.320 so we are only doing mock tails at the moment, 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.200 which is kind of ironic having just finished research on 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.120 this episode. Yeah, well you wanted to do it, I 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.920 think because you read a couple of books this month, right, Yeah, 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.000 two books in particular that I picked up over the holidays. 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.960 One is Amy Stewart's The Drunken Botanist The Plants that 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.760 create the World's Great Drinks. And this is a really 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.760 wonderful book, very flippable, kind of the kind of book 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:36.760 you can bring to a bar or a nice dinner 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.800 and look up the things you're ordering. It takes a 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.320 botanist approach to all of the ingredients, basically coming down 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.760 to the fact that just about anything, pretty much anything 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.920 in a drink except for maybe bacon. If you if 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:51.159 you go that route, it's going to have some sort 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:55.240 of botanical origin. Where because things come from bacon, has 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.039 a botanical origin. Well, in a sense, yes, if you 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.520 follow it back far enough, all of our drinks really 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.360 have a solar origin. Just true. True, you can say 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:06.800 that it's all a gift of the sun. I really 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:08.880 enjoyed the Sami Stewart book. I didn't have a chance 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.080 that you you lent it to me yesterday, and I 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:12.720 didn't have a chance to read the whole thing yet, 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.440 but I just flipped through it, and as you say, 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:16.599 it is very flippable. You can just drop to any 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.039 page and there's something interesting on it. It's sort of 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.640 a mix between a science book and a recipe book, 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:24.880 and I like that, uh, and the other book that 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.159 you lent me, which I got through some of, and 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:31.240 I really really enjoyed the writing style of the second guys. 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.320 This book by David Wondrich, Yes he say his name, Yeah, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.320 believe so imbibe. He has a couple of books out 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.720 related to mix streams. One is entirely about punches and 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.240 this one is really focused more in on on the 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.039 cocktail and it it has recipes in it as well, 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.000 but it is more about the history and culture, especially 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.200 the origins, the very American origins of the cocktail. And 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.640 along those lines, I believe you had a quote that 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.440 you wanted to read from David Wondrich's book, right, yeah, 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.040 I think this it's the tone fabulously for a lot 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.080 of what we're gonna talk about here, and just for 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:09.279 discussion of basically what a cocktail is. He writes, Anyone 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.520 who has spent any time pondering the origins of the cocktail, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:14.800 be it for the months or years it takes to 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.680 write a book, or seconds it takes to internalize a 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:22.160 dry martini, will agree that it's a quintessentially American contraption. 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.720 How could it be anything? But it's quick, direct, and vigorous. 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.600 It's flashy and a little bit vulgar and induces an 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:35.719 unreflective overconfidence. It's democratic, forcing the finest liquors to rub 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:40.120 elbows with ingredients of far more humble stamp. It's profligate 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.479 with natural resources. Think of the electricity generated to make 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.360 ice that gets used for ten seconds and discarded in short, 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.479 it rocks. But the cocktail is American. It's American in 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.159 the same way as the hot dog, that is, the frankfurter, 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.920 the hamburger, the hamburger steak, and the ice cream cone 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.039 with its rolled good fret. As a nation, we have 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.920 a knack for taking underperforming elements of other people's cultures, 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.320 streamlining them, super charging them, and then letting them rip 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.960 from nobody to superstar with a trail of sparks and 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.400 a hell of a noise along the way. That's how 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.240 the cocktail did it, anyway. So yeah, that's uh. That's 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.800 from page two o nine in his book. Uh. It's 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.200 It's full of just weird historical details, colorful characters, and 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.520 more than a few classic cocktail recipes. So we'll keep 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.080 referring back to it, but I highly recommend picking it 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.280 up if you're a cocktail fan or an American history fan. 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:37.920 It's a great rate. Yeah, you mentioned historical characters. One 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:39.960 of the great colorful characters in this book is in 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:41.800 the section I was reading. I think he's a central 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.960 figure in the book is Jerry Thomas, legendary bartender who 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.800 operated bars all over the place in San Francisco during 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.200 the gold Rush boom and in New York. Who was 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.560 this crazy, flamboyant character, a man of what is it 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:01.440 called the sports sporting fraternity, yes, which I think generally 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:05.280 means no good lay abouts of the of the eighteen hundreds, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:10.680 and who love to celebrate with these extravagant drinks that 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.240 he was very good at making. And he loved lavish clothes, 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.560 and he loved diamonds, and he loved big pieces of art. 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.440 And there's a great story where somebody interviews him for 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:22.400 a newspaper at some point and he's got a couple 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.160 of pet rats scampering along on his shoulders or something. Yeah, 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.800 he seems to have had a wonderful sense of showmanship, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.560 which is is ultimately such a huge part of of 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:35.480 cocktails and cocktail cultures, Like there's the there's this the 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.199 pure mixology of what's going on, and then there's the 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.880 flash of creating something, creating an experience and selling it 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.240 to the customer and maybe making a few things up 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:49.280 if he flourishes up to to to grease the sale. Yeah, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.160 the mixed up cocktail, the product of any real endeavor 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.680 of mixology is an event. It's not just something to 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.280 be consumed. It's something to be admired in many cases, 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.120 to watch the bartender making for you. Uh, it's a 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.120 process and and it's kind of a process in the 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:10.040 same way that I don't know, going to like one 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.480 of those Teppanyaki steakhouses is right, Yeah, we're setting it 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.319 a sushi bar for instance. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you get 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.280 to see the magic of the food come together. I mean, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.480 in a sense, it's like you know, like making cocktails 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.800 at your home or cooking at your home. There's this 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.640 there's this experience, this this process. You're following instructions, maybe 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.400 you're improvising a little bit, You're going through an experience 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.240 to get this thing. You're richer for the experience, and 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.040 that plays a part in your enjoyment of it. Well, 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.080 before we look at the science of some cocktails and 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.360 the and the alcohols, and then maybe we should look 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.960 a little bit at the history of the cocktail though, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.160 what's what's the social relevance of this tradition of mixing 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:53.000 different alcoholic beverages together to produce a newer, better, higher 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.080 emergent form. Well, one of the core points that one 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.880 which makes is that the the origins of the cocktail 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.120 and cocktail culture a largely American. Now, certainly it's a 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:04.880 culture that we lost and we had to rediscover and 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.600 reclaim the realm of mixology from the tyranny of apple 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:12.880 teen ease and an unimaginable, unimaginable tryst with vodka. This 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.120 is a thing in the book I noticed. I I 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.280 didn't get to the part where he explains this, but 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:22.600 he makes some snide comments about vodka. Well, I think 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.400 his main deal, wonder which is that, you know, he's 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.280 very interested in the origins of cocktail culture in this 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.000 golden age of cocktail culture, and vodka really didn't, you know, 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.480 make it splash until until after that point. Now, and 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.240 that's not to say there aren't some wonderful vodka cocktails 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.079 out there, but is we were discussing before the podcast, 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.480 you said that you personally feel vodka's a little bit workhorse, right, Yeah, 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:48.520 it's not. I mean I don't know of any of 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.280 my favorite cocktails that have vodka in them. It just 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.160 seems like it's something that you mix with something vaguely 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.959 sugary and it makes a drink that has alcohol in it. 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.839 I mean maybe I don't know. You see James Bond 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.400 ordering vodka martinis, but I just look at that and 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:05.400 be like, why not just get a real martini? What's 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.160 wrong with you? Um? Well, another thing that came up 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.800 when we were preparing for the episode, going along with 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.920 your your point about the food culture and the preparation 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.760 culture and how that enriches the social experience of enjoying 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:23.400 the cocktail. I also personally feel experimenting with with mocktails 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:27.720 this month, as I am that a concoction without alcohol 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.560 in it can go down a bit fast, you can 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.320 be a little bit thirstier for it, whereas my in 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.920 my own experience, if it has a strong spirit in there, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.040 it forces you to take smaller drinks and it sort 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.880 of draws out the experience of enjoying the beverage. Yeah, 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.720 like the relaxation brought on by a cocktail might not 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.640 just be from the drug content, the alcohol content acting 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.720 upon your brain, but it's also from the process of drinking, 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.480 because you're you're forced to slow down and relax and 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.640 take your time for a moment. Yeah. Now, cocktail culture 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.079 is also something that some might argue that the Japanese 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:04.760 have elevated and perfected, as they've done with other Western properties, 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.760 but they not all still. But it was all still 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.319 one of America's first true art forms, at least culinarily 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.520 speak right now. To be sure, the American cocktail float 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.120 followed closely on the heels of a tradition of proper punches, 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.200 which one which is quick to remind us, So we're 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.719 more complex back in the day. Yeah, you can think 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.520 of the punches being like the big bowl of stuff 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.720 that somebody's drinking at a Christmas party in a Christmas 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.680 carol that that party that Scrooge won't go to their 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.760 having them punch. Sure, yeah, and it wasn't just sprite 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.240 and fruit juice and some booze it was. It was 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.640 more complex. I mean, the one which wrote an entire 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:45.320 book about it. Uh. He makes a distinction between between 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.440 today's punches and the greater punches. He calls them calls 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.640 them that were made quote long and strong. And so 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.120 this style of mixology rain from the sixteen seventies to 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.439 the eighteen fifties and then Temperance in the Temperance move 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:01.880 movement in Europe put the brakes on punch a bit, 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.520 as did the busy approach to life in the Americas. 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.120 So instead of going through the whole rigmarole of having 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.840 this giant punch bowl, with this this carefully balanced concoction 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.400 inside of it, punched by the glass became a thing, 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.000 and this was sort of a precursor to the cocktail. Yeah, 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.840 that sort of makes sense. I mean punch punches for parties. 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.360 As I was saying, it's there to serve a lot 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.640 of people in a limited time frame. Yeah, why would 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.680 you make make yourself a punch after work? Yeah? Or 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:31.680 you go into a bar, it's just you, you know, 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:33.760 maybe you you don't have that much of a social 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.600 situation going on. You want to a glass of punch? 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.160 Why not? Why can it not be provided by the glass? 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.079 After this, you have what Wonderage calls the children of punch. 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:49.600 So you have collins Is, Daisies, pizzies, sours, cobblers, coolers, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.200 the swizzle, uh, the egg drinks, the various egg drinks 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.199 where you have especially the white of the egg that's 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.680 been frothed up. And before the cocktail you had toddies 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.280 ings julips. So even though just trying to figure out 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:06.240 what a proper cocktail is that can be kind of 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.679 hard to nail it down, you'll find various historical tidbits 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:14.600 and descriptions that entail cocktail like concoctions. So, for instance, 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.640 Dickensian Londoners that drink what we're known as pearls, this 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:20.960 was hot ale hold on this pearl with a U, 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.200 not yes an oysters, not like an oyster pearl like 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.560 p U r l s, And this would have been 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:32.600 hot ale, gin, sugar, eggs and nutmeg. So very close. 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.480 Samuel Peeps recorded the drinking of a great many things, 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.960 including pearls as well as gin and vermouth, so as 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.000 as one Bridge points out, he was really close to 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:51.400 having invented Martinish. I do remember in the Diaries of 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.000 Samuel Peeps an episode in which he drinks far too 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.880 much alcohol and has to run outside and urinate in 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.000 an alley way somewhere, but I don't remember what he's drinking. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.760 In this episode. I think it is beer though, Okay, yeah, 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.200 I might. I believe he was not opposed to just 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:07.960 straight up beer as well. I certainly think of beer 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:13.080 as the quintessential uh English drink. I should also point 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:14.920 out there are various stories about why we even call 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.200 it a cocktail. One story I ran across is that 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.400 it had to do it was a horse analogy. So, 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.440 if you have an old, older horse and you're gonna 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.680 sell it off, you want to make it appear young 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.400 and spirited, so you might give it something to perk 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.440 it up, to cock its tail. No, yeah, well, I 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.520 mean I I don't know. I'm not I'm not up 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:35.320 in the details of how you would cock the tail. 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:40.120 I'm not saying this is something intrusive. Well, no, I 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.160 I've heard stories of this. Well, the idea stories are 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.400 like rubbing ginger on its butt. Okay, stuff, Well, I 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:48.680 guess the idea here, then, is that the cocktail would 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.240 be the human equivalent of a little ginger on the butt, 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.760 you know, to to perk you up, to live in 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:55.920 your spirits and uh and make you a little more 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.160 presentable for a short period of time. Stuff to blow 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.440 your mind does not advocate putting ginger on or some spuds. No, 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:05.560 not at all. So by the nineteenth century standards, a 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.520 true cocktail had specific ingredients spirits or wine, and then 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.240 you'd sweeten it with sugar diluted with water if you 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:15.240 needed to. And and it may be throwing a dash 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.560 of bitters bitters or of course a medicinal infusion of 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:21.880 bitter roots or spices, what have you. And if you've 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.720 ever tried to make a cocktail without bitters and wondered 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:29.000 what's missing, that's what's missing. Yeah, Bitters I think are essential. Yeah, 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.280 as you sort of triangulate the flavor, right, because you've 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.320 gotta have your your bitter, you have your sweet um. 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.360 You want you want to be able to to define 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.040 that balance. You don't want it to be just this 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.640 ultra sweet or this ultra bitter concoction. So you can 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.960 get really high and mighty about the definition of the cocktail. 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.360 You can stick to that, to a narrow definition. But 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.280 all you really need is the mixture of an alcohol 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.640 with some other ingredient, right, I mean a jack and 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.720 coke is a cocktail? Am I being high and mighty here? 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.600 I I promise I'm not high and mighty. That just 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:04.080 sounds like it really is it? By the my modern 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.199 deluded standards, I think you can say, yes, it's on 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.560 the cocktail menu. Um, but it's of course far from 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.920 a perfectly balanced Manhattan and old fashioned, etcetera. A punch 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.000 wasn't a cocktail. But we can certainly go back much 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.840 further in time and find examples of its basic principles. 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.200 On that note, let's take a quick break, and when 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.040 we come back, we will look at some in some 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:31.920 cases very ancient concoctions that you can argue where cocktails, 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:34.600 though you might not want to try and order them 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:42.399 at your favorite restaurant this weekend. So looking at the 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:46.199 origins of cocktails, I want to throw out an idea 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.159 that I'm I don't know, I've been mulling over. So 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.280 I'm sort of sympathetic to the idea that cooking has 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:57.680 multiple anthropological functions. Of course, there's the basic biological role 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.480 of it in that it makes food safe to eat, 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.359 you know, killing food born and bacteria and stuff like that. 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.240 And it makes food easier to digest. It's externalizing some 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.800 of the process of digestion. You can get more nutrition 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.760 out of the food, but it might Also I think 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:17.200 kind of provide a psychological effect in that it sort 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:22.640 of d natures or provides psychological distancing effects, um. By 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:27.880 putting a veneer of artificiality and civilization over the brute 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:32.600 animal activity of gorging oneself on calories of plant matter 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.760 and animal flesh in order to stay alive. It's almost 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.840 like a way of putting death out of mind in 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.680 the process of eating. Okay, kind of like how we 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:46.240 we distance ourselves from the reality of especially meat products. Yeah, yeah, 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:50.560 we like sometimes people are disturbed to see their meat 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.359 being cut off of an animal carcass instead of just 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.760 arriving in a wrapped container. Uh. Some people don't even 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:58.640 want to look at raw meat. They might buy pre 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.119 cooked meat or something like that. And I think that 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:05.960 there's some of the same anthropological uh desire for distancing 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.680 from our animal nature that that's operating here. And again 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.040 this is this is just my speculation. I'm not This 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.280 is not backed up by any hard science, um. But 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.480 I wonder if some of the same thing could be 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:23.200 going on with the idea of mixing alcohols uh, cocktail culture, 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:24.879 or even going back to some of these things we're 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.240 about to talk about. You know the origins of mixing 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:32.199 wine with various ingredients. It is tasty, I'll give it that, 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.840 so I, but also cooked food is tasty. I wonder 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.639 if there is also an element that's operating that is 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:44.639 putting a veneer of civilization and sophistication onto the act 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.480 of ingesting ethanol to dull your senses, right, or sort 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.600 of the to take a page from nature documentaries and 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.600 of course overdrawn at the memory bank, the idea of 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.800 of a monkey eating a rotting, fermenting fruit and then 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:03.320 falling out of a tree exactly. We don't want that experience, though, essentially, 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.240 how is it that different? Right, We've we've taken something 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.840 that has been transformed by its uh, by its demise, 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.239 we've we've we've eaten it, or we've we've sipped of it, 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.239 and then it's altered our senses a bit. Yeah. So 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.000 I'm certainly not saying that the you know, the visual 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:25.160 art and the taste and smell pleasure of a cocktail 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:28.000 is not the primary reason for it. But I wonder 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.440 if it's fulfilling this other role, to if it makes 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.760 us feel just a little more human and a little 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:38.840 bit less like an ape rolling around while we're getting 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:40.800 in the state of mind that you know, if if 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.840 it goes wrong, could lead to some actual rolling around. Well, certainly, 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.440 there's there's no shortage of of culture attacked attached to cocktails, 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:50.560 especially when you get into the even the particulars of 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.920 the glasses and and what sort of glass is suitable 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.480 for this type of beverage, some of which is grounded 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:01.040 in the physics of the chemistry of the thing, but 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:06.240 more often than not, it's just pure cultural distinctions. This 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.440 type of glack coop glass or a nick and Nora 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.040 is more appropriate for this drink. Why just because it 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.680 looks nice, Because it is. Yeah, yeah, that's how it's 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:18.479 always been done. That's what your culture says. Yes, But anyway, 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.560 let's go back through that culture. Let us retreat into 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.280 the clouds of history and see if we can find 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:29.760 the origins of this process of mixing alcoholic beverages. Well, 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.439 the true origins are are ultimately going to be lost 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.760 to the midst of history because essentially what we're talking 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:40.760 about it is just it's very basis combining wines or 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:46.480 other alcoholic concoctions with herbal ingredients or other ingredients that 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:51.200 alters the finished beverage, because distilled liquor is not that old. 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.320 So making wine with some selection of specialized ingredients, well, 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:58.200 these have been with us for for ages, so you 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.400 might choose to call them magic potions, or you might 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:05.280 call it a medicinal elixir. But let's consider a few 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:08.240