An occasional column on drinks made from the legendary 1930 "Savoy Cocktail Book."

Please forgive the prolonged absence. Orange bitters, or rather, a lack of it, waylaid this column longer than expected.

When we last met, I had finally achieved a childhood goal: obtaining an original "Savoy Cocktail Book" and making my first "Savoy" cocktail -- the Hanky Panky (on the advice of mixologist Gary Regan).

A few days after that column appeared, I bumped into James Beard Award-winning mixologist Dale DeGroff at World Cocktail Day. When I asked him what I should try making, he didn't hesitate: "Satan's Whiskers."

A gorgeous photograph in a recent blog post on Southern Weddings caught my eye and had me thinking about signature cocktails and their presence at a wedding. Along with gorgeous flowers that showcase a color scheme, signature cocktails have become centerpieces in their own right, mimicking themes, hues and even the season.

Bright, colorful glasses of alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks can catch the eye of every guest. Of course, an open bar is nice, but as waiters walk around with specially made drinks, who doesn't want to find out what the bride and groom have chosen to represent themselves -- will it be fruity, dry, spicy, hot or cold?

Beyond the actual drink, couples can customize their drink with specialty glassware, the platter they're served on and even the stirrers. Companies such as ForYourParty.com specialize in printing a couple's wedding date, initials and the like on the stirrers.

Every time Jon and I visit D.C., a quick trip to Jaleo for either lunch or dinner is a must. Their sangria is to die for and we immediately knew that we wanted to serve that as our specialty cocktail. Sweet, but not too sweet, sangria will be served in tall glasses (like in the picture), a pretty deviation from the wine glass presentation. We felt it was a little easier to drink out of and it made it a little bit more easy-going.

Jaleo's recipe for their white sangria and more after the jump.

Certain things are just too hard to watch -- whether it's a friend's super-serious expression as she winds up to bowl or your boyfriend in the throes of "Guitar Hero".

That's how we felt upon discovering this video, a greatest-hits compilation of cocktail-shaking by New York City's top mixologists. The 10 minute long odyssey features 30-second clips of 33 mostly-male NYC barkeeps. It starts with the Cars provocative "Shake it Up" and trails off eerily into bar noise, the cacophony of shakers and fierce, game-face expressions.

Boring? Nope. Oddly mesmerizing, in the same way that you can't look away from "The Bachelor" but might put your hands over your eyes.

These are true practitioners of the art, however, so let us know if this gets you inspired to go practice your shakin' style, whether it's the one-hander (some bartenders put the other hand behind their backs, sommelier-style) or the hard shake practiced by Tailor's Eben Freeman. And here's a pretty raspberry-and-gin laced Belmont Stakes elixir from Gourmet (the race is on Saturday) in case you wish to practice your skills before the weekend hits.

[Star Chefs] via [Grub Street]

Gretchen Roberts has passed the introductory course at the Court of Master Sommeliers and is studying for her sommelier certification this fall.

I'm opening a lot of sparkling wines these days in preparation for my exam, and a girl can only drink so much bubbly plain.

Enter the classic sparkling wine cocktail, Kir Royale. If you're not familiar with this gem, here's the short history: A guy named Canon Felix Kir, who was mayor of Dijon, France and a hero of the Burgundian resistance movement during World War II, loved to drink his Aligote, a dry, acidic white Burgundian wine, with a splash of crème de cassis, a locally produced liqueur made from blackcurrants. He served the cocktail at official town functions and it caught on.

Kir Royale is simply a Kir made with sparkling rather than still white wine. And did I mention it's gorgeous? After the jump, several versions to try and the basic recipe.

This is the first in an occasional column on drinks made from the legendary 1930 "Savoy Cocktail Book."

I touched a first edition of "The Savoy Cocktail Book" once in the late '80s. I was a teenager and found it on a dusty shelf at John K. King Books in downtown Detroit. I fell in love with its foil cover and colorful Art Deco designs. And then I noticed the price: $45. Too much for a sober middle school student from southeastern Michigan. I put it back. But I never quite got over that first electrifying encounter.

We all have foodie passions; one of mine happens to be old cocktail books. And so almost two decades since I fell for the "Savoy," I have finally gotten my hands on a beat-up first edition and I want to bring you Slashfoodies along for the ride.

I asked a few mixologists what should be the maiden cocktail voyage for me and Savoy. It was Gary Regan who came up with the winner: The Hanky Panky.

Somer Perez learned from the best: just out of high school, she started working at New York City's Beacon bar-restaurant with master mixologist Audrey Saunders. After Saunders left, Perez took over as the Beacon's head barkeep, moving on to claim the title of beverage director first at the Hotel on Rivington and then at the Royalton Hotel, where she became known for innovative, seasonally driven cocktails.

Now the consulting mixologist at Elizabeth, another Gotham restaurant, and the head of her own consulting company, Perez continues to experiment with both classic and trendy ingredients, including agave nectar.

Here, she talks about how the benefit of using the natural sweetener (which comes from the agave plant and has a lower glycemic index than regular sugar) in her elixirs, and parts with an exclusive sparkling pear cocktail recipe.

Beer cocktails are especially refreshing during warm weather months. They boast a lower alcohol content than mixed drinks with hard alcohol, and with so many great summer beers available, creating unique concoctions for the season is a breeze.

If you're not up to the heft and tequila of a margarita tomorrow (viva Cinco de Mayo!), consider the Michelada, which has been gaining some traction as a spicy summer alternative to the Bloody Mary. Order it at a bar or mix one up at home but give blah pre-packaged products like Budweiser Chelada a pass; make it yourself and spice it to taste.

Shandys (which generally consist of half pale ale or lager and half lemonade, ginger ale or lemon-lime soda) are a refreshing low alcohol substitute if you're looking to enjoy the sun without immediate inebriation. Using quality ingredients like homemade lemonade and a pale ale with natural citrus notes can produce amazing results.

Ty Fugimura, owner of The Small Bar in Chicago, believes his bar's unique list of six beer cocktails is a major draw. As the Windy City warms up, Fugimura knows "sidewalk sitters want something a little bit lighter," so Small Bar offers a "Beergarita," a twist on the classic tequila drink. In addition to adding white ale, they top it off with Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale and Lindeman's fruity Framboise. Sounds pretty great to us. Got a beer cocktail recipe up your sleeve? Let us know. We're thirsty.

One of the best things about being an adult is having a liquor cabinet.

Not just a few pints stashed away atop a refrigerator, but a proper piece of furniture -- or at least a designated shelf -- to keep one's array of bottles, glassware, shakers and swizzle sticks. However, many of us shove and stack and forget about that old quart of Kahlua or the sticky shot glasses and ruin the whole effect.

In order to reap the full Nick and Nora je ne sais quoi from your liquor cabinet, you also must do a little maintenance at least every six months.

Slashfood's tips to cleaning up your liquor cabinet after the jump.

When it comes to naming drinks after people -- whether they be real or fictional -- what comes first? Do you decide to honor a personage and then make the appropriate cocktail, or do you mix it up and then go, "Hmmm... who does this remind me of?"

For the Suzanne Sugarbaker, it was definitely the latter. A cocktail made with sweet tea vodka and rose petal nectar seemed rather Southern belle-like and, given that there is already a Scarlett O'Hara, this seemed the way to go.

Another legendary American drinking/dining outpost is under threat of demolition. San Francisco's Tonga Room, located in the Fairmont Hotel, may be forced out after more than seven decades of pushing Mai Tai and pu-pu. It seems the tower of the Fairmont in which the Tonga and its adjacent Hurricane Bar located is slated for redevelopment into condominiums. Plans for the new construction do not include the restaurant.

No definitive word has been said, but blogs and forums are buzzing over the developments and petitions are circulating to save the tiki landmark. Now, some may say that the Tonga's food is somewhat meh or the drinks are overpriced, but who can argue with an indoor rainstorm? Or an indoor lagoon with a band floating on a little raft playing luau music? Multi-headed goddesses and a buffet in a canoe?

The Tonga underwent a big-budget renovation only last year, so it seems silly to tear it down now but, hey, it also seems silly to build luxury condos during a real estate downturn.

Snowballs have to be one of my all-time favorite New Orleans treats. I once spent a whole summer trying to track down a "wedding cake"-flavored snowball whose sugary syrup made the ball of shaved ice taste exactly like store-bought icing.

So I was more than intrigued when I walked into the Swizzle Stick Bar at Café Adelaide in New Orleans last Thursday and saw Talia Neal-Walthall's creation, Sailor Jerry's Snowball, on the drink menu. The young mixologist says she created it just to see if she could.

Talia uses Sailor Jerry rum, passionfruit syrup, muddled blackberries and fresh lime juice in place of the snowball's traditional flavored syrup and pours the cocktail over the requisite ball of crushed ice.

It looks like a high-society concoction, but halfway through the drink, you remember it's a snowball. You have to drop any inhibitions about making a mess, take a deep breath and chomp down hard on your drink.

Of course, if snowballs aren't your thing, the Swizzle Stick's resident mixologist, Lu Brow, makes a mean Corpse Reviver No. 2. Brow's signature drink is a "soft cocktail" made with gin and elderberry liqueur that she's dubbed the Ginnifer Flowers.

Congressmen voting along party lines? That's nothing new. What caught my eye in the New York Times' coverage of the passing of the stimulus bill was the line, "Mr. Obama followed the House vote with a cocktail party at the White House for the Congressional leaders of both parties, from the House and the Senate." Not a reception, not a gathering--nothing so staid as that. A cocktail party! What better way to signal a change from the teetotaling former administration? We know Obama was all about The Wire--sounds like he might be a Mad Men fan as well.

I wasn't the only one to take particular note of this event. Over at Slate, John Dickerson appraises the value of alcohol in Washington politics and then puts Obama's soirée into a historical context, starting things off with a splash of the founding fathers, adding a shot of FDR and Truman, and finishing things off with an unfortunate twist of the too-besotted Nixon. Think of it as presidential history through a new lens: beer goggles.

I've already expressed my unyielding love for the mint julep here on Slashfood. So I'm happy to announce that this years Tales of the Cocktail competition is based on none other than my beloved julep.

What's in it for you, bartenders? How about cash money and the honor of having your julep selected as the official cocktail of the 2009 Tales Of The Cocktail festival and published in the official recipe book by Mud Puddle books.

According to noted cocktail historian and one of the judges of the this competition, David Wondrich, bartenders should consider these definitions when creating their juleps:

- A Julep can be based on spirits, wine (or fortified wine) or a combination of the two.
- It must be made in a tall (10-14 oz) glass with cracked or shaved ice.
- It may contain citrus or other fruit juice, but only in a proportion not to exceed 1/8 of the total volume of liquid (not including ice).
- It must include fresh mint.
- It must contain sugar or some other sweetener.

For full rules and guidlines plus the entry form, follow this link to Cocktailtimes.com.

Oh, and if you haven't circled your calenders yet, this years Tales Of The Cocktail will be July 8 - 12th

Today is a special day for me. It is a special day for all spirit and cocktail enthusiasts throughout the state of Washington. For in a few hours, several of the nations premier absinthe producers and our own resident experts will gather downtown in a small artists loft for the first event produced by the Washington State Bartender's Guild.

This event will be the exclamation point on a long process that began last summer when I cornered Andrew Friedman, owner of a wonderful local bar named Liberty, and we began discussing how to form a collective of bartenders into a guild, similar to what the bartenders in Oregon had recently done. We recruited several talented bartenders and began laying the groundwork.

We started with a Mission Statement:

The WSBG exists as an organization of professionals and enthusiasts with an enduring mission to elevate the standard of bartending as a craft. The key to this goal is simple: we are a state- wide collaborative community dedicated to a heightened expectation of quality cocktails, spirits, wine and beer, the promotion and recognition of an excellence in service and an ongoing education of our membership.

What's that sound? Corks a-popping from shore to shore? No doubt bubbly was the beverage du jour for many folks, but mixologists both pro and amateur took it upon themselves to create signature beverages for the election and inauguration of our 44th President. When tasked with that for a friend's bash, I put some thought into the national origins of each element, so that they might match those of our new Commander-In-Chief. With a bit of tinkering, a new and semi-perfect union was formed -- The Barry O.

The Barry-O

Equal parts cocoa powder and sugar
1 1/2 oz Amarula
1 oz bourbon
1/4 oz Kona coffee liqueur (I like Trader Vic's)

Dampen the edge of a cocktail glass, and roll in a blend of equal parts sugar and cocoa powder.

Shake Amarula, bourbon and coffee liqueur with ice to blend and strain into the prepared glass.

Note: Amarula is an African cream liqueur made from the fruit of the Marula tree. Bourbon is a distinctively American whiskey, named for, and largely produced in Kentucky's Bourbon County. Coffee designated as Kona can only come from the Kona District of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Africa, America & Hawaii - all with a li'l dash of chocolate.


So - whatcha sip to celebrate (or drown your sorrows) this historic night? Share it in the comments.