The headline tells the truth, but it isn’t something you expect to find in July in New Orleans. Staying cool in that month in this place is a challenge of the highest order.
But the annual Tales of the Cocktail is a very cool festival. Now in its 11th year, Tales is considered the No. 1 distilled spirits festival in the world for professionals and neophytes alike. Tales was founded in New Orleans and now stages similar efforts in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This year’s featured drink is the Rickey – basically a sexed-up highball – first created in the late 1800s. The drink’s resurgence and popularity began when the new international cocktail movement took hold in the 1970s. It is the featured cocktail at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail festival, happening this month, July 17 through 21, headquartered in the Monteleone Hotel.
The Rickey recipe here was created for Tales by the talented gang at Cane & Table, the newly renamed bar that was formerly Pravda, then briefly Perestroika, located at 1113 Decatur St. Note to C&T: the new name is much better.
The Rickey
2 ounces Hayman’s Royal Dock Gin
1/2 lime
3-4 ounces soda water
Squeeze the lime into a wine glass and add 2 ounces of Hayman’s Royal Dock Gin. Place the lime shell in the bottom of the glass and fill with ice. Add soda water and a straw, and serve.
Created by Nick Detrich
