There is nothing more soothing than a cool, refreshing cocktail in the middle of a hot and humid New Orleans summer.
Our ancestors knew that, and New Orleans became the center of the emerging cocktail phenomenon as early as 1820. And it follows that if one cocktail is good, then an unlimited number must be really good.
Since 2003, the annual homegrown Tales of the Cocktail festival has grown not just in size, but also in industry stature. It is now a worldwide phenomenon, on the must-attend list of every noted cocktail professional and every company that makes spirits.
This year’s edition will unfold from July 21 through 25 with dinners, seminars, demonstrations, tastings and competitions. For more information, visit www.talesofthecocktail.com.
The major competition, pre-event, was won by Evan Martin of Washington who created “Death in the South Pacific,” which will be served throughout the festival as the Official Cocktail of the 2010 Tales of the Cocktail.
Death in the South Pacific
3/4 ounce Appleton Estate Extra 12-Year-Old Rum
3/4 ounce Rhum Clement VSOP
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
1/3 ounce Trader Tiki’s Orgeat Syrup
1/3 ounce Fee’s Falernum
3 dashes Absinthe
1/2 ounce Fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce Fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce Fee’s Grenadine
1/2 ounce Cruzan Blackstrap Rum
Add all ingredients except for the grenadine and Cruzan Blackstrap to a Zombie shell glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle the drink well to mix and frost the glass. Then pour in grenadine. Overfill the glass with crushed ice and then pour in Cruzan Blackstrap.
Garnish: Take a bamboo skewer and spit a brandied cherry at the very top, followed by 1 pineapple leaf (insert through middle). Then remove skin from 1 large orange slice and cut the strips in half. Insert the ends through the skewer, hanging them on opposite sides. Insert the straw through the loop in the bamboo skewer. It should look like a guy hanging off the drink (cherry for a head, pineapple leaf for body and arms and the citrus as legs dangling away from each other).
