Monday, March 28, 2011

Nothing New Under the Sun


Think barrel-aged cocktails are the latest? Think again.

I was attending a seminar on aged cocktails conducted by Tony Conigliaro, the English bartender who started the whole trend by stowing pre-mixed cocktails in glass vessels (but who has little or no regard to the aged-in-barrel direction most Yankee bartenders are taking), when he flashed this image on the screen. It's a 1910 British ad for something called the Club Cocktail. The Club Cocktail, says the text, obtains its "delicious flavor and delicate aroma by aging in wood before bottling." Among the offered aged cocktails: the Martini and Manhattan.

Well, damn. And who found this ad and delivered it into Conigliaro's hands. Historian David Wondrich, of course.

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