Boozehound - Jason Wilson [10]
A 1923 profile of Vanderbilt (quoted by historian David Wondrich in his entertaining book Imbibe!) describes the Stinger as “a short drink with a long reach, a subtle blending of ardent nectars, a boon to friendship, a dispeller of care.” I would add that the Stinger, with or without absinthe, is the perfect drink for after dinner, after lunch, or after breakfast. It always amazes me how much I like this drink, because it uses one of the most cloying and loathed liqueurs in the bar: crème de menthe (always white, never the yucky green stuff). The cognac, however, is key.
STINGER ROYALE
Serves 1
2 ounces cognac
½ ounce white crème de menthe
1 dash absinthe
Lemon peel twist, for garnish
Fill a shaker two-thirds full with ice. Add the cognac, crème de menthe, and absinthe. Shake well, then strain into either a chilled cocktail glass (if you like being correct) or into an old-fashioned glass with 3 or 4 ice cubes (if you like a nicer drink). Garnish with the lemon peel twist.
Cognac remains a mystery to most, even though it had its run of popularity in the mid-2000s, driven primarily by hip-hop culture. Remember Busta Rhymes’s “Pass the Courvoisier”? Remember cognac being referred to as ’Nyak? Remember Crunk Juice, that blend of cognac and energy drinks like Red Bull that rappers like Lil Jon were always raving about? (I don’t blame you if you tried to forget about Crunk Juice.)
Even during cognac’s pop cultural moment, most people still couldn’t tell you what it was. Quite simply, it’s a brandy produced in the Cognac, France, Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) following a three-hundred-year-old tradition that calls for at least 90 percent Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche, or Colombard wine grapes to be distilled in copper pots. So, what’s an AOC? It’s a designation that ensures a wine or spirit (or certain other foodstuffs) adheres to quality standards in agricultural and production processes, but most importantly has its origin in a specific geographic area. Basically, a brandy produced outside the cognac AOC, or by a different method, cannot be called cognac.
Most cognacs are created by blending numerous vintages and ages. The alphabet stew of cognac classifications—VS, VSOP, XO—seems confusing, but trust me, it really isn’t. VS means “very special,” with the youngest eau-de-vie in the blend no less than two years old. VSOP means “very superior old pale,” with the youngest eau-de-vie at least four years old. XO means “extra old,” with the youngest eau-de-vie at least six years old. Yes, the really good stuff can be prohibitively priced. Most of the cognac sold in the United States is either VS or VSOP. A decent VSOP will set you back forty to fifty dollars—and this is what I’d recommend in a Stinger.
I’d also recommend a VSOP cognac in another old-school drink, the Sazerac, created in Antoine Peychaud’s pharmacy in early-nineteenth-century New Orleans. The Sazerac (named after a then-popular brand of cognac) may actually be the origin of the word cocktail—Peychaud served it in an egg cup called a coquetier, and legend has it that a mispronunciation of this word stuck. It is also now the official drink of New Orleans, made so by a vote of the Louisiana legislature in June 2008. These days, most people use rye whiskey in a Sazerac, but I like the original nineteenth-century version, with cognac. And, of course, always use Peychaud’s bitters.
SAZERAC
Serves 1
1 sugar cube
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
1½ ounces cognac or rye whiskey
¼ ounce absinthe
Lemon peel twist, for garnish
Take two old-fashioned glasses. Pack one with ice to chill it. Combine the sugar cube and bitters in the other, with a splash of water; muddle until the sugar