The theme for this year’s official cocktail contest for Tales of the Cocktail was “Punch It Up.” Entrants were invited to submit a cocktail based on the Planter’s Punch recipe. Today the winner was announced, and I was excited to learn it was Evan Martin’s Death in the South Pacific.

Death in the South Pacific

Death in the South Pacific

0.75 oz. Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old rum
0.75 oz. Rhum Clement VSOP rum
0.5 oz. Grand Marnier
0.33 oz. Trader Tiki’s Orgeat Syrup
0.33 oz. Fee Brothers Falernum
3 dashes Absinthe
0.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
0.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
0.5 oz. Fee Brothers Grenadine
0.5 oz. 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 and then pour in grenadine. Overfill the glass with crushed ice and then pour in Cruzan Blackstrap.

Garnish:
Take a bamboo skewer and put a brandied cherry through at the very top followed by 1 pineapple leaf (insert through the middle) and then cut off skin from 1 large orange slice and then cut the strips in half. Insert the ends through the skewer having them hang on opposite sides of each other. Then insert the straw through the loop in the bamboo skewer. It should look like a guy hanging off of the drink (cherry=head, pineapple leaf= arms, citrus peel dangling away from each other are the legs)

Evan is a great bartender, and I consider myself lucky that he’s at Naga Cocktail Lounge at Chantanee Thai in Bellevue. Even better, it’s a fantastic drink. He made it for me right after the finalists were announced, and I have to say, I’m not surprised it won. Evan did a great job of creating an accessible, easy-to-drink cocktail that is still complex and rich. He combined a Zombie and Death in the Afternoon to come up with a great tiki cocktail.

As you can see from the photo, I didn’t get the full dead guy garnish. But I did get a very delicious drink, and I’m sure I’ll have a few more over at Naga between now and Tales.

If you’re in the Seattle area, be sure to drop in to Naga to congratulate Evan Martin, and then put him to work making you one to try!

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During Tales of the Cocktail, I’ve seen a lot of great sessions and tasted a lot of great spirits. But I’ve most enjoyed the chance to meet some really great people.

Sure, I got to shake hands with Danny DeVito, who was hand at the Drink Italy session. But even more exciting to a cocktail geek like myself was the chance to have drinks made by many of the great bartenders I’ve heard about. The Cocktail “Carnival” Happy Hour at the Presbytere was one of the best staffed bars of all time. I had drinks made by Angus Winchester, Jim Romdall, and some guy named Jeffrey Morgenthaler. Also manning tables were the likes of Wayne Curtis, author of …And a Bottle of Rum and Tales Blog’s own Paul Clarke.

Tastings were another great place to meet favorite bartenders and other experts in the cocktail world. I had several rums poured for me by Ed Hamilton, administerer of the Ministry of Rum. His table at the Raw Session: Producers Pet Projects tasting room was next to that of Eric Seed, a man much beloved in the cocktail blogosphere for bringing us spirits like Batavia Arrack. Eric let us taste Cocchi Americano, an apperativo that I can attest tastes great in a Corpse Reviver #2. He also previewed a much anticipated Swedish Punsch.

Another great place to meet people was at the bookstore run by Octavia Books. Several authors had signings. I truly enjoyed meeting the lovely ladies of LUPEC Boston, there to sign their little black book of cocktails.

And of course, there is the Carousel Bar. My first time in the bar, I met the ever entertaining Cheryl Charming. I found myself talking to cocktail historian David Wondrich one afternoon, and a day later, had a long conversation with Jay Hendrickson about his work with Sazerac to bring back the original formulation of Legendre Herbsainte.

Everybody I’ve met has been friendly and approachable, happy to share information and of course a drink. This will be the hardest part of leaving Tales, losing this fantastic concentration of like-minded cocktail lovers, ever in search of a great drink.

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I am such an unrepentant geek that rather than go early to Diageo’s fantastic happy hour at the Presbytere, I stayed on at Tales to attend the New Orleans Pharmacists session.

The Sazerac Poncho

Moderator Phil Greene was joined by Lorin Gaudin, Jay Hendrickson and Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh to talk about the unique contribution that pharmacists from New Orleans have made to the history of the American cocktail.

Phil is a decedent of the family that brought us our beloved Peychaud’s bitters, an essential component of the Sazerac cocktail. Phil shared with us his latest research into the Peychaud story, and concluded by demonstrating the proper preparation of the iconic cocktail. I hope next year’s swag bags will include a Sazerac poncho, a necessary element if you want to follow Phil’s example and toss the glass in the air to achieve the optimum Herbsainte rinse.

Ted Haigh then shared his research an insights into other pharmacists from the golden age of cocktails, complete with a plea to Joe Fee to produce Stoughton’s bitters.

Lorin Gaudin shared the important history of the Ursuline nuns and their herb garden. Their convent can still be visited today, where the garden is currently maintained by local chefs. She also educated us about Nectar syrup, so now I must go track some down.

Finally, Jay Hendrickson shared the history of Herbsainte, the New Orleans absinthe substitute made by A. Lengendre. He also let us know that current brand owners Sazerac company will be launching the original recipe Herbsainte soon, which I’m really looking forward to trying.

This is the sort of session that makes Tales of the Cocktail worthwhile. And I still made the Diageo happy hour!

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What if you were having your birthday and the whole liquor industry showed up to celebrate? That’s a bit what it felt like for me on the opening day of Tales of the Cocktail.

I was a bit trepidatious when I saw the Tales schedule and discovered it started on my birthday. I normally like to spend the week of my birthday in the remote mountains riding my horse. That ride is postponed for a year so that I can experience the sensory overload that is Tales of the Cocktail.

I started the day off with a great breakfast at Stanley on Jackon Square. At the recommendation of Matthew Rowley, I had the Breaux Bridge Benedict, which was delicious. Then I headed over to the Monteleone, after picking up an umbrella when it was obvious the sky was about to open up. And open it did, but luckily it was only my feet that got soaked.

After signing in and getting my media pass, I headed to the tasting rooms. First was the Yamazaki whisky tasting, which I missed the begining of, but did get to taste some yubari melon jelly during a discussion of Midori. I followed that with a cocktail poured by Seattle’s own Jamie Boudreau, and then headed over to the Castries tasting. They were featuring two excellent examples of how you don’t have to make an overly sweet cocktail even with a peanut creme liqueur.

I then headed up to the swag bag room, courtesy of my media pass to Tales. Definitely a great birthday present, a room full of liquor samples and logo gear. After stuffing my bag full of goodies, I met up with other members of the CSOWG and headed to Coop’s for lunch. Apparently Chuck Taggart is too good at making recommendations, because we ran into most of the rest of the CSOWG as well as the Seattle bartending scene already there waiting. But it was worth it, and really enjoyed my Abita Turbo Dog and bowl of gumbo.

Back to the tasting rooms. After stopping by the Ron Zacapa room, I hit the Raw Spirits room, full of new, experimental liquors, mostly from smaller distillers. This included several rums being poured by Ministry of Rum’s Ed Hamilton and a hibiscus liqueur being created by the same folks bringing us Castries. I also hit the Fresh Market tasting room, full of organic spirits, largely being poured by the distillers themselves.

I then found myself in the Carousel Bar, chatting with Camper English and meeting David Wondrich, among others. Rhum Clement treated us to straw hats and ti punch. We then wandered over to the Roosevelt Hotel where we had a Sazerac at the beautiful Sazerac bar (featuring Sazerac rye, natch!). I decided to skip the Beefeater reception, largely because I forgot to bring my ticket. I found myself with my CSOWG friends for the evening.

All in all, a great way to spend a birthday. While I tasted a lot of different liquors, I was careful to follow the best advice for drinking all day without getting too drunk. I’m happy to report that I felt pretty good in the morning, ready to hit more great seminars and tastings as Tales continues.

A huge thanks to everybody who helped me celebrate my birthday this year. Sure was kind of y’all to throw me such a huge party!

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I can hardly believe it, but the time is finally here! Tomorrow morning, I leave at the crack of dawn¹ for New Orleans to attend Drink.Write 2009 and Tales of the Cocktail.

What does that mean for you, dear reader? It means next week you can expect to see several updates from me about all the fun I’m having things I’m learning about cocktails, spirits, and blogging. And it’s not just me. Be sure to check out the Tales Blog for coverage of the entire event from all my wonderful co-Tales bloggers.

I am really excited to be attending Tales this year. I learned about Tales last year just about the time I started getting serious about my cocktail blogging, and decided to give it a pass. Based on all the wonderful stories I read on last year’s Tales Blog, I knew I couldn’t make the same mistake twice. When I was invited to join the Tales Blog this year, I couldn’t possibly say no.

So I hope you’ll check back here (and the Tales Blog) to keep in touch with all the fun. And if you have any suggestions for places to eat while I’m in New Orleans, leave me a comment to let me know. I haven’t been to NOLA in almost ten years!

and by crack of dawn I mean I need to leave my house for the airport by actual sunrise and better be up before civil twilight.

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3. Learning about Armagnac at Tales of the Cocktail

In case you haven’t noticed that there logo on the right side of the page, Two at the Most was invited to participate in Blogging Tales of the Cocktail 2009.

My first post is up, an introduction to what awaits us at the 21st Century Gin session on Friday, July 10. Over on the Tales blog we’ll be previewing more of the sessions. During Tales, we’ll be keeping you up to date on all the fun we’re having things we are learning.

I’m pretty chuffed to be asked to join in this great group of cocktail bloggers, and am really looking forward to going to Tales of the Cocktail this year.

Be sure to check both Tales Blog and back here for more details.

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