Thinking of Drinking

Our book for January was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, a rare example where we selected a book that is on top of many of the bestseller lists. I really enjoyed this book, but given the fact that most of the male characters are portrayed in a poor light, I was interested to see how the rest of our group felt.

Cocktail Flight for the Book

For the cocktails, I decided to have a little fun with cocktail chemistry. I made three cocktails, all of which could be changed the addition of a little NaCl (aka sodium chloride aka table salt). I made a saline solution, and mixed up the following cocktails:

• Fresh Lime Gimlet – 2 oz NS Gin No. 6, 1 oz fresh lime juice, 1/2 oz plain simple, shaken with ice. I made it purposefully tart, so that we could see how the NaCl changed the drink – just like putting salt on watermelon makes it sweeter, adding a touch of salt to this cocktail amplifies the sugar and brings it into balance.
  
• Classic G&T – 1.5 oz NS Gin No. 11, ice, tonic water, lime wedge. In articles about salt in cocktails, they discuss the impact the salt can have on bitter notes (such as those from the quinine in tonic), as well as the impact on carbonation. In this experiment, we definitely found changes to the bitter profile, but not so much with the carbonation.
  
• Fly By Night – one of our current offerings, this one is made with 2 oz American Malt Whiskey, ¾ oz Fresh Lemon Juice, ¾ oz Honey Simple, 1 oz Egg White, 2 dashes Angostura Bitters; shake without ice, then add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. I added salt with the egg white in one version, and did not add it to the other, so we could examine if the salt impacts the texture of the egg white and the drink’s flavor.

Reactions & Responses

By and large, we all enjoyed the book very much – the story was compelling, the characters seemed real and we cared about them. And, we enjoyed the cocktail experiments too – interestingly, the last one was the only one where we did not agree on which one was better.

And, bonus – I posted about the drinks on the distillery’s IG page, and Bonnie Garmus actually saw it and responded!

Tonight’s the next meeting of the North Shore Distillery Boozy Book Club. For December, we typically choose something short, and often (but not always) holiday-themed. In past years, we’ve read short stories by Truman Capote about the holidays, a Christmas-themed mystery by Agatha Christie, and last year it was Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, for example.

This year, we chose Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern. Not exactly holiday themed, but it IS family-related and entertaining, especially when you listen to it (which I did for this one). And, we asked everyone to bring some fun stuff that their dad has said to share with the group. So, it should be a fun, light-hearted night, hopefully.

Cocktail Flight for the Book

There aren’t really any drinks in the book – there are a few mentions of beer and of bourbon (e.g., if the gift isn’t bourbon or sweatpants, it’s going in the trash), but that’s it. So, I’m going with a few fun cocktails for the season, including a whiskey cocktail.

Here’s the flight:

• Merry & Bright – one of our favorites in the tasting room this holiday season, and a crowd pleaser – 2 oz Twisted Citrus Vodka, 1 oz Cranberry Juice, 3/4 oz Fresh Lemon, 3/4 oz Brown Sugar Cinnamon Simple. Shake with ice, strain into tall glass over fresh ice. Garnish with orange swath.
  
• Maltese Falcon – we have some honey on hand, and this is one of my favorites with honey. 1.75 oz American Malt Whiskey, .5 oz Fresh Lemon, .5 oz Honey Simple, 2 dashes Angostura bitters. Shake with ice, strain into coupe glass, garnish with lemon twist.
  
• Seasons Wonders – an herbaceous cocktail for the holidays, with 1 oz of our Gin No. 6, 1/2 oz green Chartreuse, 1 oz fresh lemon & 3/4 oz plain simple, shaken with ice and served over fresh ice, garnished with fresh cranberries.

Happy holidays, and happy reading!

At the distillery, we’ve had a boozy book club going for several years now. Each month, we read a book that we chose together, and then we get together to discuss it. I prepare a flight of three mini-cocktails paired to the book or themes of the book, and we sip those while we talk. The club is an eclectic group of mostly professional people, both men and women, who get together to discuss a book that we choose as a group – we’ve been labeled as “intellectual” by some who felt they didn’t fit in, and I guess that’s probably right.

We’ve read a pretty broad array of books over the years, including a lot of historical fiction, some autobiographies, memoirs & biographies, the occasional suspense story or detective novel, one book of poetry, and a few works of classic literature. When choosing our November 2022 book, we had a hard time deciding on anything we were really interested in – so we let the fates decide by spinning the distillery’s “Wheel of Indecision” to choose from some titles found on Goodreads and Amazon.

This month, in my opinion, Amazon gave us a bad suggestion. We read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (full disclosure, I listened to it). Suffice to say, I pretty much agree with everything this person wrote about it.

Cocktail Flight for the Book

Another strike against this book for me is that there aren’t any cocktails in it – the characters drink cheap wine, mostly. So, I had to look deeper into the themes to identify some options. Here’s what I’ve come up with to serve. I’m very interested to see how everyone else felt about this book!

• The Charleston – the novel is set in Charleston, so this one seems like a good candidate. Plus it’s a new cocktail to me, and therefore likely to the club, so it’ll be something new. I’m using this recipe, with our bourbon-style whiskey and Broadbent Madeira.
  
• Planter’s Punch – some claim this drink was invented in Charleston, but it was more likely invented in Jamaica or somewhere tropical. Nonetheless, it fits the style of “porch pounders” that are common in super hot places like Charleston in the summer. I’m updating our typical recipe a bit to make it more holiday-friendly, and also new for the club. The recipe will be 2 oz of our Third Coast Rum, 3/4 oz pineapple juice, 3/4 oz cranberry-orange simple, 3/4 oz fresh lime and 1 dash of Angostura bitters, shaken with ice.
  
• Peach Pie – in the book, there’s a pretty gruesome story told about a peach tree. So, I decided to make a dessert-style drink with peach. The recipe will be 1-1/4 oz North Shore Vodka, 1 oz Mathilde Peach Liqueur, 1/2 oz Fresh Lime, 1/4 oz Demerara Simple, 1 oz Egg White. I’ll dry shake, then shake with ice vigorously before serving.

Cheers & happy reading/sipping!