Monster in a Glass

BlackLiverProject•www.podomatic.com

History

Telling stories and history through the cocktails that defined the times.

Last refreshed: August 20th, 2025 at 6:08 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Episode 10: Papa's Poison – Hemingway Daiquiri

When we did this episode originally we focused on the Hemingway Daiquiri. In our book "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails" there is a La Floridita Daiquiri, which apparently was also served at Hemingway's favorite hangout in Cuba, but then we needed to look into the origin of daiquiris in general. Basically a daiquiri is rum, sugar and lime juice and lots of cracked ice. Once again, here is a recipe that is not amazing in itself...it seems kind of obvious especially in Cuba, but it does hav...

Aug 26, 2013•1 hr 55 min

Episode 9: The Little Lie – Cuba Libre

I learned a lot this episode. With this mixed drink I learned more about Cuba, Coca-Cola, the Spanish American War and the Cuban Revolution and I learned that the standard rum and Coke originally had a different name. [caption id="attachment_906" align="alignright" width="300"] Cuban Revolutionaries in Tampa.[/caption] The Cuba Libre is essentially a rum and Coke with lime juice added. I had no idea that this combination existed as a named cocktail previously. The tumultuous tale of how Cuba acq...

Aug 20, 2013•1 hr 27 min

Episode 8: Up in the Air – The Aviation

As we have been doing these cocktails for a while, we have come to recognize several scenarios in how cocktails get their name, how their ingredients evolve and how they become popular. The Aviation follows one of these patterns so exquisitely that it serves as a perfect example to demonstrate how a cocktail with a popular name evolves into a winner. Jay started his research with information everybody knows...Hugo Ensslin created the Aviation we're familiar with in 1916. This is undeniable. Howe...

Aug 14, 2013•10 min

Episode 7: Pierced by the Gimlet – The Gimlet

This is an amazing episode. Since we recorded it, I've flipped it back and forth in my mind considering the content. My position on the Gimlet story has changed since I first heard it, but I'm still astounded by how it all comes together. Jason started be describing how he located the recipe first in Patrick Gavin Duffy's book, The Official Mixer's Manual and then verified that it was also in the UK Bartenders Guild's Cafe Royal Cocktail Book . Jay explained that when he does preliminary searche...

Aug 13, 2013•1 hr 17 min

Episode 6: What IS a Martini? – The Martini

The Martini is another one of those cocktails that is legendary in the world of classic cocktails. It's so major that the glass it is served in is a symbolic archetype for cocktail round the world. That's huge. Many other drinks try to borrow some of that presence through -tini association. The problem is that it's kind of hard to figure out just what a Martini is. As Jason unfolded the story of the Martini we tried to figure out what it was that makes the Martini so special and the more we expl...

Aug 12, 2013•1 hr 15 min

Episode 5: Margaritaville – The Margarita

The first thing I learned about this cocktail is that when you tell the story of the Margarita you have to tell the story of tequila. Because tequila was virtually unheard of prior to the 1930s, there are no mixed drinks using it in the time period when most cocktails would earn their classification as classics. The first form of tequila is the beverage pulque, derived from the mashed and fermented maguey plant that grows only in Mexico. The tradition of making pulque is pre-Columbian and nearer...

Aug 09, 2013•1 hr 42 min

Episode 4: Taken for a Ride – Sidecar

This episode was really great to create. There is a ton of post WWI information that we learned and some surprising technological developments we learned of from that time. But not only that, we had a lot of fun and tried a really great, truly classic cocktail. Jason nailed the origins of this drink pretty succinctly. This drink is often attributed to Paris barman Harry McElhone, as he was essentially the "bartender of the Lost Generation." This is an American GI post-WWI cocktail, and it is wel...

Aug 08, 2013•1 hr 16 min

Episode 3: Meet Tom Collins – The Tom Collins

The Tom Collins got me. The Tom Collins is another one of the old classics that is still around today and because it has been around so long...the history has become muddled and essentially lost. Jason found the earliest recorded instance of the recipe was a version in Australia called the John Collins. Now, traditionally there is a difference between the John Collins, made with Holland gin, and the Tom Collins, made with Old Tom gin, but that distinction gets lost over time. The combination of ...

Aug 07, 2013•1 hr 5 min

Episode 2: The Big Guns – French 75

I think this episode is a great example of what we mean when we say “…history through cocktails”. It would be easy to think that every cocktail origin story is precise and worthy of storytime. As it turns out, we’re pretty excited when we discover a cocktail that is directly and causally correlated to a particular event. Most cocktails might be created in honor of a person or thing, but just as often cocktails get their names from common expressions, icons or ideas. When there isn’t a story to g...

Jul 30, 2013•58 min

Episode 1:The Manhattan Project – Manhattans

We're kicking off the series with the cocktail that I think of as THE cocktail of cocktails...the Manhattan . At the front of the show, Mr. Jason Kruse, our researcher, and I sat and discussed what he discovered while tracking down the origins of the Manhattan. First of all, the Manhattan's claim to fame as the longest unchanged cocktail stands up to the available information. The first version we found is, in fact, the same version served today. Though it has been played with and changed by var...

Jul 29, 2012•1 hr 31 min

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