James Bond Book Number One Casino Royale Part II December 28, 2019

Hey peeps!!!! I'm back at the Royale-les-Eaux hotel for the second part of the James Bond literary cocktail tour. When we last left off in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, Bond had met his CIA contemporary Felix Leiter and they were sitting down to enjoy a cocktail.

Where Bond had ordered a Haig-and-Haig on the rocks for Felix, he ordered his now signature cocktail. It is in this initial offering of his now immortal spy series that we are introduced to Ian Fleming's signature cocktail: The Vesper. Here is how Bond orders the cocktail on page 44:

Bond insisted on ordering Leiter's Haig-and-Haig 'on the rocks' and then looked carefully at the barman.

'A dry martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.'
'Oui, Monsieur.'
'Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?'
'Certainly, monsieur.' The barman seemed pleased with the idea.
'Gosh that's certainly a drink,' said Leiter.

Bond laughed. 'When I'm...er...concentrating,' he explained, 'I never have more than one before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name.'

He watched carefully as the deep glass became frosted with the pale golden drink, slightly aerated by the bruising of the shaker. He reached for it and took a long sip.

'Excellent,' he said to the barman, 'but if you can get a vodka made with grain instead of potatoes, you will find it still better.'

So Bond prefers a grain vodka to a potato vodka? Some of you might say to yourselves: What's the difference. If you have a gluten allergy then you would definitely prefer the potato vodka over the wheat vodka. Before I go into the differences between the potato and grain vodkas, I wanted to define what they are.

Potato vodka is easy, its made with potatoes as the main base ingredient. Grain vodkas can be made from grains such as corn, wheat, rye, barley and others. There are vodkas such as the French vodka Ciroc that is made from grapes, the Milo Vodka from Kansas that is made from Sorghum, the Haku Japanese Vodka made with by white rice by Suntory and the Polish Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka. I'm sure there are other things that vodka has been made from including fruits. Now on to the difference in the potato and grain vodkas.

For this I go to the VODKA 101 post from the Williams Sonoma Taste blog dated November 29, 2013. The article asks Rich Bubbico, the General Manager at Schiller’s Liquor Bar in New York for his thoughts on the differences between. Potato and grain vodkas:

There are many different varieties out there, but the most common vodka is made with grains. I think wheat is the most common, but rye and barley are frequently used as well. Wheat poses a problem for folks who have gluten allergies, so those who can’t ingest wheat should look for potato or corn vodkas. 

I have tasted a variety of vodkas in my time, and I really don’t think there is a flavor difference between potato vodka and grain vodka. Keep in mind, vodka is a neutral spirit by definition; it lacks flavor or aroma. This is why it makes great cocktails: because it does not distract from the other flavors, it’s like having a blank canvas to start from.

Some other impressions I've come across state that grain vodka, especially those made from corn tend to be the most flavorless of vodka while potato vodkas generally tend to be the most flavorful of vodkas. In the end it comes down to the distillation process. Better distillation produces a better product. This is especially so with Vodka. Now on to the naming of the cocktail.

Bond finally finds a suitable name for his cocktail upon meeting Vesper Lynd on page 52:

'Vesper,' she said. 'Vesper Lynd'

Bond gave her a look of inquiry.

'It's rather a bore always having to explain, but I was born in the evening, on a very stormy evening according to my parents. Apparently they wanted to remember it.' She smiled. 'Some people like it, others don't. I'm just used to it'

'I think it's a fine name,' said Bond. An idea struck him. 'Can I borrow it?' He explained his special Martini he had invented and his search for a perfect name for it. 'The Vesper,' he said. 'It sounds perfect and it's very appropriate to the violet hour when my cocktail will now be drunk all over the world. Can I have it?'

'So long as I can try one first,' she promised. 'It sounds a drink to be proud of.'
'Will have one together when all this is finished,' said Bond.

So did Bond and Vesper finally enjoy her namesake cocktail? Alas they were not fated to have that cocktail together. But don't let me spoil the story for you, go and read the book. As for the cocktail itself...Many thanks to Ian Fleming to introducing this very potent cocktail to the world. Watch the video below to experience how master mixologist Alessandro Palazzi of the famed Dukes Hotel Bar in London makes the Vesper.

In doing so, Palazzi not only makes the Vesper Martini but gives us the behind the scenes history on the inspiration that Ian Fleming tapped into when creating the Vesper. Dukes is known to be the place where Ian Fleming came up with the idea for the Vesper.

You better believe that Dukes Bar is on the top of the list of places to visit on my London bucket list.

For the next post, I go into some of Bond's champagne expertise in Casino Royale. 

Until Then Happy Drinking,

SiscoVanilla

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James Bond Book Number One Casino Royale Part I December 16, 2019

Hey peeps!!!! Today's post came about due to a recent conversation with my friend Melvin. We got to talking about the first cocktail that Ian Fleming's spy 007 himself James Bond had in print. For those of you who might not know, James Bond's adventures were first immortalized in print before hitting the big screen. Fleming started writing his spy novels in the 1950's with his first book Casino Royale debuting in 1953.

Casino Royale was the first of 11 novels and a number of short stories that revolved around James Bond. On a side note, due to licensing and other issues surrounding the Bond franchise, the movies were released in a different order than the books were written in. This is why the Daniel Craig debut Bond movie Casino Royale came out in 2006, almost 40 years after the Peter Niven Casino Royale movie that isn't in the Bond movie continuity. But back to the cocktails.

Unlike the movies where Bond is forever known for his Martini, shaken not stirred shtick, the Bond of the books consumes a variety of spirits and cocktails during his missions. Heck, his signature cocktail which would be christened the Vesper Martini in this book isn't even the first drink that Bond has. That distinction belongs to the Americano. Bond is at the Hermitage Bar awaiting the arrival of Mathis and Vesper Lynd when he orders the Milanese cocktail that was known as the Milano-Torino and now the more commonly referred to as the Americano,

I profiled the Americano Cocktail way back in 2012 with my post entitled surprisingly enough Americano (🤣🤣🤣.) Now the Americano can be had in two different ways with its base spirits being the same. Campari and Vermouth Rosso make up the cocktail with the only difference is the addition of club soda. Here is how the Campari website describes the Americano:

A cocktail you'll love at first sip thanks to its special texture and striking mixture of flavors. There are many legends and stories about how this cocktails got its name, for sure the Americano is one of James Bond's favourite cocktails (he ordered one in 007 Casino Royale). The Americano is part of the official cocktail list of the IBA (international bartending association) and IBA cocktails are prepared all over the world according to this original recipe.

 Well since they mention the recipe for the Americano, here is is:

Americano
- 1 part (1oz, 3cl) Campari
- 1 part (1oz, 3cl) Red Vermouth
- Splash of Soda

Make it
1) Pour the ingredients directly in a old-fashioned glass
2) Fill with ice cubes
3) Add a splash of soda water
4) Garnish with orange slice or lemon peel

Or if you prefer, you can have it without the club soda with the same ratio of Campari and Sweet Vermouth over ice. The choice is yours. Moving on.

After Bond meets CIA Agent Felix Leiter at the casino, they go to the casino bar and Bond orders Felix a Haig-and-Haig on the rocks. Bond orders himself a dry martini which I'll go into a bit later. On to the Haig-and-Haig.

Known for the slogan "Don't Be Vague, Ask For Haig" the John Haig and Company Limited aka Haig-and-Haig has the distinction of being one of the oldest known established Scotch distillers in the world. Apparently there was an incident in 1655 where Robert Haig was taken to task over distilling Scotch over the Sabbath and the records were kept to prove it. Back then this was definitely a No-No on the day of rest. It is believed that the distilling of what is now the Haig line of Scotches goes back to 1627. Haig-and-Haig's line of Scotch whiskies were some of the most popular spirits around the world up to the 1970s and it's no surprise that they would be featured in Ian Fleming's works. Their two most widely found and most popular blended Scotches are virtually the two sides of the same coin.

The Pinch and the Dimple are known for their distinctive three sided bottle with a dimple in the middle of each side. Why do I say virtually the two sides of the same coin? Well Haig-and-Haig would sell the Pinch for the United States market at 86.8 proof (43.4 ALC) while the Dimple was sold in Europe at 80 proof (40 ALC.) Both carry an age statement of 15-years. The age statement would change to 12-yers for more recent versions of the Pinch and Dimple. So when Bond orders Felix a "Haig-and-Haig on the rocks" while in France, we can make an educated guess that he's being poured the 80 proof Dimple and not the 86.8 proof Pinch. So why not just order a Dimple instead of a Haig-and-Haig? Let me try and make another educated guess on that based on some research.

I decide to hit up my trusty The Schweppes Guide to Scotch by Philip Morrice for the answer. According to the book:

Some whiskies are known by different name in different countries. Haig's De Luxe whisky, Dimple, is known as Pinch in the United States, whilst Haig is known there as Haig & Haig after the family offshoot which established itself in the United States many years ago to market Scotch whisky. Similarly, North Americans may be surprised to find that their Dewar's (pronounced Doo-ers, as their advertisements say) is better known in its native land as White Label.

After some issues with rights and ownership in the U.S., the Haig and Haig line became part of the John Haig umbrella in 1925. Even with Prohibition coming and going in the U.S., the Pinch brand was commonly known as Haig-and-Haig. So for Bond ordering a Haig-and-Haig for Felix would lend to the familiarity of having a Pinch on the rocks though in reality he would be having a Dimple on the rocks. Get it? Got it? Good!

And this isn't a one off for Bond and Felix enjoying some Haig-and-Haig. No sir, the Haig-and-Haig Scotch is enjoyed by both gentlemen in later Bond stories that I will get to in later posts. But let's stay at the Hotel Royale-les-Eaux for the next part of the post where I highlight the appearance of Bond's signature drink and the preferred vodka type that Bond likes for said cocktail. Keep your eyes peeled for it!!!

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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Happy 104th Birthday to Frank Sinatra December 12, 2019

Happy 104th Birthday to the Chairman of the Board: The Legendary Francis Albert Sinatra !!!!

Never one to be called boring, Sinatra (December 12, 1915 - May 14, 1998) used to love his drinks and the good times that accompanied them. His favorite was the spirit that he called "The Nectar of the Gods" good Old Number 7 Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.

So if you are out and about tonight or just kicking back at home, raise one up to good old Blue Eyes in the way that he liked to drink his Jack Daniel's.

Happy Birthday Frank!!!

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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For Further Reading:

• The Love Song of Frank and Jack: How Sinatra Put Jack Daniel’s on the Map by Sarah Feldberg from the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation website dated December 12, 2015
• How Frank Sinatra Made Jack Daniel's Into A Rock Star Brand by Steve Baltin from Forbes Magazine dated January 18, 2017
• Frank Sinatra & Jack Daniel’s: The Dynamic Duo by Shadia K from the Curious Creature website

The Town of Plzeň aka Pilsen December 11, 2019

I recently watched an episode of Underground Marvels on Science Channel that profiled the city of Plzeň aka Pilsen. Plzeň is located in the area once known as Bohemia, later Czechoslovakia now known as the Czech Republic. If the name Pilsen rings a bell, it's because the popular beer style Pilsner Lager takes its name from the town of Plzeň where it was perfected. I want to take a quick look at the history of Plzeň and how its earliest citizens laid the foundation for the brewing of Pilsner beer drunk the world over.

The town of Plzeň was established in 1295 by King Wencelaus II of Bohemia. The city was built on the confluence of four rivers: the Uhlava, Uslava, Radbuza and Mze. Plzeň would directly benefit from its proximity to the capital city of Prague (96km/60miles) and its location on major trade routes. 

It wouldn't take long for the area to become populated. A populated area needs entertainment and refreshment. Here is where the beer comes in.

Like many European cities of the Medieval era, alcoholic beverages in Plzeň were initially produced by the local religious orders. Soon thereafter, private citizens would brew their own beers and utilized the growing network of underground caverns, cellars, wells and storage rooms to store and mature their barreled beer. Beer wasn't solely used for entertainment purposes. As with other European areas during the Medieval period, plague was a constant and many of the germs that caused the disease could be found in the drinking water. Beer was encouraged for consumption by everyone (children included) since the fermentation process killed the germs that caused plague.

Brewers guilds would be formed in Plzeň by the townsfolk in order to protect the interest of the town's trade in beer and create a lineage for the production of beer. By the mid 19th century, the city elders wanted to have a unified beer standard for the city. Up to that point, individual brewers made their own beers to their desired tastes and specifications. It is at this point where beer history was made.

Joseph Groll (8/21/1813-11/22/1887)

The city elders created a centralized brewery in Plzeň in 1839 and brought in Joseph Groll to become its first brewmaster. Hailing from Bavaria (today's Germany) Groll was able to take advantage of the low alkalinity of the local water which is filtered naturally through the sandstone that is native to the area, to create the first golden lager. Today as it was then, the recipe called for the water to be combined with two other ingredients: Barley and Hops (as established by the German Beer Purity Law of 1516 knows as the Reinheitsgebot.) The recipe was perfected in 1842 and the Pilsner Urquell was born.

The beer would be stored in the natural underground caverns, the carved out cellars and storerooms that were located underneath the city. To further take advantage of these cellars, a system for cooling the rooms was created by building channels in the floor that would allow the melted ice water (from the many blocks of ice that were used for refrigeration) to flow into the adjoining rooms and cooling the granite floors, keeping those caverns cold. The desired temperature for the maturation of the beer was between 5° and 7° Celsius (41° to 47° Fahrenheit.) 

The beer proved to be so popular throughout Europe, that the term “Pilsener Beer” would become a registered trademark in 1859. The beer would be exported throughout the world helping to spawn many imitators but the Pilsner Urquell brand is unique.

Now I've only had Pilsner Urquell in cans and bottles but to really appreciate the beer as the city elders, townsfolk of Plzeň and Joseph Groll intended, the beer should be enjoyed in one of three ways.

Add these to the list of beers that I need to try at a beer hall. Any recommendations on where to go in the NYC area? Hit me up.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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The Birds 1963 Part II and the Hamm's Brewing Company December 9, 2019

Hey Peeps!!! Welcome back to another (and long overdue) SiscoVanilla at the Movies post. For today's post, I'm continuing my look at Alfred Hitchcock's classic film The Birds which is loosely based on the story of the same name by British author Daphne Du Maurier.

In my last post The Birds 1963 Part I, I left you all with main protagonists Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor)and Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) enjoying a small glass jar of what seems to be a pre-made cocktail along the dunes of the town of Bodega Bay. For this post we shift gears to the Tides restaurant, now known as the Inn at the Tides, where the townsfolk have gathered after the birds have wreaked havoc. In the background there are a plethora of spirits relevant to the early 1960's. I'll touch upon those at a later time. For today's SiscoVanilla Beer Chronicles post, I wanted to focus on the beer tap, bottles and cans that can see seen behind the counter: Hamm's Brewing Company aka Hamm's.

Hamm's, officially known as the Theodore Hamm's Brewing Company, was an American brewing company established in 1865 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Theodore Hamm (October 14, 1825 - July 31, 1903) was one of the many German immigrants that made their way to the Midwestern United States during the 1850's. Hamm arrived in 1856 and by 1864, he grew to be rather successful financially. As per the post Hamm's Brewery History & Olde Tyme Photographs from the Action Squad.org website:

In 1864, entrepreneur Andrew F. Keller, the owner of a small brewery called the Excelsior Brewery (then producing 500 barrels a year) needed money for expansion. Theodore lent the money with the brewery as collateral. When Keller defaulted on the loan, Theodore Hamm was the owner of a brewery.

Hamm's Brewery would grow from 5 employees that brewed 500 barrels a year to 75 employees brewing 40,000 barrels a year in 1885. Modernization in the form of bottling and refrigeration would follow suit.

Prohibition would affect Hamm's like every other brewery in the United States but the company was able to stay afloat by producing soft drinks and other consumables until Prohibition was repealed. The brewery wasted no time in making beer once again and expanding even further. By the time Hamm's would be seen on tap and behind the counter in the Birds, the company would have breweries in St. Paul, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore (which I will profile in a later post in relation to the Gunther Brewing Company) and Houston. 

Hamm's called itself the Classic American Beer that was Born in the Land of Sky Blue Waters and its mascot was a jolly animated bear simply known as "The Hamm's Bear."

 
This mischievous rascal would find himself in a number of different outdoor adventures with other wildlife creatures. Check out one of those commercials:

 
As with many beer brands throughout the United States, beer and Baseball would go hand-in-hand. Hamm's was no different. Aside from supporting the local Minnesota Twins after moving from Washington, D.C. in 1961:

Hamm's also sponsored the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox and even as far south as the Kansas City A's:

Plus they had an awesome ad in 1949 with The Man himself Stan Musial:

But as with many things, the good times don't last forever. For Hamm's, the good times wouldn't last past their 100th anniversary in 1964. Once again referring to the post Hamm's Brewery History & Olde Tyme Photographs from the Action Squad.org website:

In 1965, with Hamm's celebrating its 100th year as a family-owned business, the brewery was now the 8th largest in the nation, selling 3,800,000 barrels in 1964. Family members were ready to diversify their investments, and a buyer for the brewery was sought. Heublein, Inc. bought the brewery for 65 million. After two consecutive years of losses, the brewery again was sold. A group of Hamm's distributors bought the brewery for $10.4 million in October 1973. This operation was under-capitalized and was forced to sell. A family-owned West Coast brewery, Olympia Brewing Company, bought the brewery for $13.7 million. They operated the plant from 1975-1983. The final buyer was Pabst Brewing Company, who bought the brewery in 1983. In 1983 Pabst traded the plant to Stroh's for a Stroh's plant in Tampa, Florida. In the fall of 1997, the brewery closed down for good, never to produce beer again. 

The Hamm's brand would be bought by Miller in 1999 and is now brewed under the MillerCoors company umbrella. Found mainly in the Midwest, Hamm's Brewing makes a Hamm's Classic Lager and a Hamm's Special Light beer.

Hamm's Classic has a 4.6% ABV while the Hamm's Special Light has a lower ABV of 3.8%. Both of their beers are brewed in the Chicago area.

I guess I need to see if I can score some Hamm's here in the NYC area. Their website shows that their beer can be found in a couple of locations in Jersey City, NJ. I might have to hop on the PATH train one of these days off and see what I can find. Keep your eyes posted for that adventure. What do you gals and guys think about the Hamm's line of beers. Let me know what you think!!!!

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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SiscoVanilla on Flipboard December 6, 2019

What's up peeps!!!! Can anyone tell me if there is anything more annoying that sifting through old emails? I'm sure a root canal ranks up there with it. I should know, I've spent the last six or seven (I've lost count) off day Thursday at the dentist. The wait time between being seen and having the local anesthesia kick in has given me ample time to go through my emails. I hate to say that I have had a number of emails going back to June of 2019. Ugh. But never let it be said that good old SiscoVanilla can't turn a batch of lemons into lemonade. What I've done is go though all of those emails and cherry picked the best info from them and made my own magazine. "A magazine? How did you do that?" you might ask yourself. Well, it's not your traditional print magazine. I've used the app Flipboard to do so. No idea what Flipboard is? Well, keep on reading to find out.

According to the article What Is Flipboard? by Elsie Moreau from Lifewire.com dated July 1, 2019:

Flipboard is the social news app people have been raving about for years. Staying informed about the topics that matter most to you has never been easier.

People can use Flipboard to create their own digital magazines to share with other users; as you read through the stories shown on Flipboard, you can easily add them to a new or existing magazine under your profile. Flipboard also lets you curate magazines based on a passion of yours, for specific sources, for sharing with a group or simply for creating a collection.

Stories appear in your home feed with an image, a headline, the source name, and how recently it was published. All you have to do is tap a story to expand it to read it in full.

I started using Flipboard when I stopped eating meat in order to collect recipes and articles for archiving. With the many articles and cocktail recipes that I have found in my emails, I decided to create a number of magazines through Flipboard in order to share them with all of you and anyone else who is interesting in checking them out. And you can "flip" any of them into any existing magazines that you already have made in your Flipboard account.

So without wasting another moment, here are my five FH aka SiscoVanilla cocktail, spirits and beer themed magazines courtesy of Flipboard: 

View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.

View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.View my Flipboard Magazine.
Feel free to read any and all of the articles and flip them all to your heart's content. Any suggestions for future magazines? Feel free and drop me a line.

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

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