Amber Moon from Murder on the Orient Express April 22, 2020

I felt like watching a classic mystery flick the other night and came across the classic movie adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.

This star studded movie doesn't have much on booze references. Aside from wine being consumed with dinner, champagne being chilled on ice and a random bourbon reference, there really isn't much to talk about with the exception of one cocktail: The Amber Moon.

Now the scene opens up with the butler Beddoes (Sir John Gielgud) knocking on the door of Ratchett (Richard Widmark.) Beddoes works for Ratchett and is bringing him his morning cocktail known as an Amber Moon.

I've never heard of an Amber Moon, not to be confused with the WWE superstar Ember Moon 😉. So back down the internet rabbit hole I go.

In searching for the Amber Moon, most of the sources I come across state that it is a "Hair of the Dog" cocktail aka cure of your hangover remedy. The recipe is rather simple, just three ingredients: a raw egg, whisky or vodka and tabasco sauce to your liking. Whiskypedia in their post Toast Your Health with Amber Moon state that this kind of hangover remedy has been around for over 200 years. Here is how they describe it:

The Amber Moon cocktail has been around for a long time. Back in the 1800s, cracking raw eggs into alcohol was considered a ‘miner’s breakfast’. The burning sensation left after having whisky was soothed by drinking beer with raw eggs. In Amber Moon, eggs and whisky are combined and the whisky cocktail becomes a healthy drink that can cure a hangover. Even though its origins are uncertain, it has been referenced in popular culture for almost a century.

They recommend using either a Scapa Glansa, Lagavulin 16 year old, or The Glenlivet 12 year old.

So you had a rough night staying at home during quarantine and want to make an Amber Moon? Lucky for you I have the recipe for you courtesy of the fine folks at TasteAtlas.com:

Image courtesy of TasteAtlas.com

Be aware this is a potent cocktail due to the amount of whisky in the glass. You are looking at the equivalent of two shots of whisky. This will either take care of your hangover or get you started on the next one. 😜

I believe that this is it for named cocktails in the movie. But there are two other scenes that I want to touch on. There first scene I wanted to focus on is where it seems that Inspector Poirot (Albert Finney) is sitting back sipping on a small green cocktail.

Immediately I thought that the good inspector was enjoying himself some of  “la fee verte” the so called green fairy itself Absinthe. I decided to jump back down the rabbit hole to see if Inspector Poirot was a drinker or not in other works by Agatha Christie. It didn't take long for me to find the following paragraph in the post Facts About Hercule Poirot from the Agatha Christie website:

Poirot is very particular about the beverages he drinks. His preferred hot beverage is cocoa, though he often takes herbal tisanes for health reasons. He does not care for many forms of alcohol, like beer and most hard liquors, but he does like good wines. His preferred aperitifs are non-alcoholic sirops, in flavours like blackcurrant and other fruits.

Another aperitif that Inspector Poirot seems to enjoy is the crème de menthe as per the post Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot: Crème de menthe from the Top 10 Literary Drinks website. I guess he could be sipping down some 25% alcohol by volume crème de menthe. Your guess is as good as mine.

The second scene was interesting to me since it seemed as if there was an ad placed on the fabled Orient Express. It doesn't seem to me that a train of the caliber of the Orient Express would have advertisements placed on it. Regardless, here is the scene where I saw the ad:

Right above the head of Beddoes (in red outline) is an ad that says: Liquer Bénédictine. Now for those of you who don't know what Bénédictine is, Bénédictine is one of those liquers whose recipes was invented by monks. The Benedictine monks to be exact.

 Here is the history as per the Bénédictine D.O.M. website:

Bénédictine is united by a quest to achieve the extraordinary that begins with benedictine monk Dom Bernado Vincelli and the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy, France. The secret recipe of Bénédictine is said to date back to 1510 and is based on local medicinal plants enhanced by oriental spices. The last surviving monk of the Abbey of Fécamp passed down the secret recipe to the Le Grand family to preserve the legacy of Vincelli and the benedictine monks. Alexandre Le Grand was passionately committed to protecting the secret recipe of this local elixir and its production process, which is why the same traditional craftsmanship is used today.

The indication of D.O.M comes from the motto of the Bénédictine order: Deo Optimo Maximo (God infinitely good, infinitely great.) Benedictine is an ingredient found in the Bobby Burns cocktail which celebrates the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns and my very own cocktail called The Honeysuckle Fro.

Well there you go. That's all for my ride on the Orient Express. Keep an eye out open for my next SiscoVanilla At The Movies post.

Until Then May You Have Some Happy, Safe and Responsible Drinking,
SiscoVanilla

#SiscoVanilla
#SiscoVanillaHasABrewski
#SiscoVanillaBeerChronicles
 #SiscoVanillaAtTheMovies