Museum of the American Cocktail: A Brief (and Sometimes Blurry) Tour
This is wax Jerry Thomas, who greets you at the entrance to the museum. JT—or "the professor" as he is often called—was the bartender who popularized cocktails in America. Note his outfit, if you will. He is why bartenders dress like that.
Swizzle Sticks!
In the front left of this frame you see a book called The Complete Distiller. It’s by a guy called Ambrose Cooper, and in the second half of the 18th century, it was the bible for New England distillers. It even has a recipe for absinthe, or "wormwood water." Mmmm, wormwood water!
This drink is called a crusta—a name only slightly more appetizing than wormwood water. Jerry Thomas’s Bartender’s Guide includes instructions for making a crusta. First you make the cocktail, of course, then you "take a fancy red wine-glass, rub a sliced lemon around the rim of same, and dip it in pulverized white sugar, so that the sugar will adhere to the side of the glass. Pare half a lemon…so that the paring will fit in the wine glass…and strain the crusta from the tumbler into it. Then smile."
How did they survive prohibition? With cool stuff like this.
Silverice! "Chills without diluting beer, wine, highballs, etc." Sorry for the crappy photo, I just had to show you these.
I don’t have anything to say about this one. Hope you make it to the museum, it’s good fun. Now, who needs a cocktail?