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Who Is Drunk Tom Pynchon?
About halfway into Thomas Pynchon’s inscrutable 1973 classic Gravity’s Rainbow, Soviet intelligence officer Vaslav Tchitcherine—the postmodernist novel’s antagonist—is in Kyrgyzstan, scheming to...
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Mastering the Spritz With Natasha David
Nestled among crossword puzzles and cheeky connect-the-dots illustrations on the menu at New York’s Nitecap is the phrase, “Because let’s face it, bubbles make everything feel better.” It serves as...
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Big in Japan
When Bar Pisellino opened its doors in New York’s West Village earlier this summer, it unleashed a conundrum of a cocktail that puzzled even the most well versed in Italian aperitivi. Spumoni. On paper...
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Taffy Brodesser-Akner Is Anything But Basic
During her tenure at The New York Times Magazine (and before that, GQ), the writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner has interviewed Gwyneth Paltrow, Tonya Harding, Kris Jenner, Jimmy Buffett, Marie Kondo, Tom...
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Remember Activated Charcoal Cocktails?
The year was 2016. Justin Bieber’s anti-ballad “Love Yourself” was the No. 1 song in America. Leonardo DiCaprio had been mauled by a bear and finally won his Oscar. Beyoncé’s Lemonade arrived out of...
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A New Ice Age
“There’s only one type of ice I’ll tolerate,” declared legendary barman and drinks writer Dale DeGroff in The New Yorker in 1999. “That’s a big cube made only by a Kold-Draft machine.” The American...
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Bring Back the Et Moi Je Te Dis Maud
Maud Loty inspired what might be the most Parisian crime spree of all time. A Bordeaux-born vaudeville comedienne, thespian Maud Loty (nicknamed “La Maud”) starred in dozens of hit plays throughout the...
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This Is Not a Banana
At his new bar, Lyaness, London cocktail impresario Ryan Chetiyawardana was determined to incorporate one of his most beloved fruits, the banana, into the cocktail menu. But he wanted to avoid the...
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In Search of the Ultimate Piña Colada
The Piña Colada is a situational cocktail. When you picture yourself ordering one, you probably envision doing so at a warm-weather resort, at the beach or beside the pool. The Top Three Fanny Chu's...
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What Is a Frappé, Anyway?
Ordering a frappé can be a bit of a gamble—it’s never certain exactly how the drink will arrive. At El Floridita in Havana, they come courtesy of the blender; Trader Vic preferred to serve his poured...
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Paradise Found
Until it was rediscovered in the 1990s, falernum was the missing piece of the tiki puzzle. This is how a group of fanatical pre-internet enthusiasts revived it. The post Paradise Found appeared first...
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The Myth of the Japanese Hard Shake
What many assume to be the de facto Japanese style has been misunderstood for nearly a decade. The post The Myth of the Japanese Hard Shake appeared first on PUNCH.
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What We’re Into Right Now
Each month, we pull together a selection of drinking-related items that have, for one reason or another, grabbed the attention of PUNCH’s editors, who spend pretty much all day, every day surrounded by...
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For Devin Kennedy, Simplicity Does Not Mean Simplistic
“I’m very, very simple,” insists Devin Kennedy. It’s not a statement you’d expect from a bartender whose drinks exist outside the bounds of traditional formulas—Piña Coladas built on Madeira,...
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The Lychee Martini Was So 1993
The ’90s were a decade of “Asian fusion” and the advent of the clubstaurant, a time when sour mix still flowed freely and vodka was the booze of choice. It was also the decade that gave us places like...
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Salman Rushdie Has Had Drinks With Everybody
Salman Rushdie is reciting the opening stanzas to Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter” one August evening over a vodka tonic at the King Cole Bar in Manhattan. It feels a bit voyeuristic to...
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The Bitter Highball, Improved
Whether they’re dashed into a Manhattan or dropped into an Old-Fashioned, aromatic bitters play a supporting, though essential, role in the canon of classic cocktails. These concentrated blends of...
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The Definitive History of the Cosmopolitan
There are few cocktails more immediately recognizable than a Cosmopolitan. The blush-pink, sweet-tart formula—a blend of vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime—was nothing if not a child of its...
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The Most Influential Failed Bar
Tailor opened in September of 2007, one year before the Great Recession took New York City by the scruff of the neck and shook it like a dog that peed on the carpet. The chef, Sam Mason, former pastry...
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Bring Back the Angel’s Tit
“You can’t mix angels and alcohol,” warns country legend Alan Jackson on his album Angels and Alcohol. “I don’t think God meant for them to get along.” This ecclesiastical precaution arrived about a...
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