#30. Saxon Cocktail

Further adventures in nonsense names: The Saxon. Half a lime, a couple dashes of grenadine, Bacardi (specified by name as some sort of product placement arrangement), and orange peel.

Here's my opinion on this drink: how many different variations on rum plus citrus plus sugar do we really need? A dozen? A thousand? A dozen thousand?

Yes, that's right; we need a dozen thousand, and that's why we've got the Saxon. Which of these ingredients do you think makes it the saxon? The Caribbean rum? The Mediterranean fruits?

This is a fine drink but you have more room in your head for trivia than I if you see any value in keeping all these nearly-identical drinks straight in your brain.

#28. Champagne Cocktail

We had some champagne because neighbor A brought some to drink with strawberry basil sorbet. Strawberry basil sorbet and champagne is not in this book, but it is delicious. Note to everyone: get some strawberry basil sorbet, and some champagne, and combine, as it is delicious.

Ensslin's champagne cocktail is angostura bitters, a lump of sugar, orange peel, lemon peel, and champagne. This is a pointless drink, so I'm going to add a new tag: pointless. Look: you're already drinking champagne. Drink the champagne and be happy. Or, if you must add something to it, fine. Get some sorbet. This other stuff is just silly and a needless delay between you and your champagne.

Difford's version is similar but involves cognac too. He doesn't see much point in it either, I might add.

#15. Snyder Cocktail

Ah, Snyder. Ol' Snyder liked his martini in a highball glass, with a little curacao and orange peel. That's what this is, really- a relatively dry martini, sweetened with curacao, garnished with orange peel. Two thirds gin, one third dry vermouth, two dashes curacao, and orange peel.

It's not terrible. The curacao and orange peel make this more interesting than it would be otherwise. I like the subtle citrus, but still get a strong vermouth aftertaste. Maybe if I drink enough of it, I'll start enjoying vermouth? Here's hoping! Otherwise, this is going to be a real slog.

Difford's calls this a Snyder martini, and uses Grand Marnier instead of curacao. But I'm with Ensslin on this one, if only because Grand Marnier is expensive (Seriously Expensive) and curacao is basically free. At least, the horrible blue stuff that I got was super cheap. I wish it weren't blue, though. It makes everything look like Kool-Aid.

#10. Bill Lyken's Delight

I had high hopes for this drink. Or, at least, I hoped it wouldn't be terrible, but it kind of was. Equal parts dry gin and dry vermouth, topped with 4 dashes curacao, shaken with lemon and orange rind, served with a cherry.

The blue curacao left the drink an unpleasant blue-green that made it look like it was going to taste horrible. Its actual taste didn't do much to change anyone's opinion. The dry vermouth taste dominates, with only the slightest citrus character as competition. I don't know what the point of the cherry was at all.

I wanted the curacao to do something more interesting than it did. I probably used more than strictly necessary--the dashes turned into perhaps a half ounce, in a drink split three ways. But, the main factor here is the dry vermouth. If you don't like it, you won't like this drink.

We talked this one through a bit as we endured it. To the modern palate, it's odd to have so many drinks that don't involve any mixers but rather just booze. GG noted the Delight's odd combination--it tastes both too hot and too sweet. "Hot" meaning that the taste and feel of the alcohol is quite pronounced. Usually, sweetness covers up heat and makes a drink taste "weaker" than it actually is. In this case, the cocktail managed to taste too strongly of alcohol while remaining cloyingly sweet. This apparently delighted Bill Lyken, but Bill must have had bad taste in drinks. I never need to drink one of these again.

Closest corollary in Difford's guide would be the Snyder martini, which is the same basic mix

minus the rinds. I'm going to assume that it isn't terribly good either.