Surviving the Green Elixir

A huge thank you to all who made their way to Green Street on Sunday night for an evening of Chatreuse cocktails co-sponsored by the lovely ladies of LUPEC Boston and our friends at drinkboston.com. From our humble monk (who some of us found out had a little something up his sleeve) to the beautiful images of Philip Groning's Into Great Silence to the saucy broads shakin' up the cocktails, the night was an overwhelming success!













We featured four cocktails on Sunday, two highlighting Green Chartreuse and two highlighting Yellow Chartreuse. Let's all grab our Boston shakers and raise our glasses to the fabulous folks who graciously supported our event: Frederick Wildman (importers of Chartreuse), Hendrick's Gin, Nino Franco Prosecco, the Museum of the American Cocktail, the fine owners and staff of Green Street, and all of you who made your way out on a Sunday night!

Scoff Law Cocktail
1 oz Old Overholt Rye
1 oz French Vermouth
.5 oz Green Chartreuse
.5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
2 dashes Orange Bitters
Combine ingredients with ice in a shaker. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Champs-Elysees
1.5 oz Germain Fine Brandy
.75 oz Yellow Chartreuse
.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Combine ingredients with ice in a shaker. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Can Can (a LUPEC Boston original)
5 sour cherries
1 oz Yellow Chartreuse
.25 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Nino Franco Prosecco
Muddle the sour cherries in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add Chartreuse, grapefruit juice, bitters and ice. Shake and Strain into a flute. Top with chilled Nino Franco Prosecco. Kick up your skirts and enjoy!

The Irma La Douce (a LUPEC Boston original)
1.5 oz Hendrick's Gin
.5 oz Green Chartreuse
.5 oz Cucumber puree (peel and blend fresh cucumber, then pass through a sieve)
.5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
.5 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Raise your glass to Irma La Douce, a movie in which Shirley MacLaine plays a Parisian prostitute who wears bright green stockings!

LUPEC Boston and Drinkboston.com present Chartreuse Cocktails!

LUPEC-Boston and Drinkboston.com
are proud to present…
CHARTREUSE COCKTAILS
at
Green Street
Sunday, August 19, 2007, 7:00 p.m.

LUPEC Boston is proud to invite you to our very first co-ed cocktail party!

On Sunday, August 19th Drinkboston.com and LUPEC Boston will join boozy forces with help from our friends at Hendrick’s Gin to host Chartreuse Cocktails at Green Street in Cambridge. Tickets for this event cost $35/person and include four Chartreuse cocktails, and complimentary passed appetizers. The event begins at 7 p.m., and yes, boys are invited!

LUPEC Boston members will be on hand to mix, pour, and talk about classic cocktails. The ladies of LUPEC will be accompanied by a special guest bartender from Boston dressed in the guise of a Carthusian Monk, who will educate guests about the rich, clandestine history and secret ingredients of this storied liqueur. An additional menu of Chartreuse cocktails will also be available for purchase at the bar.

Proceeds from Chartreuse Cocktails at Green Street will benefit LUPEC Boston, and the fundraising events that we’re ramping up for this fall.

- Tickets price is $35/person including 4 chartreuse cocktails and passed appetizers
- Advance tickets can be reserved by calling Green Street at 617-876-1655 or emailing LUPEC Boston at lupecboston@gmail.com
- Tickets can be purchased by visiting Green Street, 280 Green St., Cambridge, MA

Chin-chin! And we can’t wait to see you there!

Ladies of Mystery

Kate Warne, (AKA: Kay Warne, Kay Waren, Kay Warren, Kate Warne, Kate Waren, Kate Warren, Kitty Warne, Kitty Waren, Kitty Warren, Kittie Warren, Kittie Warne, Kittie Warren) was the first female US spy and detective. Warne was hired by the Pinkerton Detective Agency when she applied for a secretarial position in 1856. Able to act as an undercover agent infiltrating social gatherings, collecting information no man was able to obtain. She was able to wear disguises, change her accent at will and became a huge asset to the success of Allen Pinkerton and Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

She eventually directed training of an all-female investigative staff for Pinkerton, during a time when there were no female police, female detectives and females did not have the right to vote.

Cloak and Dagger
- 1 part gold rum
- 1/2 part Dagger rum
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 part lime juice
Mix with fine ice in electric mixer and serve in a champagne glass.


Eleanor Jarman, dubbed "The Blond Tigress" by the press, was tried and imprisoned for complicity in a murder that occurred during a clothing store robbery in Chicago's West Side in 1933.

In 1940 she heard that her son was about to run away, and concerned about her children, she escaped the prison August 8 1940. She apparently went to Sioux City, Iowa, confirmed that her children were all right and then went underground. She was put into FBI's Most Wanted list but was never found.

Midnight Alarm
- 1 1/2 oz light rum
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 oz pineapple juice
Shake vigorously with ice, and serve in a wine glass.


Etta Place was a companion of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Little is known about her; both her origins and her fate remain mysterious. Despite her companion's fame, by the mid-20th century it was the mysterious vanishing of Place that sparked the most interest, which continues to the present day.

The Shady Lady
- 1 oz tequila
- 1 oz melon liquor
- 4 oz grapefruit juice
Combine ingredients in a highball glass over ice. Garnish with a lime and a cherry.

Martha Washington's Rum Punch

In honor of this, the anniversary of the birth of our nation, the ladies of LUPEC are raising a glass to our original First Lady.

It is well known that Martha Washington took her duties as First Lady very seriously and entertained in a formal style. Her wish was that our new country and government would be seen as equals to it's well established European counterparts. Most of Martha's events would begin with her signature cocktails being served before dinner at their Virginia home, Mount Vernon. The cocktails would utilize spirits from their distillery which was one of the largest and most profitable during the colonial era. And now a toast to our premiere First Lady using a recipe from her notes!

Martha Washington's Rum Punch

4 oz Lemon Juice
4 oz Orange Juice
4 oz Simple Syrup
3 Lemons quartered
1 Orange quartered
1/2 tsp grated Nutmeg
3 Cinnamon Sticks broken
6 Cloves
12 oz Boiling Water

In a container mash the lemons, orange, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, and cloves. Add syrup, lemon and orange juice. Pour the boiling water over the mixture. Let it cool. Strain out the solids. Heat the juice mixture to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Let it cool and refrigerate over night.
In a punch bowl combine:

3 parts juice mixture
1 part Light Rum
1 part Dark Rum
1/2 part Orange Curacao

Serve the punch over ice. Top with grated nutmeg and cinnamon.

Cheers!

Pearl Rivers

Born in 1849 in Pearlington along the Mississippi River, Eliza Jane Poitevent became the first woman owner and publisher of a major daily newspaper in the United States, the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Eliza began her career as a poet under the pen name Pearl Rivers. In 1870 she was offered the position as literary editor at the Picayune. Against the wishes of her family she moved to New Orleans and joined the male work force as the first woman in Louisiana to make a living at a newspaper. Two years later Eliza married Col Alva Morris Holbrook, the owner and publisher of the Times Picayune.

In 1876 Holbrook died, leaving the paper $80,000 in debt. Eliza's family encouraged her to declare bankruptcy, but Eliza persevered and at the age of 27 she became the editor and publisher of the Times Picayune. Although some of the staff left, the majority remained at the paper showing their loyalty to Eliza. Under her management the Picayune evolved into a family paper which included departments for women, children, fashion and household hints. As a philanthropist, Eliza used the editorial page to speak out against cruelty to animals. Eliza incorporated elements of the modern syndicated newspaper, thereby tripling the circulation of the Times Picayune from 1880 to 1890.

And now a toast to Pearl Rivers!

Cocktail a la Louisiane
1 oz Rye
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Benedictine
3-4 dashes Absinthe
3-4 dashes Peychaud Bitters
Stir in a glass with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass in which has been placed a maraschino cherry.

Cheers!

The Cradle of the Cocktail and the Women Who Rocked It!

Last night the lovely ladies of LUPEC Boston gathered at the home of Pinky Gonzalez to raise our glasses to the women of New Orleans. We nibbled on Shrimp "Arnaud," fried okra, fried oysters, jalapeno cornbread, and "Bananas in Jackets"/"Nuts in Sticks." And we washed it all down with the following delicious cocktails!

Pimm's Cup
Pimm's No 1
Lemon Juice
Simple Syrup
Ginger Ale
English Cucumber

Obituary Cocktail
2 parts Gin
1/4 part Dry Vermouth
1/4 part Absinthe
Stir and Strain

New Iberia Cocktail
2 parts Brandy
1 part French Vermouth
1 part Sherry
3 drops Tabasco
Shake and Strain

Sazerac
1 sugar cube
7 drops Peychaud Bitters
1/2 oz water
2 oz Rye
Splash of Herbsaint
Muddle the sugar cube, bitters and water in a mixing glass. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add rye. Stir with ic e for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled old fashioned glass that has been rinsed with Herbsaint. Garnish with oil from a lemon peel.

(Shake Your Own) Ramos Gin Fizz
Egg White
2 parts Gin
1 part Simple Syrup
1/2 part Lemon Juice
1/2 part Lime Juice
3 drops Orange Blossom Water
1 1/2 part Cream
Club Soda
Put all of the ingredients except cream and ice into a shaker. Shake. Add the cream and ice. Shake hard for 10 minutes. Strain into a collins glass leaving 1/2 an inch for soda. Add soda and garnish with a long orange spiral.

Vieux Carre
(created by Walter Bergeron, Head Bartender, Hotel Monteleone c 1937)
1/2 tsp Benedictine
dash Peychaud's
dash Angostura
1/3 Rye
1/3 Cognac
1/3 Italian Vermouth
Stir and Strain

Keep checking back this week for posts about the great broads of New Orleans!

The Biograph Blonde

Born in Chicago on June 18, 1895, Blanche Sweet was one of the great actresses of silent film. Although not as well known as her contemporaries, Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, Sweet made over 120 films.

Born into a show business family, Sweet was first carried onto the stage when she was eighteen months. She spent her childhood dancing with the Gertrude Hoffman troupe and made her film debut at the age of 14. Sweet worked for several film houses during her long career, including American Biograph. At that time performers' names were not listed in the credits, so she became known as the Biograph Blonde. She gained a place in history in 1913 when she starred in America's first full length feature film, Judith of Bethulia. One of Sweet's most famous roles was the lead in the first film version of "Anna Christie," the first Eugene O'Neill play to reach the screen. Although she had a beautiful speaking and singing voice, Sweet's career plunged with the advent of "talkies" as movie executives began promoting new performers to draw attention to the new style of film.

Now a toast to Blanche Sweet, the Biograph Blonde.

Soft and Sweet
1 oz Gin
1 oz Orange Juice
.5 oz Amer Picon
.5 oz Curacao
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Cheers!