THE ARMY OF DRUNKS PODCAST

curacao

THE EL PRESIDENTE SHOW REDUX – with Jhonen Vasquez

By Eric


THE EL PRESIDENTE SHOW – REDUX
With Jhonen Vasquez
(The Re-Run)
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In preparation for Season Three, we’re releasing one of our favorite shows: the 2015 interview with Jhonen Vasquez.  (Creator of Invader ZIM, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and, you know, other stuff.)  This was before the new INVADER ZIM special was announced (yay!), and before Donald Trump fucked up relations with Cuba (asshole!), but it’s still a great interview, and a durn fine cocktail. (Still NSFW, and definitely not safe for kids.)

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ORIGINAL GODDAMN SHOW NOTES!
Yeah, we were going to do a show about the Zombie, but it turns out that’s way more complicated than we thought.  Seriously, no two recipes are alike on that cocktail, and one of them involves cooking up your own spice mix.  Seriously.  So in honor of re-opening relations with Cuba, we present a cocktail that was founded in Havanah during prohibition and crossed that small patch of ocean to the United States.  In the process we learn they never should have added the goddamn grenadine.

Our quest is Jhonen Vasquez, comic book artist and creator of the INVADER ZIM cartoon series.  We talk a little about the new INVADER ZIM comic, and talk a lot about other random things like robots, murder, horror movies, the glorious absurdity of adults being stupid for a living, and how to rule with an iron scrotum.  (NSFW as always.  And really not safe for kids.)

DRINK ALONG AT HOME
The El Presidente

We went through a couple of recipes until we found what we think is the optimal version of the El Presidente.  The secret: NO GRENADINE!

MixMa$ter Therm’s Optimal Presidente:

  • 2 parts white rum.  (Something better than Bacardi if you can find it.)
  • 1 part dry vermouth. (Dolin white is the most recommended.)
  • 1/2 part orange curacao.

Shake all ingredients in a shaker, like you do, and pour into a chilled glass.  Garnish with an orange peel if you have any style at all.  Drink while you oppress the common people.

Oh, and when you’re done… always refrigerate your vermouth!  It goes bad.

But if you insist on trying the more mainstream version:

  • 2 parts white rum.
  • 2 parts dry vermouth.
  • 1/2 part orange curacao.
  • Dash of grenadine.

Shake everything in a shaker with ice, like you would.  Pour in glass.  Drink.  Think about how it would be much better without the grenadine.

SOME OF JHONEN’S OFFICIAL INTERNET LOCALES
http://www.questionsleep.com
http://jhonenv.tumblr.com
https://twitter.com/jhonenv

AND SOME OF VASQUEZERY ON AMAZON

AND DON’T FORGET THE “ROBOT OR NOT” PODCAST
https://www.theincomparable.com/robot/

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THE CORPSE REVIVER SHOW

By Eric


THE CORPSE REVIVER SHOW
With Mortician Amber Carvaly
& Special Guest Host Aydrea Walden
& Guest Bartender James Slay
Subscribe on iTunes here!

Welcome to our Halloween show!  And how better to celebrate the season of spooks, costume parties, and candy comas than by plunging headlong into death!  Our guest is Amber Carvaly (Undertaking LA), a mortician with a mission to bring the funeral back into the hands of the bereaved and away from corporate casket-dealing bastards, and we get in deep conversation about death, dying, and whether you should be buried with your keno chips.

And our drink is the Corpse Reviver, versions number one and (the more common) number two, a class of drink as old as the 19th century, but brought into popularity by one man during prohibition.  We try both the old-school brandy-based beverage, and the more brunch-friendly gin-and-lemon version.   Which will revive a corpse faster?  You be the judge!

And with us again is special guest host Aydrea Walden, creator of The Oreo Experience blog, and guest bartender James Slay… Because Spork and Therm are dead!  (Alert Bela Lugosi.) (NSFW as always.)

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Or listen directly here!

DRINK ALONG AT HOME!
The Corpse Reviver no. 1 
(The olde-timey one.)

  • 2 parts Cognac
  • 1 part Calvados or Apple Brandy
  • 1 part Sweet Vermouth

Stir ingredients together with ice.  Pour into a cocktail glass, or if you’re appropriately schmancy, a coupe glass.  Administer to ease the walking dead hangover.

The Corpse Reviver no. 2
(The citrusy bunch-friendly one)

  • One part (or 3/4 oz) Gin
  • One part(or 3/4 oz) Cointreau or Curacao
  • One part (or 3/4 oz) Lillet Blanc
  • One part (or, wait for it… 3/4 oz) Lemon Juice
  • One dash Absinthe

Strain all the ingredients together into a shaker with ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Drink.  And to quote Harry Craddock, inventor of the Corpse Reviver no. 2, “Four of these taken in quick succession will unrevive the corpse again.”

OUR DRUNKEN GUESTS

Amber Carvaly can be found at Undertaking L.A. and at the Order of the Good Death.

Aydrea Walden can be found at The Oreo Experience blog.

And James Slay can be found slinging drinks at Barbara’s at the Brewery, and his band The Capgun Holdups can be found in bars around Los Angeles.

BUY THESE BOOKS, YOU LOADIE!

The Savoy Cocktail book by Henry Craddock is an indispensable tome for all lovers of classic cocktails.  A direct reprint of the original 1930 volume, this book is home to the original recipe for the Corpse Revivers no. 1&2, as well as dozens of prohibition-era drinks.  Drink like you’re historic, man!


Amber Carvaly’s partner in crime at Undertaking L.A. is Caitlin Doughty, founder of the Order of the Good Death, and one of the foremost advocates for a more natural approach to caring for the dead.  Her book Smoke Gets in Your Eyes recounts her time working in a crematorium.  Damn, it’s fascinating.

 

copyright ©2016 Army of Drunks

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SUMMER TIKI SPECIAL 2016

By Eric

SUMMER TIKI SPECIAL 2016
Featuring the Mai Tai and Singapore Sling
With Comedian Katie Massa
Subscribe on iTunes here!

It’s August!  What better time for lounging by the pool and getting drunk as a Hawaiian sunset?  We’ve been away for a while, but before this long hot summer passes into misty memory, the Drunks have brought you an extra special, extra-extended parade of TIKI, damn it!

We plumb the Pacific depths of the only genre of cocktails spawned from a theme restaurant.  Learn how Don the Beachcomber unwittingly founded the Tiki movement in pre-WWII California, and how competitor Trader Vic took it nation-wide from — believe it nor not — Oakland.   Then learn the history of the MAI TAI, the flagship tiki cocktail, and the SINGAPORE SLING, an outside-the-Polynesian-triangle addition to the tiki pantheon.

Matt Shaw also tells us about his distillery tour of Scotland.  Yes, someone let Matt Shaw loose in the land where they make scotch.  Katie Massa tells us how People are Horrible™. Buck expounds on what it means to get “Tiki Drunk.”   We solve the urgent riddle of Zsa Zsa Gabor: alive or dead? And we play “Name That Sex Act: Trump Edition.”  (NSFW as always.)

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Or listen directly here!

BUT FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS!  THIS GODDAMN BOOK!
Before we go too far, this is the flat-out amazing Tiki book we referenced during the show, Smuggler’s Cove by Martin Cate and Rebecca Cate.  It goes deep into the kelp on the true origins of all the Polynesian cocktails you sort-of know and think you probably would love if you could only try one.   It also contains the ORIGINAL MAI TAI recipe we tried.  (We’d post it here, but we don’t want to deny Martin & Rebecca their hard-earned book royalties.)   If you love Tiki as much as you love life itself, or even slightly less, go buy it right now!

And if you need your bad self some good Tiki mugs, we used this plucky little set.

DRINK ALONG AT HOME!
The Mai Tai!

  • 1 oz (2 tablespoons) dark rum
  • 1 oz (2 tablespoons) amber rum
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  • 1/2 oz (1 tablespoon) Cointreau (or triple sec or Curaçao)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon orgeat syrup  (or 1 drop pure almond extract)
  • 1 teaspoon superfine granulated sugar
  • Dash of grenadine
  • Garnish: an orange slice, or Lime rind and mint sprig

Shake all of the ingredients with ice, pour into a highball glass with a straw.  Or a tiki glass, or a Tiki mug if you want to go full-Tiki.

Note: Martin Cate suggests you add the juice of half a fresh lime after the pour, to keep it from over-liming the whole drink.  YMMV.  There’s also some debate over the proper garnish.  Apparently the classic Mai Tai uses a mint sprig with the lime rind, while the more modern Tiki-slinger can go with an orange slice, or any of the usual Tiki umbrella/fruit combos.

DRINK MORE AT HOME!
The Singapore Sling!

  • 1 1⁄2 ounces gin
  • 1⁄2 ounce cherry heering
  • 1⁄4 ounce Cointreau liqueur
  • 1⁄4 ounce benedictine
  • 4 ounces pineapple juice
  • 1⁄2 ounce lime juice
  • 1⁄3 ounce grenadine
  • 1 dash bitters

Shake all ingredients in a shaker with shakable ice.  Strain into a highball glass or Tiki mug.  Garnish with whatever festive Tiki regalia you have at your disposal.  (But anything involving pineapple never hurts.)

FINALLY, THE COCONUT!
From the Gentleman Callers of Los Angeles

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