As of December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Consitution of the United States was ratified, to wit:

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States [prohibiting the sale, possession or consumption of alcohoic beverages] is hereby repealed.

Section 2. The transportation or importation into any state, territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several states, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress.

Wouldn’t mind being at Vessel in Seattle tonight, as Jamie has huge plans to celebrate the day.

To show that after all these years there are no hard feelings (I guess), I’ll take another cue from Jamie and offer as today’s cocktail his slightly rejiggered version of a drink named after the infamous sponsor in the U.S. Senate of the Act that bears his name, which ushered in 14 bummer years of Prohibition. It has a special ingredient, so pay close attention:

The Volstead Cocktail

1-1/2 ounces rye whiskey.
1/2 ounce Swedish punsch.
3/4 ounce fresh orange juice.
1/2 ounce grenadine.
Dash of absinthe (or Herbsaint).

Combine with ice in a cocktail shaker, shake for 10-12 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Toast the repeal of Prohibition!

Unfortunately, bottled Swedish punsch (the best brands being Gronstedt and Carlshamn’s) is no longer available in the U.S., but Fortunately, Swedish punsch is once again availabe in the United States, thanks to Eric Seed of Haus Alpenz and his wonderful new product, Kronan Swedish Punsch, available in the U.S. as of 2012.

Swedish punsch (or punch) is an ingredient in several classic cocktails, but you can always drink it on its own; it’s quite delightful. (Dr. Cocktail also points out its alchemical properties — you can add a splash of Swedish punsch to a cheap, bottom-shelf rum and it’ll make it taste like an expensive, 20-year aged rum, as if by magic.) Here’s a recipe that’s enough for 2 cocktails, or other uses.

The Caipirinha (kye-pa-REEN-ya) is the national cocktail of Brazil, made with their national spirit, cachaça (ka-SHA-sa). Cachaça is distilled from sugar cane juice, which makes it similar to rhum agricole and agricole-style rums, but differs in that cachaça is only made in Brazil, and the aged varieties of cachaça are stored in wooden barrels made from a wide range of exotic tropical woods which lend unique flavors to the spirit. It’s got a great earthy, spicy, vegetal flavor that’s quite distinct from a molasses-based rum. Cachaça is the third most consumed spirit in the world after vodka and soju (shochu), and is currently the fastest growing spirit in North America. Keep an eye out.

Caipirinhas are very refreshing and relatively simple to make. All you need is good cachaça and a good muddler (and a little elbow grease). Myriad variations exist, in which the basic lime is joined by grapes, cherries, kumquats or other fruits, and flavored or spiced syrups can be used for sweetening. If you substitute rum for cachaça the drink becomes a Caipirissima, and with a vodka substitution is a Caipiroska.

When preparing the lime, cut the tips off each end before cutting it up. If your limes are small you can use the whole thing, cutting in half then quartering each half. For the larger, more typical Persian limes, use half a lime as indicated below.

Caipirinha

2-1/2 ounces cachaça.
1/2 to 1 lime, quartered.
1 tablespoon bar sugar.

Using a double rocks glass, fill the glass with ice and add to a shaker. In the glass muddle the lime quarters with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved and all the juice and a goodly amount of the lime oil is pressed from the peel. Add to the ice in the shaker and shake for 10 seconds, then pour the entire contents — ice, lime hulls and all, back into the glass and serve. The spent lime pieces are your garnish.

Watch master bartender Chris McMillan make one for us.

There’s a lovely new book I’m in the middle of at the moment, called How’s Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture and the Art of Drinking Well, by Eric Felten, author of the “How’s Your Drink?” column in the Wall Street Journal. I came across this one in a passage on Dubonnet, and thought of our lonely bottle of Dubonnet in the back of the fridge, and how I’d better remember it and use it before it goes off. Eric thoughtfully provided a recipe that I hadn’t tried before, and it was fantastic.

I would normally stir a cocktail like this, which contains only spirits, liqueur and wine, but the action of the shaking releases oils from the lemon and orange peels. If you’re a stickler about stirring clear cocktails, muddle the peels briefly before adding the ingredients and ice.

The Dandy Cocktail

1-1/2 ounces rye whiskey (we used Sazerac 6).
1-1/2 ounces Dubonnet rouge.
1/2 ounce Cointreau.
1 dash Angostura bitters.
Long strip of lemon peel.
Long strip of orange peel.

Combine with cracked ice in a shaker, and shake vigorously for 10-12 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.

This cocktail is delightfully wintry, with the spices of the Dubonnet and the bitters playing nicely together. I might even flame an orange peel over this one.

This one appears in Dr. Cocktail’s book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, although I had forgotten it was there. (Forgetting forgotten cocktails, we must not do that!) Fortunately, thanks to him and the Greater Siblinghood of Cocktailian Webloggers, it’s being enjoyed again today. It should be enjoyed more often, as it’s delightful and easy to make, and is a perfect introduction to the wonderful world of Campari for Campari newbies.

Campari can be a bit much for the uninitiated — it’s pretty bitter, and the Teeming Masses tend to have an irrational fear of the bitter — but is a taste very much worth acquiring, especially in cocktails where it’s a co-conspirator rather than an absolute dictator. A drink like this — a kinder, gentler cousin to the Negroni — makes for a perfect apéritif, giving your palate a nice little wake-up shake, rather than the slap of a Negroni (which is my favorite kind of slap). It’s got an almost fruity aroma, with the Cointreau and the Campari combining with that magical alchemy into a flavor much like grapefruit, gentled by the vermouth and wrapped together and seasoned by the gin. It’s a cocktail most bartenders will never have heard of, but one you could talk them through easily.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

1 ounce gin.
1/2 ounce Campari.
1/2 ounce Cointreau.
1/2 ounce dry vermouth.

Combine with ice in a mixing glass and stir for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

The drink is named for a wonderful French fencer, who competed in the Jeux Olympiques in the 1920s, winning gold medals in ’24 and ’28. “It is, therefore,” says Doc, “a very mature Prohibition cocktail.” He may have been French, but “Lucien Gaudin” sounds very New Orleanian too.

The Pisco Sour is a classic that everyone should know — simple and closely related to the classic Whiskey Sour. Simple as it is, this drink has become the national drink of Peru, featuring its native spirit pisco — a clear, unaged grape brandy that comes in four different styles.

Puro (pure), made from a single variety of grape, mostly Quebranta, although Mollar or Common Black can be used; however, no blending between varieties is accepted (“pure” pisco should contain only one variety of grape).

Aromatico (aromatic), made from Muscat or Muscat-derived grape varieties, and also from Albilla, Italia and Torontel grape varieties; once again, the pisco should only contain one variety of grape in any production lot.

Mosto Verde (Green Must), distilled from partially fermented must, this must be distilled before the fermentation process has completely transformed sugars into alcohol.

Acholado (Half-breed), blended from the must of several varieties of grape.

(from Wikipedia)

What I didn’t know was that it was invented in Peru by an American bartender in 1915, whom I suspect was looking to make a brandy or whiskey sour but went for the local spirit instead, either by choice or necessity (thanks to Chris McMillian for that tidbit). Pisco is made is Chile as well, and although the Chileans claim that both the spirit and the drink are original to them, this has been shown to be a rather dubious claim.

One really nice way to serve these is to serve them in a glass that gives it lots of surface area, such as a 6-ounce coupe (the ones from Libbey are perfect for this), so that you can get a nice swirly design of bitters on the top — much prettier and for me preferable to just a little dash or two). In the video below, watch bartender Bobby Heugel at Anvil in Houston spray the bitters on top with a mister, then swirl them with a toothpick. Very nice. (Barring that, a few dashes around and some deft toothpick work will give good results too.)

Angostura is standard in most places you’ll get one of these, but in Peru there’s a homemade variety of bitters called Amargo Chuncho, until recently impossible to find outside of Peru, but now available via mail-order from Cocktail Kingdom, PeruCooking.com or Five Points Bottle Shop.

The Pisco Sour

2 ounces pisco.
1 ounce fresh lemon juice.
1/2 ounce simple syrup.
1 egg white.
Angostura or Chuncho bitters.

Combine ingredients in a shaker and dry-shake without ice for 20 seconds or so to emulsify the ingredients and froth up the egg white. Add ice, then shake again for at least 30 seconds — you want this drink to be frothy and silky and creamy. Strain into a wide-mouthed glass and either dash a few dashes of bitters on top, swirling them around with a toothpick (or use a Misto or other atomizer).

Here’s a quick tour of Anvil, with a demonstration of how a Pisco Sour is made.

Make sure the pisco’s always Peruvian, for authenticity, and because my Peruvian friend Enrique might give you the stink-eye if you use Chilean.