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The Thursday afternoon cocktail party at the Hotel Monteleone was definitely the place to be in New Orleans on that hot and humid afternoon. With drinks prepared and poured by a wide variety of drink writers and tasty accompaniments provided by some of the best chefs in the city, you would have had to really work hard not to have a good time.
My first drink was the Bossa Nova by Mittie Hellmich from her book Paradise on Ice
. It was a light hearted summery drink made with Appleton Rum, Cointreau and Frangelico... oh yeah, there was cranberry and lime juice in it too.A mix up at the next table brought me my second drink, a Mojito (the Ultimate Mojito to be exact) from Adam Rocke, author of a wide array of party books
. I never got to talk to Adam, but the Mojito was light and crisp and very very summery.I got the drink in the first place because it had been mixed up with Kevin Roberts' drink, the Southern Old Fashioned a dark sweet take on the classic drink made with - of course - Southern Comfort. Kevin is the author of the New Orleans Neighborhood Restaurant Guide and the quintessential example of what he is, a lifetime native of New Orleans with the knowledge, the attitude and the tongue in cheek to prove it.
Kathy Hamlin of About.Com was handing out Jello Shots and explaining a VERY important element in their preparation. You have to let the Jello COOL before adding the alcohol, otherwise you wind up with very expensive jello (no shot) as the heat from the hot jello dissipates the alcohol before it has a chance to set. Scientific information right there in the Monteleone on a Thursday afternoon.
Coming down to the wire (or at least my ability to sample this cornucopia of "Comforting" libations, I hit upon The Gummy Bear Martini, the brain child of Stephen Cunningham author of The Bartender's Black Book
. Being a Gummy Bear fanatic I had to try one of these delicious drinks. The only thing is, I still want to know where the olive flavored Gummy Bears are.Click here to listen to the first FoodFetish Podcast from Tales of the Cocktail.
tbone@foodfetish.com