Riverside Cocktail?

[ellen_kushner]

If there were a Riverside Cocktail, what would it be?

Last night, I had the great pleasure of entering yet another world (yeah, I kinda collect them), as my Swordspoint audiobook* producer, Sue Zizza, took me as her guest to the Audio Publisher's Association (APA) fall mixer.**  It was upstairs in a bar on W. 54th St - a glorious schmoozefest of

Comments

[desperance]

Ah, the cocktail of the book...

My first novel was called "The Samaritan" - and we were invited to a cocktail party around publication, so obviously we had to concoct it a cocktail. The brief was that it needed to be like the book: quite long, bloody and bitter-sweet. So:

Take a wine-glass. Add a measure of gin, a measure of cassis, a splash of orange juice, a dash of orange bitters and top up with dry martini.

It fulfils all its criteria, plus is lethal. And gorgeous, actually...

(Am now thinking about Swordspoint. Will return to this, if illumination comes.)

[ellen_kushner]

God - I shouldn't have posted this before noon NYC time, should I?

Now I really, really want one.

[desperance]

Hee. The internet acknowledges no time-zones: every hour is cocktail hour. (Yay!)

[glinda_w]

Oh. Oh my. That sounds excellent. (And I dislike gin...)

[redbird]

Not a cocktail, but I think that Alec drinks cognac.

[desperance]

Armagnac, surely? Cognac is the wine-drinker's brandy; Armagnac is the brandy-drinker's brandy.

[ellen_kushner]

When Patrick Marcel (AKA mantichore ) translated the book into French, we had to find another word for Cognac, though: according to him, a French reader would read that as "the brandy made from a particular region of France" - and, as we know, the City is not in France, oh no.

http://www.sff.net/people/kushnerSherman/Kushner/frenchswordspoint.html

[manyfacesofme22]

Surely we cannot force Diane to drink the same thing as favoured by Rosalie's regulars? Clearly there needs to be the Hill cocktail and the Riverside cocktail. (Little pastic swords in both, naturally. Although the Hill ones might be tastefully adorned with a ruby.)

[ellen_kushner]

Absolutely! I should have said above that it doesn't have to be a cocktail for the entire book. Can be an individual character, a neighborhood . . . . Go crazy!

Wow, tall order

[cssullivan]

Maybe a very dry gin shaken with ice, poured through a strainer, with a measure of a very smoky powerful whisky like Laphroaig? And a lemon twist. Sharp, crisp, astringent, complex, seductive, and a beautiful shimmering golden cloudy color. I could easily see Lord Ferris sipping such a concoction at a reception on the Hill.

Re: Wow, tall order

[desperance]

Okay. I'd drink that.

Re: Wow, tall order

[blackholly]

I have drank that, with a tiny mist of absinthe over the whole thing. I can report that it is delectable.

Re: Wow, tall order

[ellen_kushner]

Madame is very kind not to grind the bootheel of memory in my face, as we both know perfectly well how I mocked her in the restaurant in Columbus, OHio, for ordering the same - and when I took a challenging sip, proceeded to swallow my words, as well.

Laphroaig makes a damn' good cocktail.

There. I've said it.

[rikibeth]

Brandy, bitters, and a measure of Maraschino. Although Diane might favor brandy and creme de violettes. Or elderflower cordial

Really hard cider

[annelyle]

In the West Country (England), the worst (best?) kind of cider is "scrumpy" - opaque and lethal. Good cider is at least 6% abv, often more. Of course in England, cider is always alcoholic, otherwise it's apple juice :)

If we're talking cocktails and Alec, I can't help thinking of the Long Slow Comfortable Screw up against the Wall: 1 part vodka, 1 part sloe gin, 1 part Southern Comfort, orange juice and Galliano...

Re: Really hard cider

[deliasherman]

Question: Can a Screw Up Against a Wall ever be Long, Slow, or Comfortable?

Answer: Depends on how much liquor's in it.

Re: Really hard cider

[rikibeth]

Scrumpy was exactly the sort of thing I meant! Thank you.

The idea of Alec and a wall worries me, because I remember his captivity and Lord Horn.