What Dickens Drank: Historic Summer Cocktails
Taught by Sarah Lohman
Sarah Lohman is a culinary historian and the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed book Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. She focuses on the history of American food as a way to access stories of women, immigrants, and people of color, and to address issues of racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Her work has been featured inTheWall Street Journal andThe New York Times, as well as onAll Things Considered; and she has presented across the country, from the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC to The Culinary Historians of Southern California. She is also 1/2 of the Masters of Social Gastronomy, a monthly food science and history talk at Caveat NYC, with Brainery co-founder Jonathan Soma.
Imagine you’re a tourist to America in 1842: The summer heat of New York is sweltering, but that’s alright. It’s the perfect excuse to indulge in America’s greatest invention: The Cock-Tail.
Charles Dickens was one such tourist, meandering his way around the U.S., recording all that he ate and drank. In Boston, he said: "...the bar is a large room with a stone floor, and there people stand and smoke, and lounge about, all the evening dropping in and out as the humor takes them. There too the stranger is initiated into the mysteries of Gin-sling, Cocktail, Sangaree, Mint Julep, Sherry-cobbler, Timber Doodle, and other rare drinks.”
In this class, we’ll make three early cocktails: The Mint Julep, The Sherry-Cobbler, and the original Cock-Tail. We’ll discuss the history of each of these drinks, create them step-by-step, and then beat the heat by sampling the frosty fruits of our labor.
You so need to be 21 to take this class. It meets at the Brainery, 515 Court Street in BK.
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