Early last month, the world mourned — something the world has been doing way too much of lately — the passing of Muhammad Ali, a boxer who transcended his sport in so many ways that even a complete non-sports fan like me hero worshiped him just a bit. However, since he was also a devout Muslim, it would probably be wrong to name a cocktail after him.
I actually have no idea what, if any, religious affiliation belonged to another famed boxer, Edward Patrick “Mickey” Walker. Clearly, his cultural impact was nothing remotely like Ali’s, but he was an acknowledged great of the sweet science of knocking people senseless and the winner of the World Welterweight title in 1922 and the World Middleweight title in 1926. I don’t know if he was a drinker or not, but I don’t imagine there were that many tea-totaling boxers during prohibition.
So, presumably Mr. Walker had no objection when Harry Craddock included a cocktail almost bearing his moniker in The Savoy Cocktail Book a few years later. I say almost because Craddock spelled the name “Mickie,” while Walker spelled it “Mickey.” A lot of people get irritable when you spell their name wrong, but he should have been at least a little flattered regardless, because his drink ain’t half bad. Also, it’s got Scotch in it, and there aren’t nearly enough Scotch cocktails.
It’s almost Independence Day weekend and, as our nation veers towards either electing its first woman president or it’s last male president, maybe it makes sense to honor one of the few founding mothers kids my age were ever taught about in school.
Although today’s drink comes to us from David Embury’s 1940s cocktail classic, “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks,” it doesn’t really have any particular story to go with its classy provenance or courtly name. Embury just presents it as one of a series of drinks “based on an Applejack Sour.” It’s potentially a very sweet drink, at least on paper, since it includes both simple syrup (or sugar) and a very sweet orange liqueur. Still, the notoriously booze-severe Emory cautiously approves.
As I’ve mentioned here about 20,000 times, my approach to Drink of the Week is that these are reasonably quick and easy to make cocktails for the home, not major DIY projects. While I love the companies that send me free drinks and (for the most part) really good cocktails, if a recipe calls for, say, a ginger-asparagus-truffle reduction syrup, I’ll skip it. If it demands that I use freshly ground nutmeg, I’ll very likely just stick with the store-bought pre-ground stuff, thank you very much. In other words, I’m kind of lazy and I think you might be, too!
