Category: Other spirits
-
Ouzo
If the drinks dotted liberally through Against the Day represent a boozy symphony, ouzo appears as a major-key motif late in the piece. We first find Cyprian drinking it among “fair limbs and spring sunrises” in Salonica: “It was the absence of all hesitation here that impressed Cyprian, setting aside the ouzo and hashish whose…
-
Peach Brandy
Mason & Dixon has a few drinks that stuck out to me as defining when I first read it. White corn whisky and madeira top the pile, as I wrote about the day I finished the book. Peach brandy doesn’t get anything like the airtime those two command, but it has nevertheless always sung to…
-
Italian Gin
We return now after an interregnum of two years to the Ballad of Tantivy Mucker-Maffick, Slothrop’s ode to his drunkard mate. Last time we came for the French beer, nowhere near as septic as our lieutenant would have it. Hopefully he’s misjudged Italian gin too. The Ballad of Tantivy Mucker-Maffick Oh Italian gin is a…
-
Jamaican Rum
One Sunday evening mid-blitz, somewhere in Kent and just before Christmas, everyone’s favourite adulterers Jessica Swanlake and Roger Mexico come upon a church. England’s war-weary are trudging in to warm themselves with advent nostalgia. Roger’s rationalism softens a moment and he and Jessica head in too—“to hear the music,” he explains. Inside, a “scratch choir”…
-
Šljivovica
A few years ago, an old work friend and mentor originally from Montenegro showed up at a party I threw with a very kind gift of a bottle of Serbian šljivovica. Maybe a year later, she brought another bottle to another party. I had a few other spirits laid out that night I wanted finished,…
-
Tequila and Beer
Happy Pynchon in Public Day once again all. To celebrate, I’ve turned again to the well-nigh inexhaustible well that is Against the Day. I find often when I crack that spine afresh for one of these drinks, I’m plunged into a passage that a) I have all but zero memory of, and b) is of…
-
Banana Breakfast
This one’s been percolating in the back of my head pretty much since day one of the project. Parts of it have been bubbling away in the actual physical world since late 2019, creeping toward readiness. The time has come. From Mrs Quoad and her Disgusting English Candy Drill for drink ninety-nine, on to crest…
-
Imported Danish Aquavit
Happy Pynchon in Public Private Day all! Did you declaim a paragraph of Gravity’s Rainbow from your rooftop? Put a copy of V in the window? Change your zoom background to an Against the Day airship? I hope everyone’s homes or other places of social isolation are well stocked with Pynchon tomes. We venture here…
-
Hpnotiq
A little while back, the ever entertaining and always insightful masochists at the Pynchon in Public podcast published the final episode of their Bleeding Edge season. More recently, I had the pleasure of catching up with Bo to record an episode for the interregnum before their V season begins. Last time we got together, it…
-
Kumis
Some in the past have had the gall to suggest that this project is nothing more than alcoholism dressed up in exotic hats and tweed jackets. These scurrilous individuals should take careful note of today’s post and the extravagant lengths I’ve gone to to track down what is the least alcoholic beverage we’ve drank here…
Tom Pynchon's Liquor Cabinet 