The Brandy Bar + Cocktails

How important is history? It may not be as stagnant as you think. An interesting article in the NEW YORK TIMES titled “The Stories That Bind Us Help Children Face Challenges” followed a study of children whose parents shared the family’s history with them. The study found that the more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functioned. The study was called “Do You know?” and the findings indicated that the children who knew more about their families proved to be more resilient, meaning they could moderate the effects of stress. So, let’s explore history, both local and personal.”
In 1947 Sadie Patton published the first serious book on Henderson County, THE STORY OF HENDERSON COUNTY. Although there may be a few “inaccuracies” in some of her facts she worked diligently without the aid of computers, Google, Ancestry, or any of the easily accessible resources we have today. She tells us that Henderson County was created by the Legislature of 1838-39 that took lands from Buncombe and Rutherford County to create the new county of Henderson. Later these lands will continue to be disputed, added to and taken away with Polk and Transylvania Counties as they were developed. The City of Hendersonville was chartered in 1846-47 and ratified in 1847. The County was named after Judge Leonard Henderson. Yet the selection of Judge Henderson as a namesake for Henderson County remains a mystery since he had never been here nor had any ties.
So how about the lineage of one of brandy’s c**ktails – the Brandy Daisy? The Daisy has been around since at least the mid 1800's and is part of the sour family of drinks. So, the “Daisy” is not just a drink it is a family of c**ktails. Like a family of generations, the Brandy Daisy has produced many alternatives and variations as it evolved. By the mid-1940's many recipes added new ingredients like Grenadine and powdered sugar while other juices like raspberry make an appearance. But it seems that by the mid-century period, the Daisy became less complicated and settled on just a few ingredients that have stayed steady even until today.

1880 Brandy Daisy – Brandy, lemon juice, lime juice, raspberry syrup
1900s Brandy Daisy – Brandy, rum, Curacao, simple syrup, lemon juice
Modern day Brandy Daisy – Brandy, Chartreuse, lemon juice, club soda
Sidecar (inspiration for the Daisy and the Margarita) - Brandy, Cointreau, sour mix
Cosmopolitan (1990s addition to the family) – Brandy, Cointreau, lime juice, cranberry juice
Worldly brandy flight ½ price

Wed - June 12 2024 - 4-9:00 PM – white sangria + poetry –
Sauvignon blanc, brandy, muddled pear-peach-kiwi with fruit juices of pear-peach-pineapple – no simple syrup - full of fruity flavors -but not too sweet - remember we usually sell out of this special!' Come sip and enjoy the poetry of Ken Chamlee and Bruce Spang.

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The 156th running of the Belmont Stakes (3rd jewel in the Triple Crown) will be this Saturday, June 8 and we will have our big screen set up for viewing. Remember the race starts at 7:00 PM sharp with previews running all day. But first a little history about the Belmont. The first Belmont racehorse in the United States was a racehorse that arrived in California in 1853 from his breeding grounds in Franklin, Ohio. The Belmont Stakes are named after August Belmont, a financier who made quite a name and fortune for himself in New York politics and society. The Belmont is the oldest of the three Triple Crown events, and predates the Preakness by 6 years, the Kentucky Derby by 8 years. It is the longest of the Triple Crown races at 1-1/2 miles. The first running of the Belmont Stakes was in 1867 at Jerome Park, Westchester County, NY. An interesting history of its own, Jerome Park Racetrack operated from 1866 until 1890, when New York City condemned the property to build the Jerome Park Reservoir. The 1867 race marked the return of thoroughbred racing to the metropolitan area after a hiatus during the Civil War. Jerome Park was named after Leonard Jerome, a successful stock speculator, who was also the principal owner of The New York Times, the founder of the American Academy of Music, and the maternal grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill.
Not only is the Belmont the oldest of the Triple Crown races, but it is the fourth oldest race in North America, next to the Phoenix Stakes, now run in the fall at Keeneland, Lexington, KY as the Phoenix Breeders' Cup, that was first run in 1831. 2nd is the Queen's Plate in Canada making its debut in 1860, while the Travers in Saratoga opened in 1864. But there were gaps in the Travers races so Belmont is officially third only to the Phoenix and Queen’s Plate in total running’s.
No other race in the United States can match the formidable challenge and grand tradition wrapped into the Belmont Stakes synonymous with Belmont Park. Due to a massive renovation of Belmont Park the race will be held at Saratoga and the distance reduced to 1-1/4 miles. Young 3-year-olds, untested at the demanding 12-furlong distance, are asked to face the best horses of their generation in a battle of speed, courage and stamina that could serve as their coronation into racing royalty or relegate them to obscurity.
It looks like there will be no Triple Crown winner this year but with 12 horses in the line-up, the 2 million dollar race will be hard fought with Mystic Dan from the Kentucky Derby and Seize the Gray from the Preakness in the lineup. Also in the top 5 will be Serra Leone, Resilience, and Mindframe. The positions and line-up will be chosen 6/3 at 5:00 PM so things can change check in with. https://www.belmontstakes.com I have my pick(s), do you?

Belmont Stakes Cocktails to be served 6/6 and 6/8
Brandy Smash (our version of a Mint Julep) -Lairds applejack, mulled mint, Club soda
Belmont Jewel – Brandy, lemonade, pomegranate juice, orange zest
Belmont Breeze – Apple brandy, dry sherry, lemon, orange, & cranberry juices, mint
White Carnation - (after the wreath of flowers that goes around the winning horse's head) – Courvoisier, peach brandy, orange juice, heavy cream, Club soda
June 6th 1/2 price special on fruit or infused flight

Home | June 8, 2024 | Belmont Stakes The 2024 Belmont Stakes is the 156th renewal of the Test of the Champion and will be run on Saturday, June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.

Wed 6/5/24 – $6 Red Sangria Special – Red wine, brandy, blackberries, raspberries, plums, with orange-pineapple-pomegranate juices – no simple syrup. Welcome summer!

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Great article on Hendersonville/Henderson County by our local writer Amy Bonesteel Smith. She gives a summary of all the wonderful places you can visit and things you can do here in a free flowing personal style of someone quite familiar with the area. Thanks Amy!

More than mountains: An insider’s guide to Hendersonville, N.C. Insider's guide to a summer getaway in Hendersonville, N.C.

Thurs 5/30 - 4-9 PM - Appalachian c**ktail specials - Emma Bell Miles was born in Indiana on October 19th, 1879, to two schoolteachers. The family later moved to Red Bank at the foot of Walden’s Ridge near Chattanooga. A voracious reader she read Pilgrim’s Progress and The Marble Faun before she was 8 years old. In her young years she met wealthy friends who saw promise in her, and took pity for her impoverished plight, and sent her to a private boarding school in St. Louis. It was there that she began writing for Harpers Magazine and making illustrations for the magazine. In St. Louis the world seemed surreal to her, and she yearned for what she thought was the reality of Tennessee, where she eventually returned. Despite the disapproval of family and friends, she married a native who could not provide, drank and was abusive. But her stories were best sellers in the magazine to which she also added her own drawings and paintings. An intellectual, an artist, and a writer she became popular in the wealthy and socially prominent of Chattanooga. In addition to writing for Harpers, she was a published poet and wrote for Lippincott and Putnam, and regularly for the Chattanooga News. She lived in a tar-papered shack and floated in the divided world between the impoverished and high society. In 1905 she wrote The Spirit of the Mountains that contained a series of folk stories on the Appalachian people she had lived with and knew personally. An amusing example was the story of a funeral she attended on Walden Mountain where she witnessed: “the shortest and hottest debate outside the church door between a fledgling preacher and the oldest woman of the neighborhood. “ The young fellow had just delivered a sermon on the apostolic succession, declaring that no one could possibly be saved without baptism at the hands of a preacher of his own particular denomination; he had even named his mother – with respect and with deep regret, it is true but still he mentioned her—as one he believed to be among the eternally lost on account of this failure to comply with spiritual injunction. Outside the door, after the meeting, an old woman faced him, trembling with indignation. “Lishy,” she shrilled at him, unheeding the crowd, “Lishy Robbins! I held you in my arms before you was three hours old, and I cert’ny never ‘lowed to see you stand up in church and preach as you’ve been a -preachin’ this day! Lishy Robbins, me and your mother was girls together; I knowed her all her life and when she died nobody grieved for her more than I did. There never was a better woman or a better Christian in any church, and if she hain’t in heaven today—” The old voice broke; she gathered herself together and went close to the lad. “Lishy Robbins, you ought to be slapped over for preachin’ any such foolishness about your mother, and I’m a-gwine to do it!” And forthwith she did. Her toil-hardened old fist shot out so unexpectedly that the young preacher went down like a cornstalk. Angry? Of course he was angry, but she was grandmother of the mountains. There was nothing to do but to pick himself up with as much dignity as remained to him; and now that after-years of experience have somewhat mellowed his head strong humors, he is wont to tell that good story on himself as heartily as if he had ceased to believe in the apostolic succession.”
Appalachian Godfather – C & K brandy, amaretto, and bitters
Fallen Apple – C & K brandy, muddled apples, molasses, lemon juice, cider
Appalachian Sour – C & K brandy, sour mix, lime juice, ginger beer
Appalachian Mule – C & K brandy, muddled blackberries, lime juice, ginger ale
Appalachian Martini – CB Frost brandy, grenadine, lime juice, powdered sugar

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Wed 5/29/24 – 4-9 PM $5 white sangria special….apple, pear, muddled mint with sauvignon blanc, apple brandy, apple & pear nectar…no simple syrup! A grown up, not to sweet, sangria that folks love!

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Thurs 5/23 - 4-9 PM - Congress is finally taking UFOs, now called UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), seriously, 50 years after Its last hearing on the mysterious subject. Both terms mean the same, but the UAP designation carries less the taint of tin foil hat conspiracies than the old UFO did. Whatever, Congress is now taking them seriously, making the statement “UAP reports have been around for decades and yet we haven’t had an orderly way for them to be reported –without stigma—and to be investigated.” Overseen by the House Intelligence Committee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, there is an acceptance that there are objects seen to be flying in the skies that are not recognizable and need to be studied. There has been a follow-up on the June 2021 declassification of 144 different observations, including video evidence, by Naval and other military aviators of objects. According to TIME, they were flying in inexplicable ways – bobbing, weaving, changing directions with a speed & nimbleness no existing technology could manage. None produced any detectable exhaust. Some turned with a head-snapping suddenness that would have produced potentially deadly g-forces to any human who might be aboard while others appeared to dive into the ocean. The committee explored 4 possible explanations for the objects. They could be nothing at all—just errors in sensors or other instruments, though some of those sensors are human pilots themselves, who swear by what they’ve seen. They could be new weapons systems or other technology being tested by foreign adversaries such as Russia or China, both of which are known to be working on hypersonic systems capable of flying at five times the speed of sound or faster. It’s also possible the phenomena are so-called blue-on-blue sightings—American pilots spotting classified American technology. And, of course, they could, in theory, be of extraterrestrial origin.
Not to be outdone, NASA is now in the picture announcing it has selected 16 researchers to spend the next nine months studying UAP/UFO. The selected research group includes professors, scientists, an oceanographer, and others who study space – Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Nadia Drake, a science journalist for National Geographic. The study will "lay the groundwork for future study on the nature of UAPs for NASA and other organizations," according to their press release. The organization maintains that there is no evidence yet that connects UAPs to extraterrestrial life. The underlying problem, they said, is that the phenomena in question are generally being detected and recorded with cameras, sensors and other equipment not designed or calibrated to accurately observe and measure such peculiarities.
UAP/UFO c**ktails
UAP No. 1 – CB Frost, Cointreau, Campari, dry vermouth
UAP No. 2 - Courvoisier, coconut cream, Melon liqueur, pineapple juice
UAP No. 3 – CB Frost, gin, lemon soda over ice
UAP no. 4 - CB Frost, gin, orange juice, orange bitters
UAP No. 5 – Meukow vanilla cognac, lime juice, heavy cream
1/2 price on fruit/infused flight

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Wed 5/22 – 4-9 PM - $6 special on our “long c**ktails” – those wonderful c**ktails that extend your drinking experience through juices and ice: Douglas fir & tonic; CB Frost & fresh squeezed lemonade; or CB Frost & ginger ale. They are simple but persuasive drinks!

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Thurs 5/16 - 4-9 PM Dog Tails from The Brandy Bar - Some of our best friends, our dogs - Bloodhound – Douglas Fir brandy, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth
Dirty Dog – Hennessy VSOP, CB Frost brandy, orange juice, cranberry juice
Greyhound – CB Frost brandy, Campari, grapefruit juice
Regal Beagle – Korbel, peach brandy, sour mix
Salty Dog – CB Frost, grapefruit juice, salt
Worldly Brandy Flight – ½ price
Dog tails from The Brandy Bar: The best part of The Brandy Bar is its members & their stories. We have selected 3 dog stories & to protect the innocent we may have changed their names. (1) T & B are from South Africa where they were childhood sweethearts, marrying & raising their family before they found their way to America & retirement in Hendersonville where they found happiness in gardening & volunteering. Sadly, B died rather suddenly, & T had to take some personal time to cope with a death that is never expected & never resolved. Coming in from a trip to visit relatives & friends to share & commensurate, T arrived late to the house from the airport. Lugging her baggage up the steps, she took keys & opened the door & thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Putting the cargo down she felt something brush up again her leg & looking down she saw a very sad, small four-legged creature looking up at her with pleading eyes. He was dirty, shaking, emaciated, & in desperate need of medical attention & food. T looked into the soulful eyes of the small beagle & knew that B had returned to keep T company & be a new companion. T named the beagle after B & will love & cherish him forever believe me!
(2) A wonderful couple (L & J) shared the story of their encounter on a well-traveled Hwy 25 as they returned to Greenville late one night. Frozen & shivering in their blinding headlights appeared an animal covered in cuts, blood, infected chest wounds, & unwilling to get out of the way. They stopped the car (a very nice convertible!) & got out to inspect the poor guy who appeared to be shell shocked. As they opened the car door the bloody mess jumped in, clamped jaws onto the seat belt, & with pleading defiant eyes told them he was staying with them! The smell was overwhelming as they headed south with windows wide open & wondering what to do with their injured guest. Arriving too late to find a vet, they bathed the poor guy, who was the perfect obedient pet, leaving bath towels stained with blood & yellow pus on the floor, they offered a warm bed for the night. The couple went to social media to find the parents, describing what appeared to be a very expensive English bulldog but had an odd purple paint mark on its side. They left contact info begging for someone to come forward. Next morning before they had a chance to take the dog to the emergency clinic, they received a phone call from a woman asking if that was a purple paint mark on the dog’s side & they said yes it was. The caller told them it was a “bait dog.” They asked what that was, to which the answer was a dog that is marked so it can be used as bait in a dog fight with an audience betting on which dog will make the kill for the bait. Shocked the couple immediately took all info off the social media & took the dog to the emergency clinic where he received great medical care, & the rescuers were able to treat him until he had properly healed. They then found a friend who really wanted a dog & fell in love with “purple paint.” The adoptee friend now has a new best friend who she will love & protect from anything like this happening again!

(3) M was returning home late one light & something jumped in front of the car & M struck it hard. An animal lover, M was horrified & immediately jumped from the car & seeing what appeared to be a large German Shepherd lying in the road, she raced to her trunk & found a large blanket. She wrapped the blanket around the conscious animal, & gently placed it in the trunk of her car. She sped to the local emergency clinic & raced into the lobby, crying, shouting that she had struck a German Shepherd & they needed to get it from the trunk & save it at her expense because she had harmed it. They ran to the car, took the animal out & in shock, told M that the dog was in fact a coyote. Coyote is not native to NC, never appearing east of the Mississippi River, until recently. The NC variety has been inter-breeding with the wolves & domestic dogs & does not look like its counterpart in the mid-west, & indeed looks more like a dog then your image of a coyote…beware. Bring us your dog tale!!

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REMINDER Wed 5/15 - 7 - 9 PM - The NWC Songwriter Sessions returns with Mare Carmody, Mike Hollon and Jack Miller. Join us for an evening full of original songs and heart-felt music!

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Wed 5/8 - 7-9 PM - Reminder the "In the Company of Writers" series features Catherine Carter and Jeremy Jones. Catherine Carter’s poetry collections include Larvae of the Nearest Stars, The Swamp Monster at Home, and The Memory of Gills (all with LSU Press) and three chapbooks. A professor of English at Western Carolina University, she works in teacher preparation.
Jeremy Jones is the author of the memoir Bearwallow, which was named the Appalachian Book of the Year in 2014, and a forthcoming nonfiction book tentatively titled The Coded Life (to be published in 2025). Jeremy earned his MFA from the University of Iowa and is an associate professor of English Studies at Western Carolina University.

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Thurs 5/9 - 4-9 PM Endangered species & c**ktails - Carolina Parakeet…American Wood Bison…Eastern Elk…Ivory Billed Woodpecker… Carolina Panther….. When early pioneers entered the mountains of western North Carolina they found trees filled with the chipper sounds ringing from bright yellow heads and chartreuse green bodies of the native “Carolina Parakeet.” the only parrot species in the Eastern United States. The Cherokee named it “puzzi la nee” meaning head of yellow. Alas, extinct, at one time the trees and skies were filled with hundreds of their brightly colored bodies, and in flight they formed yellow clouds darkening the skies and shadowing objects below. Unfortunately, these settlers also would never encounter the magnificent American Wood Bison hunted to extinction by the mid-1770s. Nor would they have heard the bugling of the glorious Eastern Elk, whose herds had dwindled to such a point that seeing one was a rare occurrence, with the last being shot in Pennsylvania in 1877, declared extinct in 1880. Another subspecies of elk, the Merriam’s Elk, also became extinct at roughly the same time. The ivory billed woodpecker, the 3rd largest woodpecker in the world, once flew in abundance, in old-growth wood forests in North Carolina + 12 other states, roaming the woodlands of the southern US, for decades. Because of logging and collection, the last confirmed sighting was in Louisiana in 1944. The Carolina Panther once ruled the Eastern coast of North America, primarily along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern Vermont down to Georgia. They were once so common here that many of our mountain ridges, creeks, swamps, and roads were named for these natives, painters, or catamounts. The panther’s population declined throughout the 18th century due to persecution, hunting, poisoning, trapping, loss of habitat and the parallel decline of its major food source – the white-tailed deer. Experts believe that by 1900, the Eastern cougar was eradicated throughout North Carolina, and the last documented sighting was killed in 1938.
Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel ….Red Wolf…..Eastern small-footed bat…..plus over 239 others are on the Federal Endangered Species list in the Southeast. UNESCO has put the world “on notice” that human activities “threaten more species now than ever before” and that the global rate of species extinction is already “at least tens to hundreds of times higher than it has averaged over the past 10 million years.” Around the world, an estimated 1 in 4 species of plants and animal groups are vulnerable, which means about 1 million species are facing extinction, some within decades. So how can we help? We can start by reducing our individual carbon footprints, eating less meat, and advocating for change. Check out this list of conservation groups to advocate with: https://www.treehugger.com/top-wildlife-conservation-organizations-4088567

The Society for Endangered Cocktails (SPEC) has listed these c**ktails as endangered:
El Diablo – CB Frost, lime juice, crème de cassis
Fuzzy Navel – Peach Brandy and orange juice
Harvey Wallbanger – CB Frost, Galliano, orange juice
Kir Royale – CB Frost, Chambord, champagne topper
Zombie – CB Frost, rum, pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine
1/2 price on Fruit/Infused flight

Wed 5/1 – 4-9 PM – $8 May Day Special – Flavored Brandy Alexander specials, choose from our traditional chocolate, strawberry, or blackberry.

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Thurs 5/2 – 4-9:00 PM – $8 martini special – The Martini has a crazy history. Of the 3 stories of how it was invented, the favorite is the Occidental Hotel that appeared in Jerry Thomas’ The Bar-Tender’s Guide (1862). During the Gold Rush, a miner from Sierra Nevada struck it rich & headed to San Francisco, straight to the Occidental Hotel in search of a libation. Later, the term “Martini” preceded the term “c**ktail” which began as a beverage you’d order at a hotel, then died out with Prohibition, which is when c**ktails were invented. During Prohibition, people started adding ingredients that weren’t typically mixed with spirits, so you would have less booze on your breath then hard alcohol. Fast forward to the 1960s, it becomes the Bond era. The drink began trending because everyone could see James Bond drinking it & they wanted to experience it. ‘Oh, he drinks Martinis—that’s masculine. The 1980s was “the self-destruction of the c**ktail scene.” Everyone was calling all c**ktails ‘Martinis.’ People called anything martini c**ktails & not referring to the drink itself. Nothing fell into the category of a Martini except the shape of the glass. Bottom line - it’s incredible how important spirits are to the forming of America.
Martini Cocktails:
Brandy Bar Martini – CB Frost, splash of gin, splash of vermouth;
Pear Martini – Clear Creek pear, Cointreau, lemon juice;
French Martini – CB Frost, Pineapple juice, Crème’ de cassis;
Hawaiian Martini -CB Frost, Cointreau, light rum, coconut juice, pineapple juice,
1/2 price on Armagnac/Calvados flight

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Wed 4/24 - 4-9 We are designing our own “Charlotte the Stingray” c**ktail, one that lies on the bottom of the ocean floor, covered with salt and sand, hidden with a sharp barb on the end that gets your attention. So it will be tropical and is due to arrive on Wednesday the 24th!

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Thurs 4/25 - 4-9 PM Black Mountain College + Art Center Cocktails - Black Mountain College + Art Center held its ReHappening 12 on April 20th and we were reminded that not everyone is aware of this incredible college located in the isolated mountains of WNC, nor the role it played in today’s contemporary art scene. Joseph Albers, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, Jacob Lawrence, Walter Gropius, Peter Voulkos, Cy Twombly, Robert Creely, Anais Nin, Harry Callahan, Kenneth Nolan, John Chamberlain, Robert DiNero (yes movie star DeNiro’s father), Paul Williams, and Charles Olson……Buckminister Fuller created his geodesic dome design, the first ever happening by John Cage, two of Einstein’s assistants worked on his theory of relativity…….these are a few of the artists/events that provided the wellspring for the avant-garde in America after 1960. And they were all students and staff at a small experimental college located in the Mountains of Western North Carolina from 1933 through 1957. Although it lasted only 24 years, was constantly besieged by financial difficulties, and fewer than 1200 students passed through its doors, it launched the careers of the most distinguished artists of its time, who went on to become major artists of the 20th Century and shaped the movement of Modern Art.
This school, Black Mountain College (BMC), raised funds to construct its permanent campus on present day Lake Eden, site of Rockmont (a private boys’ camp and home to the Doc Watson music festival as well as others). John Andrew Rice, its revolutionary founder, developed one of the first colleges to create an environment for a dynamic, experimental, and creative atmosphere that was run, not by a Board or Trustees, but by its extraordinary staff. BMC’s philosophy was a belief in democracy as a way of life. In education, this meant the opportunity of every student to realize the full development of her or his abilities and the right of each student to have a voice in the decision-making process. Supported in large part by the Forbes family, it still was constantly in financial straits, even with the visit by Eleanor Roosevelt on one of her trips through the south to support, encourage and seek out the under-represented. The students present during her visit did not recognize her, nor did any of the staff get to meet her so sadly she left without making any contributions to BMC.
Many of the faculty (Albers, Gropius, Jalowetz, Schawinsky) were trained in the Bauhaus methodology, resulting in BMC becoming a seedbed for many of the genius transplants fleeing Hitler’s takeover of Europe. BMC’s reputation began growing and attracting the best of creative minds. Students were expected to work on the farm, including construction of any buildings, cooking, cleaning and in general maintaining the school and its property in every aspect.
According to former student Mary Emma Harris: “The process of learning was one of correspondence and conversation, and there was a concern with wholeness, the education of head, heart, and hand. Perceived as a field of forces, t was far more intense than a conventional educational institution, and it is this energy released that continues to send vibrations throughout American cultural life.” BMC continues today through BMC Museum & Art Center https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/
John Cage – CB Frost, muddled cucumber & basil, lemonade, lime juice
Robert Rauschenberg – Camus cognac, absinthe, bitters, simple syrup
Buckminister Fuller – C & K American brandy, muddled sugar & orange/cherry & bitters
Joseph Albers – single pour Asbach (3 yr German brandy)
William DeKooning – Martel cognac, Cointreau, sour mix
Fruit/infused flight – ½ price

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center - Asheville, North Carolina Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center is dedicated to preserving the history and exploring the legacy of Black Mountain College.

Thurs 4/18 - 4-9 PM Is it a c**ktail or is it a mixed drink? Cocktail Trivia: The name “Cocktail” has 2 potential sources for etymology of the word, neither has been verified. (1) During the colonial period, tavern keepers stored their spirits in casks. When the casks got near empty, the dregs, or tailings, would be mixed together into one barrel and sold at a reduced price—poured from the spigot, which was referred to as the c**k. Patrons wanting this cheaper alcohol would come in asking for ‘c**k tailings.’ (2) In New Orleans an apothecary by the name of Peychaud (of bitters fame) served a mixed brandy drink in a French eggcup. Eventually the drink was named coquetier, the French term for an eggcup. Guests shortened the name to ‘c**ktay’ and eventually it became ‘c**ktail.'
Other trivia: (1) A well drink is the cheapest mixed alcoholic drink available at a bar. (2) A call drink is a mixed drink for which one specifies (i.e., calls) the exact brand or brands of liquor to be used. Call drinks generally cost more than well drinks. (3) There are three main types of alcohol: isopropyl, methyl, and ethyl. Only ethyl, or grain, alcohol can be consumed by humans. (4) When the word "highball appeared in 1898 ("ball" was a bartenders' slang for a glass in the 1890s, a "high ball," a tall glass) it meant a Scotch and soda...but soon "highball" meant any kind of whiskey and soda. (5) All c**ktails are mixed drinks, but not all mixed drinks are c**ktails, i.e the basic ingredients of a Gin & Tonic served in a glass is considered a mixed drink, while the application of care (type of gin, brand of tonic, an additional ingredient, etc) makes it a c**ktail (6) The 7 Spirits of alcohol are brandy, gin, rum, tequila, vodka, and whiskey. They are each unique and have distinct styles within themselves. (7) “Shot” glasses range in size from 1 to 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 ounces. A “pony shot” (“pony”) is a more precise 1 fluid ounce. A “jigger” equals 1 1/2 fluid ounces.
B & B – Courvoisier & Benedictine
Douglas Fir Brandy with tonic water and ice
Branda Kazi – CB Frost, Cointreau, lime juice
Pear brandy with club soda and ice
Riley’s Kioki Coffee – mixed or even a c**ktail? Remy Martin VSOP, Kalua, Dark Cacao, coffee
Sangria special – mixed or even a c**ktail

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