Tari Swenson, my aunt the artist, was featured on The Story this week. View her web page while she tells you about the piece shown there. It’s a moving story.
My Aunt Tari
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Category Archives: Creamy Filling
I painted!
Thing in a Place 1
Entropa
Entropa, a satirical sculpture made by David Černý (of pink tank fame) and commissioned by the Czech Republic, gives me hope. When it was unveiled yesterday in Brussels, the government realized that they had been duped. The sculpture portrays each of the 27 EU member states in the sort of way you might expect from Mad Magazine or Monty Python.
There might be hope for the EU. Events like these are a sort of litmus test. If they can laugh at their folly and let it stand as a document of modern history, certainly the EU government can improve. On the other hand, if they blubber and bluster and blow the thing down, count on a protracted cultural winter.
What does this flourish of politically relevant art portend?
African-American Coffee
I like to invent drinks. Usually they are good, but not always so good that they deserve a name. Last night I mixed a drink that deserved a name, so I named it African-American coffee.
Coffee can be combined favorably with liquor in many ways. Probably the most common hard coffee drink is Irish coffee, a variant of the hot toddy, which is made with coffee, Irish whiskey, and sugar or brown sugar. It is the name of this drink that inspired the name African-American coffee, which is made with an African liqueur, an American whiskey, and coffee.
Rye, coffee, Amarula
Amarula is an African fruit cream liqueur made from the fruit of the marula tree. My father found this during a trip to Africa and shared it with me. I was elated when I found it at Twin Liquors near the Bailey’s. Ask your local liquor store to stock it if they don’t already.
The original African-American coffee used the 100-proof “Bottled in Bond” Rittenhouse rye whiskey, which I found at my favorite Louisville liquor store. This spirit has a sharp, spicy flavor that complements the sweet, mellow flavor of Amarula. If you can’t find a rye whiskey, any sour mash like Jack Daniel’s or Jim Beam will do.
The proportions and temperature can be varied according to taste. I like it hot with about two ounces of Amarula and one ounce of whiskey. It’s also good over ice with a greater proportion of Amarula.
This article was brought to you in part by my desire to see my favorite liquors gain popularity so that I can buy them in more places. You can help by requesting them at your local liquor store.
Thomas Handy Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey
Last night I updated the look of skeltoac.com with a new photograph of a glass of Sazerac rye whiskey leaning against my computer monitor. Sazerac is fantastic. Most liquor stores don’t carry it—if they stock any rye at all it’s the really cheap stuff—but the excellent Twin Liquors chain, born in Austin, has a few bottles scattered among different stores. (If you are in Austin and want to try Sazerac, try the Red River store or the Guadalupe store. A bottle is only about $30. Or stop by my house. Bring a lemon if you want the full cocktail with Pernod and bitters.)
I found out about Sazerac by accident. A bottle of Thomas Handy Sazerac caught my eye at Chuck Evans Liquor Outlet in Bowling Green, Kentucky, while I was passing through on a road trip early in 2008. It was my first barrel strength whiskey and didn’t know how lucky I was to find it there.
On subsequent road trips to Vermont I have always made my route through Bowling Green to look for more rare whiskeys. I befriended a clerk at a Louisville store when I called to ask if they had Thomas Handy and he explained that it was very rare and only available for a short time after its yearly release in October or November. He has provided me with many exquisite whiskeys (including a 15-year Pappy which I guard with care) but it was the clerk at Chuck Evans who remembered to call me when she received a shipment of Thomas Handy two weeks ago. Though I tried to concoct an excuse for a three-day road trip for my favorite rye, I had to pass it up.
Instead of driving to Kentucky, I drove to my local Twin Liquors and asked if they could get me a bottle or a case. Without much hope, they said they would put in a purchase order. I expected disappointment and settled for a bottle the standard Sazerac which was on hand at the store on Brodie Lane. I gave that bottle to a friend in San Antonio, so yesterday I bought two more bottles at the Red River store. That’s what I photographed last night. Imagine how surprised I felt this afternoon when my phone rang and it was the neighborhoord Twin Liquors calling about three bottles of Thomas Handy that had just arrived. Zoe and I sped over there and bought them all up!
Thomas Handy Sazerac comes in a case of three 750ml bottles. The distillery, Buffalo Trace, sent along a nice letter and fact sheet. Only 22 barrels were bottled! We just finished the 2007 bottle on returning from the store—it was hard to make it last this long—and we’ll be opening one bottle of the 2008 this evening. Life can be so good sometimes.
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- 2007 and 2008
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