Our featured image is an illustration advertising Famous Bartender and Author Jerry Thomas’s virtuoso Blue Blazer technique. Jerry Thomas is just one of the pioneers featured in our new eBook, The Golden Age of Cocktails 1860 – 1920.
Like many of those pioneers, Jerry Thomas was quite a character and quite a showman too. He authored THE BAR-TENDERS’ GUIDE: A COMPLETE CYCLOPAEFDIA OF PLAIN AND FANCY DRINKS (alternately titled How to Mix Drinks or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion) in 1862. This was the first cocktail book every published in the United States.
Thomas, who is considered the Father of American Mixology, worked throughout the United States and Europe. He continues to set the tone for bartenders today.
The illustration above demonstrates Thomas’s showmanship. His signature drink was the Blue Blazer, a mixture of Scotch whisky, boiling water and pulverized white sugar and lemon peel. The Scotch and boiling water were put into one of two large silver-plated mugs with handles and ignited with fire. The blazing mix was then poured back and forth between the mugs four or five times before being sweetened with the sugar and garnished with a lemon peel.
Thomas’s recipe cautions the novice against scalding himself and suggests that in order to become proficient in throwing the liquid from one mug to the other, one should practice for some time with cold water.
Find out more about Thomas and other colorful pioneers from the Golden Age of Cocktails—and their recipes by joining the My Experienced Life Club. When you join, you get a link to download the eBook, The Golden Age of Cocktails 1860 – 1920.
As a My Experienced Life member you will be the first on your block to know about new My Experienced Life books and products. You’ll also get notified when articles about the latest life experience trends are posted on our My Experienced Life Blog. The focus: Beverage Experiences, Food Experiences, and Milestones of Life.
And by joining you get your own copy of The Golden Age of Cocktails 1860 – 1920. Join and start exploring the history, the pioneers, and the recipes that make this Golden Age special.
Get a Reprint of Cocktail Pioneer Jerry Thomas’s Book on Amazon.
Get a Reprint of Cocktail Pioneer Harry Johnson’s Book on Amazon.
Get a Reprint of Cocktail Pioneer William “Cocktail” Boothby’s Book on Amazon.
Get a Reprint of Cocktail Pioneer William Schmidt’s (AKA Only William) Book on Amazon.