Late in November of the presidential election year 1888, the Detroit Free Press asked “What is Fame?” After all, things like elective office, or battlefield laurels, or citations and awards, all may fall under the cautionary motto sic transit gloria. But to have a cocktail named after you: Now that’s the sort of fame that endures. The Free Press pointed out that Benjamin Harrison was known not just as the new president-elect, but as the inspiration for a new mixed drink: “The latest fad in artistic decorations is the Harrison cocktail.”
Alas, even that sort of fame fades. All but lost to history is the Harrison Cocktail, a drink that was described in its day as being concocted of gin, orange bitters, phosphate, sugar and fizzy water.
Harrison was hardly the last presidential candidate to be honored at the bar. 1896 saw the McKinley’s Delight (gin, lemon juice, sugar, maraschino liqueur and Peychaud’s bitters, all done up like a Horse’s Neck) and, in honor of his opponent, William Jennings Bryan, there was a “Free Silver Fizz.” Teddy Roosevelt—who in a libel suit famously denied ever drinking—was honored with several cocktails over the years. William Taft lent his name to multiple cocktails too, including one made of gin and Dubonnet, garnished with an olive. (An olive?)
Some cocktails named after presidents have rightly faded into the mists of time. There’s no redeeming a drink as deplorable (to use terms recently much in campaign discourse) as the Truman cocktail, made of Scotch, sloe gin, crème de menthe, and a Chinese fortified cooking wine called mei kuei lu chiew. (Harry himself had the good sense to drink Bourbon on the rocks.)
But some campaign cocktails are worthy of rescuing from obscurity. We at THE WEEKLY STANDARD have unearthed historical recipes for drinks such as the 1909 Taft Cocktail (described back then as a Creole Cocktail served in a glass with a sugar-frosted rim) and the 1912 Bull Moose Cocktail (made of vermouth, gin, brandy and “any good nerve tonic”). The bartenders of Washington’s excellent Bar Pilar have taken four of these historical drinks and have refined and updated them for the modern cocktail enthusiast.
Cocktail recipe by Mat Cabral of Bar Pilar
But why should campaign cocktails be historical artifacts (delicious artifacts though they may be)? THE WEEKLY STANDARD and Bar Pilar are joining to sponsor a contest to find the best drinks for this presidential election season. The bartenders of Bar Pilar and the cocktail editors of THE WEEKLY STANDARD will try original drinks submitted by you and we will pick the best drink in honor of Hillary and the best in honor of Trump. The two winners will each receive a Campaign Cocktails poster. And their creations will be featured at Bar Pilar—true fame indeed!
Create an original cocktail for your candidate—complete with a catchy name, which will of course be one of the judges’ criteria—and send it to us at [email protected] by October 14. The winners will be announced by November 1, just in time for these new drinks to fuel the homestretch of the campaign.
This video is the first in a series that will feature cocktails celebrating Presidents Taft, Teddy Roosevelt, and the Bull Moose Party. Be sure to check back for new episodes here. You can watch the second episode here, the third episode here, and the fourth episode here.
