Drinking Gatsby

In which I jump on a bandwagon. 

I thought it would be fun to explore the cocktails in this book. I think as much as the wealth and opulence of the characters speak to the larger themes in the work, so do the massive amounts of liquor and drinks. As I'm sure you are all well aware The Great Gatsby takes place in the prohibition era, a time when liquor was eradicated in a misguided effort to return America to simpler, valued times, which of course only led to everyone wanting to drink more. Gatsby's access to massive amounts of liquor speak to his character on two levels: one his wealth of course, but two it feeds the rumor that his wealth came from bootlegging. There is the suggestion that he illegally sells liquor to drug stores that he owns. For a small fee, doctors would prescribe their patients whiskey for just about any ailment, and some pharmacists would even sell forged prescriptions to their customers.

The first drink is actually one that I am insinuating would be served at the Gatsby home.

Chapter three, the chapter that introduces us to the Great Gatsby. 

"There was music rom my neighbor's house through the summer night. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars."

"Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York--every Monday these saw oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves. There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour, if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler's thumb."

I'd like to think that some of those oranges were used for Mimosa's. Mimosa's were "invented" in Paris in 1924 (a variation on a Buck's Fizz which was 2 parts orange juice to one pat champagne), and seeing as how the "new rich" were up with the trends it seems logical that they would have been served either during one of his parties or for the folks that stayed later and needed a little "hair of the dog" to get them on their way. 

Mimosa's are pretty simple, half champagne, half orange juice. As you can see I do not have a fancy machine to juice my oranges, nor a butler to assist me. I simply have an old fashioned juicer and a strong upper arm. 

I juiced about six oranges which yielded plenty of juice. 

I also brought a fairly cheap champagne for two reasons, one, I am not Gatsby so therefore I am not rich, and two I figured if you are going to mix sweet juice into it anyway why bother with anything fancy. 

Besides Barefoot champagne is perfectly acceptable (as I drank the rest of the bottle afterwards and found it tolerable).

My next drink was the Gin Rickey. It was well known that Fitzgerald loved gin as he felt that it was the one liquor that was undetectable on the breath, in fact this is what a lot of people during the prohibition felt about gin, hence the heavy herbal aromatics of it. 

During chapter seven, the meatiest of all the chapters, where all the high action occurs, Gatsby is over Daisy and Tom's house for lunch. Gatsby and Daisy of course can't keep their eyes off each other but the meeting over all is quite awkward. The day itself is already hot, and then Daisy's daughter is brought out and tensions begin to rise, as Gatsby had no idea of the child. 

"With a reluctant backward glance the well-diciplined child held her nurse's hand and was pulled out the door, just as Tom came back, preceding four gin rickeys that clicked full of ice. Gatsby took up his drink. "They certainly look cool," he said, with visible tension. We drank with long greedy swallows."

Rickey's were definitely the drink of the day in Fitzgerald's time as they provided pure refreshment in the pre-air-conditioned era. I can imagine that despite the physical heat that the characters were sitting in, Gatsby himself was growing hotter and hotter as the luncheon trailed on. He was sitting in a room with his one true love, after being introduced to her daughter of which he had no knowledge of, all the while her husband sits across from him. Greedy swallows, indeed.

Rickey's themselves are basically drinks with squeezed fresh lime juice and carbonated water. 

Fresh squeezed lime juice

Basically pour 1.5oz of gin over ice, add the juice of half a lime and fill with carbonated water. Toss in a few lime wedges and you have yourself a cold gin rickey. 

Now, I've never been much of a gin drinker myself, but I have to say this drink might just change that. 

Finally we have the Mint Julep. This drink also appears in the all important chapter seven. After noticing how passionately Gatsby stares at his wife, Tom, always itching for a confrontation, suggests that they all drive into New York City together. It's oppressively hot and the group decided to take up a room at the Plaza Hotel in order to cool down a little. Now of course they couldn't just call up room service and order some drinks sent up to the room, but Tom came prepared, in the room he unrolls a bottle of whiskey from a towel. Also, as the group gathers in the room, Tom himself is doing his best to call out Gatsby in every way, trying to expose him as a fraud and belittle him in front of Daisy. 

"That's a great expression of yours, isn't it?" said Tom sharply. "What is?" "All this 'old sport business. Where'd you pick that up?" "Now here Tom," said Daisy, turning around from the mirror, "if you're going to make personal remarks i won't stay here a minute. Call up and order some ice and mint for the julep."

Of course they never actually drink the juleps. Even as the ingredients arrive the argument between Gatsby and Tom accelerates and Daisy is confronted, and...well the novel reaches its climax, this is where I sound like your mother and tell you to go read the book.

I can't rightly say that the events would not have turned out the way they did if the juleps had been consumed. Though in drinking them I can see the need to order one up when things get hot and sticky, both physically and in conversation. Are you sensing a theme here? It seems to me that Fitzgerald wanted to make everyone as uncomfortable as possible, so like a good writer he turned up the heat and let it happen! Also a small but very important detail, Daisy was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Perhaps Fitzgerald wanted to hint at Daisy's southern roots and in her need to make peace he had her suggest the drink of her hometown. Maybe. 

Mint Juleps are pretty easy. You just need some Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey, mint, simple syrup and crushed ice. Having crushed ice is important as the small chips give the drink it's slushy effect. 

Just take 4-5 mint leaves and muddle them with .5oz of simple syrup (to make simple syrup just melt equal parts sugar and boiling water, stir until it dissolves). Add 2.5oz of bourbon and fill the cup to the brim with crushed ice. Stir and stir, until your glass feel frosty. Garnish with a spring of mint. 

At first sip the cloying sweetness fights with the burn of the whiskey, my suggestion is to let the drink rest a minute or two. This will let the ice melt for a minute, after that the whole drink mellows out and becomes a sweet refreshing drink.

So friends, summer is coming (any day now Chicago!) and I suggest mixing a few of these bad boys up. Hopefully you won't have a heated life changing confrontation while drinking one, but if you do at least you'll be refreshed.

Cheers!