TAMARA KEITH, HOST:
The holidays are a time of celebration, of connection, of ritual. That often involves eating and drinking as much as reflection and renewal. One tradition I had growing up was on New Year's Eve, my dad would make fancy hors d'oeuvres, like prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe, and we'd watch old movie marathons. So with New Year's Eve just days away, here at ALL THINGS CONSIDERED we were thinking about cocktails made famous in movies and how that might influence our choices when we sidle up to order a drink.
JOSH WHITE: Welcome to Death & Co.
KEITH: We decided to go to an expert, Josh White, the bar manager at Death & Co., a bar known for its bespoke cocktails, to get some hosting tips, inspired by our favorite movies and to talk about why people love to order them.
No free hands.
WHITE: No free hands - elbow (laughter).
KEITH: Boop.
Death & Co. is in an alley with a small, nondescript brass sign as the only clue of what's inside.
WHITE: Death & Co. started New Year's Eve, 2007, actually in the East Village.
KEITH: Happy anniversary, then.
WHITE: Yes.
KEITH: (Laughter) Let's start with one of my favorite movies, "The Big Lebowski."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BIG LEBOWSKI")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) What's your drink, Dude?
JEFF BRIDGES: (As The Dude) White Russian, thanks.
KEITH: "The Big Lebowski" is a Coen Brothers film that is a little hard to explain. The Dude, played by Jeff Bridges, is this sort of hapless guy who gets caught up with a criminal scheme. But all he wants is to bowl and enjoy a White Russian.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BIG LEBOWSKI")
BRIDGES: (As The Dude) Hey, hey, careful, man. There's a beverage here. Hey.
KEITH: Why don't we try making this beverage?
WHITE: Cool. Let's get to it.
KEITH: Be our tour guide.
WHITE: One ounce of our heavy cream, one ounce of our coffee liqueur, add some demerara sugar, then we're going to add 1.5 ounce of our vodka. Add ice to the tin. And then we're going to you shake.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRINK SHAKER RATTLING)
WHITE: For you, voila.
KEITH: All right. Let's see. That's a tasty beverage.
WHITE: You can't go wrong, right?
KEITH: So it is a creamy color, light brown, and the flavor is coffee. I mean, there's a lot of booze in here, but it's not too boozy.
WHITE: No, uh-uh.
KEITH: I think the cream really cuts through the booze.
WHITE: The cream and the coffee liqueur - it's a banger for the holiday.
KEITH: It feels like winter.
WHITE: Mm hmm.
KEITH: Who needs an eggnog latte when you can just have a White Russian? Let us move on to perhaps the most iconic movie beverage, or at least the most iconic line in a movie about a beverage.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GOLDFINGER")
MAI LING: (As Mei-Lei) Can I do something for you, Mr. Bond?
SEAN CONNERY: (As James Bond) Uh, just a drink - a martini, shaken not stirred.
KEITH: So the drink is the Vesper. The movie is "Casino Royale."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CASINO ROYALE")
DANIEL CRAIG: (As James Bond) Dry martini - three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet, shake it over ice, and then add a thin slice of lemon peel.
WHITE: Yeah, shaken not stirred, correct?
KEITH: Shaken, not stirred - and you're shaking your head.
WHITE: Everybody has preferences. We listen, and we don't judge, right? For me, I prefer it stirred. That way you're not bruising any of the spirits.
KEITH: And what do you mean bruising the spirits?
WHITE: If you're shaking the heck out of this drink, you are literally ruining the complexity of the gin or the gentian in the Cocchi Americano, also the vodka that's in it. Like, you're just - you're literally just bruising the spirits, in my opinion.
KEITH: Like, at the molecular level.
WHITE: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ICE RATTLING)
KEITH: Shaken not stirred is such a legendary movie line. How could it be that this is the wrong way to make a martini? Was Josh White just being a purist, a difference only a professional bartender would notice? We had to put it to the test. So I asked him to make it both ways, shaken and stirred.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRINK SHAKER RATTLING)
WHITE: I haven't had one shaken in so long, so this is going to be fun.
KEITH: Let's just see if I have enough discriminating taste to tell if those spirits have been bruised or not.
(SOUNDBITE OF LIQUID POURING)
KEITH: So just looking at it...
WHITE: Cloudier?
KEITH: Yeah, the beverage is just cloudy, OK. It does taste different. So this is the shaken version. It is very cold. It's very, very cold, but it feels harsh in a way.
WHITE: Yeah.
KEITH: And then stirred.
WHITE: It's not as round as it should be.
KEITH: Right. The stirred does have more of a mouth feel. It is a fuller feel to it. And I think that the flavor is less harsh, which is wild. Who knew?
WHITE: If you're at home and you have a group of friends, you can batch this whole cocktail up and predilute it, and then throw it in the freezer, which makes it, like, super silky, perfect texture, nice and cold, ready to drink. Some of our friends love to do that.
KEITH: Our last drink is one that you actually created, and you were inspired by the movie "Death Becomes Her"...
WHITE: (Laughter) Yes.
KEITH: ...Which I think stars Meryl Streep?
WHITE: Yes, Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DEATH BECOMES HER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Some people will go to any length to stay young forever.
KEITH: And are you a fan of the movie, or do you just like the name?
WHITE: I mean, it's something that I saw on HBO as a child, and I was just obsessed with it because, like, they're drinking this magic elixir that gives them beauty for eternity, immortality.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DEATH BECOMES HER")
ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: (As Lisle Von Rhuman) A touch of magic - drink that potion, and you'll never grow even one day older.
MERYL STREEP: (As Madeline Ashton) Bottoms up.
WHITE: And in my mind making this drink, that is what I wanted to have - people sip that and envision themselves taking in that potion and having eternal beauty, you know?
KEITH: Look glamorous, feel glamorous.
WHITE: Look glamorous, feel glamorous.
KEITH: I mean, like...
This is a complicated drink, not to be made at home - vodka, gin, brandy, with a green hue from pistachio puree, fizzy from soda water, foamy from egg whites and with a tiny pink rose floating on top.
WHITE: This is for you.
KEITH: Thank you.
WHITE: This is for me.
KEITH: All right.
WHITE: Cheers.
KEITH: Cheers. Ooh.
WHITE: Get that acidity.
KEITH: Yeah.
WHITE: Citric acid coming through.
KEITH: Definitely a little acidity - so why would this one be a fit for New Year's Eve?
WHITE: You know, New Year's Eve, even with the economy being the way that it is, people somehow still find the funds to then enjoy themselves for the New Year and rightfully so. It's a fresh beginning, right? It's how you want to start your year off. You want to feel good. You want to be around friends and family, and just have a really, really good time. I think that this captures that perfectly.
KEITH: And with that, let's raise a cocktail or a mocktail to a happy and healthy new year with friends and family and movies that keep us coming back for more.
Josh, thank you so much. This was a great tour through some iconic beverages.
WHITE: Thank you. I appreciate you.
KEITH: Josh White is the bar manager at Death & Co. in Washington, D.C.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHEERS (DRINK TO THAT)")
RIHANNA: (Singing) There's a party at the bar. Everybody, put your glasses up, and I drink to that. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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