‘Spirits and Cocktails of Upstate New York, A History’ by Don Cazentre
By Erica Barnes
Contributing Writer
If Saturday night finds you sipping something elegant, whether shaken or stirred, you may have early Upstate New Yorkers to thank. Legend has it that that most potent of potables owes its name and genesis to our region. In “Spirits and Cocktails of Upstate New York,” Syracuse journalist Don Cazentre delves into the history of cocktails, distilling and their role in the area’s development.
Cazentre explores the claim that a Hudson Valley tavernkeeper invented the concoction we know as the “cocktail,” as well as how the distillation of spirits played into the changing Upstate landscape. He takes readers on a tippler’s road trip to visit some of the places where spirits made their mark and are enjoying a resurgence of popularity.
At each stop, Cazentre and his mixologist compatriots offer locally-based cocktails with names like The Hudson Mint Julep, A Mule Named Sal and the Knickerbocker. The cocktail is enjoying a revitalization and “Spirits” takes you directly to the producers and cocktail masters with pages of photographs and over fifty historic and modern recipes.
Cazentre begins his spirited history with the Native Americans and brings it all the way to the era of the Cazenovia-made Disco Lemonade. From the rum distilleries of the colonial era, to the whiskey rations of the Erie Canal workers, spirits production fueled Upstate development, and “Spirits” helps make the connections.
The author visits the craftsmen bringing the art of rum and whiskey distillation back to New York, such as Albany Distillers at the historic site of the Quackenbush still in downtown Albany and Old Home Distillers in Lebanon. Each stop highlights a cocktail using local spirits, such as Burns Night in America, from Old Home Distillers, featuring their single malt whiskey.
As times changed, so too did our region’s relationship with alcohol. Cazentre invites readers to sip their way through the Gilded Age, when the Maime Taylor was all the rage and robber barons quaffed Saratoga Brace Up’s at the races. And since what’s old is new again, the author argues the Maime Taylor is poised for a return.
“It was a mix of Scotch, ginger beer and lime — and so it was a forerunner of the suddenly popular Moscow Mule,” he writes. “It could be ripe for a comeback — and help Scotch sales along the way.”
Of course, prohibition changed the cocktail game and the author dives into the Roaring 20s with delightful tales of Syracuse speakeasies and Buffalo bootleggers. Try an Admiral’s Raspberry Lemonade to get you into the Thousand Islands smuggling spirit. Cazentre brings each era to life with photos of cocktails and historic settings as well as of modern mixologists inventing new takes on old favorites.
For all its well-researched history, “Spirits” is very much a book about the future. Cazentre wants his readers to get to know the distillers and cocktail artisans carrying on the legacy of their forebears. There’s a chapter dedicated to Cazenovia’s Ben Reilley, of Life of Reilley Distilling, who, with the first New York “cocktail in a can,” (a modern development surely never dreamed of by the early mixologists) is bringing New York spirits back to a national stage.
Cazentre stops by the Turquoise Tiger, Turning Stone’s swinging cocktail lounge, to watch the bartenders concocting delicious potions in their test kitchen. And he sits down with families like the Fee Brothers in Rochester, as they reinvent their family’s century-old bitters business.
Anyone interested in local history, buying local or who just appreciates a great cocktail, you’ll find something to love in “Spirits and Cocktails.” And if you’re searching for just the right toddy to please your guests this holiday season, the author has you covered.
“You can’t go wrong with the Tom & Jerry,” he writes. “It’s a classic and it ‘may’ have been invented, and certainly popularized, by Jerry Thomas, the 19th century international celebrity bartender who was born in Sackets Harbor. It’s an egg batter-based drink with spices, brandy and rum. And it has its own distinctive glassware. It’s still popular in Watertown, and I think more Upstate bars should offer it around the holidays.”
Though the exact origins of the cocktail may be murky, Don Cazentre assures us its future is certain with the talented mixologists and distillers of Upstate New York.
“Spirits and Cocktails of Upstate New York” is published in paperback by The History Press at a cost of $21.99. It is available online at arcadiapublishing.com, along with a limited edition set of 15 postcards, each featuring a beautifully photographed historic cocktail and recipe, for an additional $7.99.
