- shots
The origin of the word cocktail is much debated. One theory is that it comes from the French word for egg cup “coquetier” as people would use them to serve digestive alcohols. In early 2016, spirits historian David Wondrich published an article revealing what could be the true story of how the word cocktail came to be, a story that will most likely make you want to gag, rather than order a drink. Last fall, I was strolling on Portobello Road in London and, quite unusually for me, I was perusing the antique stands. I was looking for vintage shakers
Dirty shots, Paul Alexandre Walpen and Ali Reza Perroud, the authors, couldn’t find a better name for their book. If you’ve ever had shots at the shot bar they used to manage in Geneva, the Café de La Pointe, you’ll know what I mean! La Pointe was famous for its delicious and often dirty named shots (it maybe still is but I haven’t gone in over two years and definitely not since Alex and Ali have gone). To give a few examples of the original shot names, there was la Couille de panda (the Panda’s Nut), le Téton qui pointe