Cocktail 4: The Angel of the Odd

Hereupon I bethought me of looking immediately before my nose, and there, sure enough, confronting me at the table sat a personage nondescript, although not altogether indescribable.  His body was a wine-pipe, or a rum-puncheon, or something of that character, and had a truly Falstaffian air.  In its nether extremity were inserted two kegs, which seemed to answer all the purposes of legs.  For arms there dangled from the upper portion of the carcass two tolerably long bottles, with the necks outward for hands. All the head that I saw the monster possessed of was one of those Hessian canteens which resemble a large snuff-box with a hole in the middle of the lid.  This canteen (with a funnel on its top, like a cavalier cap slouched over the eyes) was set on edge upon the puncheon, with the hole toward myself; and through this hole, which seemed puckered up like the mouth of a very precise old maid, the creature was emitting certain rumbling and grumbling noises which he evidently intended for intelligible talk.

The remainder of the story finds the narrator experiencing a convoluted series of far-fetched, outlandish coincidences involving fires and hogs and wigs and hot air balloons. In the end, the narrator falls from the sky through the chimney of his own house, and he comes to understand that the Angel of the Odd brought about these trials to convince him of “the possibility of the odd.” He ends the tale with these words: “Thus revenged himself the Angel of the Odd.”

The full story is available here.

Our formula for a cocktail seems obvious enough: We will “replenish [a] goblet (which [is] about a third full of port) with a colorless fluid,” which is, of course, Kirschenwasser. Here in the modern, English-speaking world the spirit is typically spelled “Kirschwasser,” but either way it is cherry brandy. (This means the Angel of the Odd “diluted” the narrator’s port with 80-proof alcohol, which is about twice the ABV of the port. I suppose this is one of Poe’s many satirical and/or comical touches.)

Anyway, using context clues, we can deduce that the drink created by the Angel of the Odd is one part port and two parts Kischwasser. I made myself a drink with those proportions, and found it to be far too bitter. Sticking with the cherry theme, I added a splash of maraschino liqueur, which did succeed in masking the bitterness a bit. But the drink is made more drinkable still by chilling it. (I stuck the finished drink in the fridge for a half hour.) In all honesty, this is a perfectly drinkable drink–which perhaps cannot be said for all the cocktails in this compilation.

Mix all three ingredients in a suitable “goblet.” Refrigerate for half an hour and serve.

Alternatively, you could combine them in a shaker with ice and strain into a chilled goblet. Either way, you’ll find it a serviceable alternative to your “frequent Lafitte.”