2025 Poe Cocktails

Cocktail 3: The Cask of Amontillado

October 3, 2025October 3, 2025 steveboilard1 Comment

I said to him—“My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.”

“How?” said he. “Amontillado, A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!”

“I have my doubts,” I replied; “and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter. You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain.”

“Amontillado!”

“I have my doubts.”

The Tale

The narrator of this tale has long ago been subjected to “a thousand injuries” at the hand of the ironically-named Fortunato, so he comes up with a plan to exact his revenge. Fortunato is a wine snob, and the narrator lures him into his catacombs with a promise of sampling some Amontillado that he recently purchased. But rather than tasting the wine, Fortunato is chained to the ancient stone wall and left for dead. It is a grim, heartless, and deadly vengeance.

The full story is available here.

The Drink

Let me here confess that I don’t know much about history, don’t know much biology, don’t know much about a science book…and don’t know much about Amontillado. Other than in Poe’s story, I’ve never even heard of the stuff. I understand it’s a Spanish, fortified wine, but beyond that I’m as clueless as Fortunato following his guide’s torch into the catacombs.

Anyway, it strikes me that there are two kinds of people in this world: Those who understand and appreciate Amontillado, and those who have better things to concern themselves with. I count myself in the latter category. And yet, for the sake of this noble project, I’m willing to experiment “in the manner of Montilla.” Now, the easiest approach here is to just have a glass of Amontillado, the way that Poe’s narrator and/or Fortunato would have drunk it. But upon the first sip I decided it was–how shall I put this?–revolting.

As an alternative, I read somewhere that Amontillado can be substituted for sweet vermouth, so why not make a Manhattan with it? This I tried, and I discovered that a Manhattan made with Amontillado could be significantly improved by simply leaving out the Amontillado.

Finally, I hit upon the tried-and-true method of drowning out the offending spirit with other, preferable flavors. And by that I mean, of course, coconut. And thus we arrive at this modified version of a Cabana Club.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 ounces Amontillado

1/2 ounce absinthe

2 ounces cream of coconut

1 ounce coconut water

1/4 ounce agave syrup

A pinch or two of ground cinnamon

Garnish: Coconut flakes

Garnish: grated nutmeg

Dump the first six ingredients into a blender with ice. Blend to a slushy consistency, like a Slurpee. Pour into a coupe glass, garnish with the coconut and grated nutmeg. I guarantee you won’t know that you’ve just consumed Amontillado.

Poe-Script:

While it hasn’t been definitely proven that Poe drank absinthe, he certainly drank his share of alcohol, and absinthe was popular among writers and artists in Poe’s day. So I consider the blending of Amontillado and absinthe in this cocktail to be apt. Plus, coconut is said to contain medium-chain triglycerides, which, I’m told, are good for you. So this drink is healthful…unlike what Fortunato encountered.

2025 Poe Cocktails

Cocktail 2: Never Bet the Devil Your Head

October 2, 2025September 20, 2025 steveboilardLeave a comment

Punctually at the word “away,” my poor friend set off in a strong gallop. The stile was not very high, like Mr. Lord’s — nor yet very low, like that of Mr. Lord’s reviewers, but upon the whole I made sure that he would clear it. And then what if he did not? — ah, that was the question — what if he did not? “What right,” said I, “had the old gentleman to make any other gentleman jump? The little old dot-and-carry-one! who is he? If he asks me to jump, I won’t do it, that’s flat, and I don’t care who the devil he is.” The bridge, as I say, was arched and covered in, in a very ridiculous manner, and there was a most uncomfortable echo about it at all times — an echo which I never before so particularly observed as when I uttered the four last words of my remark.

The Tale

As obliquely insinuated at the end of the above passage, this is a story about the Devil. (I suppose, to be fair, it’s also explicitly stated in the title. But still.) And despite the fiendish subject matter, this is also one of Poe’s humorous tales. The plot is a simple one: The narrator’s friend, one Toby Dammit (haha!), has acquired the habit of punctuating his statements with offers to take a bet. And his favorite formulation of that oath was “I’ll bet the devil my head…” As can be imagined, such an arrogant pronouncement will not go unpunished in a Poe tale.

So we find the narrator and Toby Dammit approaching a covered bridge, and Toby “insisted upon leaping the stile, and said he could cut a pigeon-wing over it in the air.” In response to the narrator’s scoffing, Toby bets the devil his head that he can do it. At that moment the small, old gentleman mentioned in the above excerpt coughs from the shadows and, in so many words, accepts Toby’s bet. The old gentleman gives the signal and Toby runs and jumps…and is decapitated by a horizontal metal bar above the stile that had been hidden by the gloom. The old man runs away with Toby’s head.

The full story is available here.

The drink

The star of this story, I think, is not so much Toby Dammit as it is the devil. Admittedly he doesn’t have much of a speaking role, but it is he who delivers the lesson contained in the story’s title. There’s also something very theatrical about how the narrator’s words (“…the devil he is”) echo uncomfortably through the covered bridge. For these reasons, our drink will focus on the infernal little gentleman.

There are many drinks out there that take some variation of the name “demon blood” or “devil’s blood.” All of them are red, for obvious reasons. But the variant we present here has the signature touches of a devil-horn garnish and a fiery burn.

Ingredients:

2 oz. carta blanca rum

2 oz unsweetened cranberry juice

1-1/2 tbs peppermint schnapps

Several dashes of tabasco (the more the better)

2 chili peppers (for garnish)

Cut slots into the bottom of the two chili peppers and affix them to the rim of a martini glass. Put all the liquid ingredients into your cocktail shaker with ice. Shake the hell out of it (Har!). Strain into the prepared martini glass. Damn, it’s good!

(Note: The tabasco is the key to this drink. Put in as much as you can stand–I did six healthy dashes. The tabasco adds dimensionality and balances the sweet and tart flavors.)

Poe-Script

It’s said that Poe may have gotten the idea for Toby’s mishap from Dickens’ The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. To wit:

“Heads, heads, take care of your heads,” cried the loquacious stranger, as they came out under the low archway, which, in those days, formed the entrance to the coach-yard. “Terrible place — dangerous work; other day, five children — mother — tall lady, eating sandwiches — forgot the arch — crash, knock — children look round, mother’s head off … head of a family off; shocking, shocking.”

Poe-Tober is Upon Us

September 30, 2025September 29, 2025 steveboilard2 Comments

*Cover image from my forthcoming Edgar Allan Poe cocktail book. I’m not making this up.*

Well, here we are–on the cusp of another October with its promise of spooky decorations, pumpkin beer, and, ultimately, All Hallow’s Eve. And you know what that means: it’s the month that I turn over this blog to 31 days of Halloween-related content. In past years we’ve had reviews of Halloween snacks, Halloween candy, Frankenstein movies, my own serialized horror story, and other thematic content.

This is truly a magical season, as the weather (at least in my neck of the woods) changes from hot and dry to cool and misty. The days shorten, the sun hangs lower on the horizon, and wood smoke fills the air. The hub, not to mention the bub, of the so-called Winter Holidays is (barely) held in abeyance while we make this transition into fall. It’s my favorite time of year. And that’s why this blog celebrates the season through the whole month of October.

So, what’s on tap for this year’s October blog? I’m glad you asked. Beginning tomorrow, we’re going to present 31 Edgar Allan Poe tales, each paired with a bespoke cocktail related to the story. In each post I’ll give you a short excerpt from Poe’s original tale, a synopsis of the plot, a recipe for making the cocktail, and a “Poe-script” with some related trivia. I’ll even provide a link to the full text, just in case you’re such a Rube that you don’t already own a compendium of Poe’s works. This way, you can read the tale while sipping on your specialty cocktail.

One word of warning: I am not a trained mixologist. In fact, I’m pretty much groping in the dark with these recipes. All I can say is that I’ve created, tested, and refined each one until it is deemed drinkable…by me. (By way of full disclosure I should admit that most if not all of these drinks have earned a thumbs down by my wife. But she likes neither whiskey nor gin, so clearly her credibility in these matters is lacking.)

So, starting tomorrow, I invite you to spend the month enjoying my curated list of 31 Poe stories along with their associated, custom cocktails. As always, I welcome your thoughts, reactions, and hangover nostrums. If you’re not already subscribed to this blog, you can sign up below. And if you are already subscribed, spread the word! Make all your friends’ October Poe-tastic!