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Aperitif
Hail New Orleans that for more than a century has
been the home of civilized drinking. From the time of
its settlement by the French, through the dominaton
of the Spanish, and occupation by the Americans after
the Louisiana Purchase, the flowing bowl and the adept
mixing of what went in it has constituted as high an
art in this Creole city as the incomparable cooking for
which it is famed.
The quality of mixed drinks as served in New Or
leans has always appealed to the sophisticated taste, but
the drinks and their histories are forever linked with the
past of this pleasure-loving city out of which has come
so much that is beautiful and gay, and so much that is
worth preserving.
It was here that your pious Creole lady guilelessly
brewed muscadine wine and blackberry cordial and peach
brandy chocked with authority. It was here that your
gentlemen of the old school, more or less pleasantly
corned in season and out, made a cult of preparing a
drink and a ritual of downing it. It was here that your
most modern of American beverages, the cocktail, first
came into being and was given its jaunty name.
With a desire to acquaint the world—or that part of
the world that may be interested—with the art of mixing
a drink as it is done in New Orleans, the author of this
book has cajoled from old and new experts the recipes
handed down through succeeding generations and pre
sents them herein for your delectation with a smile and a
"SantS!"
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