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In alien Spradien warden hier die Tagesfragen besprodien. Erleb-
nisse und Erinnerungen erzahlt, gesungen, gewurfelt und vor allem
— getrunken. Der intelligente, gerissene Internationale Bartender,
wie Blunier einer ist, versteht sein Geschaft aus dem ff. Seine
«Drinks» sind iiberall bekannt und beliebt, und seine «Giftmischer-
kunst» madit ihm wohl nur ganz selten einer nach.
Viele Freunde aus aller Welt babe ich dort kennengelernt. Sie sind
gekommen und wieder gegangen und mancher ist seither fiir immer
geschieden. Dem Herausgeber dieses Buches aber, dem Griinder des
Speakeasys, Otto Blunier, der wie kein anderer dazu erkoren ist,
ein Budi iiber «Mixed Drinks» zu schreiben, mache ich mein Kom-
pliment. Maine herzlichsten Wunsche sollen sein Buch hinaus in die
weite Welt begleiten. Mbge as ihm zum Erfolge, dem internatio-
nalen Bartendertum zum Ruhme warden.
R. B. Chicago.
The Shaker
The Shaker is the chief factor of the American Bar.
It must be provided with 3 lumps of ice of the size of a nut,
which have to «beat» the spirits.
The method of mixing the ingredients in a big glass is wrong.
This chiefly because the spirits that are utilised must actually be
«beaten» in order to achieve the original effect of a stimulant.
Secondly, a cocktail when served must at first look turbid, and
then clear up gradually. Such a beaten drink has a «fiery» effect
upon the client, while mixed drinks produce sluggishness and
tiredness in the consumer. In the United States no cocktail or
any corresponding decoction was ever mixed before the Prohi
bition came.
Prohibition, with all its disadvantages, had the effect, that the
guest wanted to see what he was going to be offered, and that
was only possible by the use of a bar-glass, so that shaking was
replaced by mixing. This one can understand, if one knows the
dangerous circumstances that surrounded the forbidden use of
alcohol in those days.
But this would have been different, if a glass-shaker had been
found. However, the new unbreakable, fire-proof glass was not
yet discovered in those days. Let us hope, that some genius