QKB

QKB Exploring the history, craft, and culture of bars and cocktails, one story a day
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Drink with moderation & enjoy clean water

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09/12/2026

JOURNALIST vs. PERIODISTA
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Same name. Two languages. Two completely different cocktails.

The Journalist appears in Harry McElhone’s Barflies and Cocktails in 1927 — a gin cocktail built with French and Italian vermouth, curaçao, lemon and Angostura.

More than twenty years later, the Periodista appears in the Cuban bartending manual El Arte de Cantinera in 1948. “Periodista” simply means “journalist” in Spanish — but this time the drink is built around Cuban rum, apricot, curaçao and lime.

JOURNALIST — 1927
Barflies and Cocktails — Harry McElhone
1/3 Gin
1/6 French Vermouth
1/6 Italian Vermouth
2 dashes Curaçao
2 dashes Lemon Juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Shake with ice & strain.

PERIODISTA — 1948
El Arte de Cantinera — Cuba
1 copa Bacardí Carta Blanca
¼ Apricot Brandy
¼ Curaçao
½ small Lime
¼ teaspoon Sugar
Shake with ice & strain.

The Cuban recipe was already in print 14 years before the Cuban Missile Crisis, making the later journalist legend just that — a legend.

But the mystery remains: did the Cuban Periodista take its name from the earlier European Journalist, or is it simply a coincidence?

Which one would you order?

09/09/2026

RED EYE
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Long before Tom Cruise stepped behind the bar, the Red Eye already existed.

Newspaper references cited from 1956 describe the Calgary Red Eye simply as b**r and tomato juice. By 1960, the same combination was being described as a morning “pick-me-up.”

Then came Cocktail in 1988.

Doug Coughlin asks Brian Flanagan if he knows how to make a Red Eye — and the drink becomes famous on screen with its most memorable ingredient: a whole raw egg.

🍺 CLASSIC RED EYE
B**r
Tomato juice
Build directly in the glass.

🎬 RED EYE À LA COCKTAIL
12 oz / 355 ml l***r
6 oz / 180 ml tomato juice
1 whole raw egg

Pour the cold tomato juice into a large chilled mug. Add the l***r. Do not stir. Crack the whole egg into the drink. Do not stir.

The mystery remains: when did the raw egg first enter the Red Eye? So far, we haven’t found a reliable pre-1988 printed recipe that proves it.

Would you drink one for breakfast?

09/08/2026

DIRTY MOTHER
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The Dirty Mother is basically the brandy cousin of the Black Russian: swap the vodka for brandy.

Its true origin remains undocumented. No confirmed inventor, no reliable birthplace, and no solid evidence for the online story claiming that “Mary Ann Jackson” created it during Prohibition.

That story has a major problem: Kahlúa was created in Mexico in 1936 — after U.S. Prohibition ended in 1933.

DIRTY MOTHER — Kahlúa recipe

1 oz / 30 ml Brandy
1 oz / 30 ml Kahlúa

Build directly over ice in a rocks glass and stir gently. No garnish.

Add cream and you get the Dirty White Mother, the brandy cousin of the White Russian.

Sometimes cocktail history gives us an inventor and an exact date. Sometimes the correct answer is simply: we don’t know.

Have you ever tried a Dirty Mother?



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09/05/2026

🍋 THE LIMONCELLO SPRITZ 🇮🇹
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One lemon. One family. And a cocktail with a surprisingly mysterious history.

On the Amalfi Coast grows the Sfusato Amalfitano, the distinctive lemon behind the protected Limone Costa d’Amalfi IGP.

The Aceto family traces its lemon-growing story back to 1825, when Salvatore Aceto acquired land around Minori and Ravello.

Almost two centuries later, another Salvatore Aceto is often credited with creating the Limoncello Spritz around 2005. But there’s a problem: the historical evidence isn’t strong enough to confirm that date.

Another version points to Bottega in 2012, with its Limoncino-based spritz.

So who actually invented it?

For now, we simply don’t know.

What we do know is the drink itself: a bright, sparkling combination of limoncello, Prosecco and soda that became synonymous with Italian summer drinking.

🍋 CLASSIC LIMONCELLO SPRITZ

3 oz / 90 ml Prosecco
2 oz / 60 ml Limoncello
1 oz / 30 ml Soda Water

Build over ice in a large w**e glass.
Stir gently.
Garnish with a lemon wheel + fresh mint.

2005 or 2012 — who gets the credit? And do you like a Limoncello Spritz?

09/04/2026

25 YEARS LATER 🍸🏴‍☠️🍍

Going through my old bartending stuff recently brought back a lot of memories.

I came through the traditional French hospitality-school system: CAP, BEP, Bac Pro, before specializing with a Mention Complémentaire Barman — nationally recognized qualifications issued through the French Ministry of Education.

France may not have invented the cocktail — that story belongs largely to America and the Anglo-Saxon world — but we’ve always taken gastronomy, hospitality and the craft of service very seriously. And at least in my time, bartender training was no exception.

What you see here is actually from 2001: the cocktail menus I created for my bartending exam, along with the bar book I studied inside out to prepare for it. Twenty-five years later, that book may be a little outdated 😅, but looking through it again, a lot of the fundamentals are still there.

And of course, a career like this is never built alone.

I was lucky enough to learn from Laurent Agar, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, and later from so many talented people along the way — head bartenders, fellow bartenders, colleagues and friends. A special mention to Max Le François, who became a real mentor at the beginning of my career and remains someone I deeply respect today. The full list would simply be too long.

Since then: France → London → New York.
Different cities, different bars, different chapters — but the same passion.

Today, QKB has taken that passion somewhere I never expected: social media, cocktail history and educational content, using new tools — including AI — to bring those stories to life.

And somehow, people started watching. So we keep going, learning, researching, experimenting with new formats and thinking about what comes next.

25 years later, I’m still behind the bar, still learning, still sharing… and the passion is still the same. 🍸

09/03/2026

MAKE IT SKATE
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“Make it skate.”

A Martini order that can still catch even experienced bartenders by surprise.

To make a Martini skate, shake it hard enough to create tiny shards of ice, then strain it while allowing some of those fragments to remain floating on the surface — a Martini so cold you could almost ice skate across the top.

But the idea behind it is older than the expression.

Bartenders have talked about “bruising” a Martini for generations, with the term documented as early as 1931. Of course, gin isn’t literally bruised: vigorous shaking aerates the drink, changes its texture and dilution, temporarily clouds it, and can break tiny fragments from the ice.

Those floating fragments even developed their own bar vocabulary. One wonderful American expression is “Ducks on the Pond” — little pieces of ice floating across the Martini like ducks on water.

The skating image appears much later. In 2024, New York bartender Michael Neff described customers wanting to “ice skate” on their Martini: shaken hard with a thin layer of ice chips on top.

By 2025, “Make it skate” was documented specifically as a Martini call.

No inventor. No precise birthplace that we can prove yet. Just another great example of how cocktail language keeps evolving behind the bar.

🍸 MAKE IT SKATE MARTINI
Your preferred Dry Martini spec
Shake very hard with ice
Strain into a chilled Martini glass, allowing a thin layer of tiny ice shards to pass through
Garnish as requested

Have you ever heard someone order a Martini “Make it skate”?

09/01/2026

NEW YORK SOUR — FROM 1884 TO TODAY
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The New York Sour has changed names, technique and presentation for more than 140 years.

The earliest version currently documented appears in Chicago in 1883, when a bartender described adding a “claret snap” to a Wh***ey Sour.

But one of the earliest actual printed recipes comes one year later.

1884 — CONTINENTAL SOUR
O. H. Byron, The Modern Bartenders’ Guide

• ½ teaspoon sugar, dissolved in water
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 1 w**e-glass wh***ey — “or liquor as desired”
• Claret

Shake with fine ice, strain into a Sour glass and finish with a dash of claret.

No egg white. No ice in the serving glass.

By 1885, the Boston Herald was already using the name New York Sour — even though the earliest documented version comes from Chicago. Names including Continental and Southern Sour continued to circulate.

Today, the drink looks very different.

2026 — IBA NEW YORK SOUR

• 2 oz / 60 ml Rye Wh***ey or Bourbon
• ¾ oz / 22.5 ml Simple Syrup
• 1 oz / 30 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
• Few drops Egg White
• ½ oz / 15 ml Red W**e — Shiraz or Malbec

Shake vigorously with ice, strain into an ice-filled rocks glass and float the red w**e on top.

From Continental Sour served up without egg white to the modern New York Sour with foam and ice — same family, very different presentation.

Which one would you order: 1884 or 2026?

SOURCES
O. H. Byron — The Modern Bartenders’ Guide (1884), p.65.
Chicago Tribune — “Local Miscellany: The Barkeeper,” Nov. 25, 1883, p.11; Boston Herald — “Set ’Em Up Again, Please!”, Dec. 13, 1885, p.18; David Wondrich — The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails.
IBA — Official New York Sour recipe⁠

08/31/2026

NEW YORK SOUR — CHEMISTRY vs TASTE
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A recent discussion under my Wh***ey Sour video raised an interesting question:

Do red w**e and egg white really work together?

Yes, egg-white proteins interact with tannins and polyphenols in red w**e. In fact, egg albumin has traditionally been used to fine red w**e and reduce certain tannins.

But chemical interaction doesn’t automatically mean bad taste.

A 2013 study found that egg albumin measurably changed the tannins in Pinotage w**e — yet sensory testing could not significantly distinguish the treated w**e from the untreated control.

And historically, there’s another interesting detail.

On November 25, 1883, the Chicago Tribune described a Wh***ey Sour finished with claret on top.

No egg white was mentioned.

By 1885, the name New York Sour appears in the Boston Herald.

So, should a New York Sour have egg white?

Historically? Probably not.
Chemically? Yes, there is an interaction.
Does that automatically make it taste bad? No evidence says it does.

Technique, w**e choice and ultimately your palate decide.

SOURCES
• Chicago Tribune, Nov. 25, 1883, p. 11
• Boston Herald, Dec. 13, 1885, p. 18
• Wondrich & Rothbaum, The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails — “New York Sour”
• Oberholster, Carstens & du Toit, Food Chemistry, 2013, 138:1275–1281
• OIV — International Code of Oenological Practices: Fining

***eySour

08/27/2026

THE TUXEDO COCKTAIL
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One cocktail. One jacket. Same name. Same place.

Tuxedo Park opened in New York State in 1886 and gave its name to both the American tuxedo jacket and one of the great gin cocktails.

Its creator remains unknown.

One myth places the drink in Harry Johnson’s 1882 manual — but the Tuxedo isn’t there. The earliest Johnson recipe we can verify appears in the expanded 1900 edition.

🍸 HARRY JOHNSON — 1900
½ w**e glass Old Tom Gin
½ w**e glass French Vermouth
1–2 dashes Maraschino
1 dash Absinthe
2–3 dashes Orange Bitters
Cherry + lemon peel

New and Improved Bartender’s Manual, 1900, p. 267.

The old Waldorf-Astoria preserved another branch of the story:

🍸 WALDORF-ASTORIA
⅔ Gin
⅓ Sherry
Orange Bitters

Albert Stevens Crockett later connected its name to a settlement on the Erie Railroad where many Waldorf customers had country homes — strongly pointing toward Tuxedo Park.

The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book — Albert Stevens Crockett.

Then Harry Craddock gave us two versions:

🍸 TUXEDO No. 1 — 1930
½ Dry Gin
½ French Vermouth
2 dashes Absinthe
Lemon peel

🍸 TUXEDO No. 2 — 1930
½ Dry Gin
½ French Vermouth
1 dash Maraschino
1 dash Absinthe
2 dashes Orange Bitters
Cherry + lemon peel

The Savoy Cocktail Book — Harry Craddock, 1930.

🍸 IBA — TODAY
1 oz / 30 ml Old Tom Gin
1 oz / 30 ml Dry Vermouth
½ bar spoon Maraschino Luxardo
¼ bar spoon Absinthe
3 dashes Orange Bitters
Cherry + lemon zest

Almost back to Johnson’s 1900 formula.

We know the name. We know the recipes.
But who created the Tuxedo? That remains a mystery.

08/26/2026

THE HUGO SPRITZ — FROM MELISSA TO ELDERFLOWER
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The Hugo was born in 2005 in Naturno, South Tyrol, when bartender Roland Gruber wanted an alternative to the Spritz Veneziano — strongly associated with Aperol at the time.

His original creation contained no elderflower.

Gruber used a locally produced lemon balm syrup — Melissa — with Prosecco, soda, mint and lemon.

He first considered calling the drink Otto… before choosing Hugo.

🌿 THE ORIGINAL HUGO — ROLAND GRUBER, 2005

• 2 parts Prosecco
• 1 part soda water
• 2–3 dashes Melissa / lemon balm syrup
• 10–12 mint leaves
• 1 lemon slice
• Ice

The harder-to-find Melissa syrup was later replaced by elderflower syrup, helping the Hugo spread from South Tyrol into Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

And there’s another twist:

St-Germain wasn’t launched until 2007 — two years after the Hugo.

Today, St-Germain has become closely associated with the modern Hugo, but it was never part of Gruber’s original recipe.

🌼 MODERN ST-GERMAIN HUGO SPRITZ

• 1½ oz / 45 ml St-Germain
• 2 oz / 60 ml Prosecco
• 2 oz / 60 ml soda water
• Fresh mint
• Lime

Build over ice in a w**e glass and gently stir.

From Melissa to elderflower. From Otto to Hugo. From a small South Tyrolean bar to one of Europe’s most recognizable spritzes.

Have you ever had a Hugo Spritz?

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