Bring Me Dead Flowers

State Secrets

The Russian war against Ukraine has continued for over four months now, displacing over fifteen million people and claiming approximately fifty thousand lives so far. But this all started for Ukraine many centuries ago, over which time the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, Poland, and Lithuania have all held jurisdiction over Ukraine, which finally gained independence as a sovereign country in 1917 as the Ukrainian People’s Republic. Russian took control again quickly and in 1922 Ukraine became a part of the Soviet Union. Stalin punished the country with a forced famine in the early 1930’s, which killed close to four million people. Germany’s invasion of Ukraine in World War II led to the country’s participation in the Holocaust, and more bitter history against Russia. Ukraine again declared independence in 1991. Following in Catherine the Great’s footsteps from 1784, Russia again annexed Crimea, a major Ukrainian peninsula on the Black Sea, in 2014, laying the groundwork for the current war.

State Secrets by Thomas Cummings

Many see the war as Russia’s attempt to restore their Imperial Empire of old, in a world that has changed and moved on, against a peaceful nation. Many have shown solidarity with Ukraine, in their own way. I live in a country which has provided immense financial support, and continues to do so as a priority. Thomas Cummings, a puzzle box maker from Georgia, has shown his own support in his own way, by creating a puzzle box to raise and continue awareness of the Ukrainian’s plight and struggle throughout their history. His State Secrets is fashioned in the signature style of his work, with a box made from reclaimed wood decorated with many fine details and accents, which contains a tricky puzzle to solve on top before the box can be opened. State Secrets features a Ukrainian Trident in one corner, a decorative cross in another, and an eighteenth-century ruble coin prominently affixed in the center track. Use the clues, slide the coin, and solve the mechanism to reveal another of Thomas’s political comments, a hunk of coprolite waiting like a treasure inside.

Thomas explains that he had this mechanism in mind for some time but was not thrilled with the theme he had come up with, until a new one came from the historic relationship between Russia and Ukraine. From Thomas: “Symbolically ... Russia (Putin) keeping a tight lid on its box of 'secret' intentions. And the plight of Ukraine waiting, like a initiate for hazing particulars in the box! What is Putin's motivation? .... the historical union with the Ukraine ?..Unlikely! A Slavic Brotherhood? .. certainly not from 'Uncle Joe', (he tried to enslave and starve them). Going back to Cathy the great? (our equestrian enthusiast) of Imperial Russia had the idea too, (Empires were all the 18th century rage). Ah behold! success! the invention of the Potemkin Village. Sometimes, we study history to learn ... we learn nothing from history.”

The Golden Year by Claire Sprouse

For the toast, I wanted to honor the Ukrainian spirit as well, and chose to focus on the sunflower, their national flower. Since the start of the war, the sunflower — soniashnyk in Ukrainian — has become a symbol of solidarity, resilience, resistance, and hope in the world. Searching for sunflower cocktails, I came across this one by Claire Sprouse, bartender and owner of Brooklyn’s Hunky Dory bar, which uses sunflower seeds in the recipe. Sprouse, a Houston native (I had to give that a mention), champions sustainability and fair and equitable employment practices in the spirits industry, along with all sorts of daily activism.

Sprouse espouses sustainability in her cocktails, which manifests in multiple ways. In the Golden Year, for example, she uses a sunflower seed orgeat (a nut syrup), in place of the more traditional almond orgeat. Almonds require gallons of water to grow, while sunflower seeds do not. Nuts in general are some of the most water intensive crops, while seeds have a much lower “water footprint” and environmental impact. The cocktail preparation also utilizes a “direct pour”, meaning the ice used to shake the drink with is also poured into the cocktail glass – something that is not typically done when shaking cocktails, and which wastes water. Nut syrups are fairly easy to make, by blending toasted nuts with sugar and water, and then straining through a cloth bag. I toasted my sunflower seeds a bit too long, and possibly burnt a few, resulting in a gray and depressing syrup. But I used it, to be sustainable, and because it captured the spirit of this toast so well in the end. The name of the cocktail may also seem inappropriate as a tribute to Ukraine right now, but I think the people of Ukraine are looking to the world for hope, so I’m raising my glass to them, imagining and hoping for a better future while we help them survive the present.

The Golden Year by Claire Sprouse

1 ½ oz bourbon

½ oz Cynar

1 oz sunflower seed orgeat

½ oz lemon

Shake ingredients with pebble ice (or small chunks of ice) and pour everything into a glass packed with more pebble ice. Traditionally served in a white mug and garnished with dried marigold and sunflower petals, I instead made a lemon wheel sunflower.

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