The Poet’s Dream

The Poet’s Dream c. 1935

Kakuda’s work is like poetry, and always tells a story. I’m toasting it, and this long year of waiting, with a poetic drink, hoping that we will all awake from this dream in the new year. The cocktail is a classic take on the martini, which first appeared in the Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, 1935, as an equal parts mix of gin, vermouth and Benedictine. Created by French monks over five hundred years ago, Benedictine is an herbal liqueur made from neutral grain, lightly sweetened with notable flavors of Angelica, Hyssop and Lemon Balm. As such it is perfect to sip neat, or to add subtle nuance to a drink but may overpower a cocktail if too present.

A dreamy martini

A much more poetic balance for the drink is seen a few years later in the Café Royal Cocktail Book, 1937, where the Benedictine is reduced to half as much. Here I’m using a modern recipe from Lantern’s Keep, a bar in Manhattan which adapted the classic yet again in 2012. It readjusts both the Benedictine and the vermouth, bringing the gin forward for a more robust and bracing drink which is still well balanced. I think it’s exactly what we need to face the new year. Cocktail historian David Wondrich once posited who, in fact, the poet in question here might be referencing. After assessing the spirits used in the drink, the flavors, and the regional trends of the time pertaining to notable poets, he determined it must be Wallace Stevens, the Pulitzer Prize winning American modernist poet. Stevens is often considered a “difficult poet”, which is, I think, rather fitting for a closing ode to 2020.

The body dies; the body’s beauty lives.

So evenings die, in their green going,

A wave, interminably flowing.

- Wallace Stevens

Wait for it …

The Poet’s Dream

adapted by Lantern’s Keep from The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, 1935

2 oz gin

¾ oz dry vermouth

¼ oz Benedictine

2 d orange bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Lemon peel garnish.