Desperately Seeking Santa

Happy Holidays! I enjoy holiday themed offerings, and often delve into an exploration of the origins of many Western traditions, a delightful and enlightening pursuit. I’ve expounded upon the fascinating and gruesome history of Valentine’s Day, for example, and I’ve eluded to the introduction of the festive tree this time of year before.  Evergreens have been used in reverent worship since the time of the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Druids. It’s not hard to understand how a vibrant green plant might have inspired awe in the dead of winter long ago. Notwithstanding its Pagan origins, the tree took on new meaning thanks to the Germans in the sixteenth century, who brought trees into their homes during Christmas.

Santa's Workshop by Kelly Snache

What about Santa Claus? St. Nicholas was a Greek monk from the third century, born near modern day Turkey. He was famed for his generosity and kindness, especially to children, and his life was celebrated. Many countries developed their own versions of this gift giving saint, such as the Dutch who called him Sint Nikolaas, and gave him the more famous nickname Sinter Klaus. The celebration of his death on December 6, marked with gifts and wishes for prosperity, slowly became tangled with the Christian celebration of Christmas around the same time. The Swiss even called their holiday benefactor “Christkind”, meaning Christ Child, for example. The English were much more pragmatic, naming him “Father Christmas”. But ultimately we find ourselves in America, where the Dutch brought their Sinter Klaus to town in the late eighteenth century. Over the next hundred years, the media, in the form of poet Clement Clarke Moore (Twas the Night Before Christmas, 1822) and cartoonist Thomas Nast (Harper’s Weekly,1881), reshaped the jolly old soul into the guy we know today.

My Tea Tricky ... 

Ok, I know I’m supposed to present a puzzle box here at some point, too. How about this one, fresh from Santa’s Workshop? Another seasonal creation from our puzzling friend up North, Santa’s Workshop is a holiday themed chapter in the Tea Box series from Kelly Snache. Kelly describes these in this way: “The Granny’s Tea Box puzzle design pays homage to my Granny. She introduced me to the joy of puzzles at a very young age (probably to keep me out of trouble for 5 minutes), and of course loved drinking tea herself. Serendipitously, the pint-sized tea boxes, my love of recycling and my passion for wood puzzle boxes has steeped much like the tea, to blend the varied ingredients into a delightful enigma. I see oodles of charm in these teensy weensy tea boxes and the potential for an intriguing puzzle experience.” Kelly plans a total of ten tea boxes over time. Santa is number seven in the series so far, and the most recent, made from a vintage soft wood tea box modified with Pau Amarello, Walnut, Bloodwood, American Cherry, Wenge and Maple into a five moves to open puzzle box. It’s definitely on the nice list!

Sleigh Pilot

Typically one would leave some cookies and milk out by the fireplace for Santa, which is why he got so fat, incidentally. You would be forgiven for thinking that Santa's drink of choice is a cold glass of milk. A little known fact is that Santa actually loves a few cocktails on Christmas Eve. His sleigh is magic anyway, he doesn’t really need to stay sober. Rudolph is his designating driver. A lover of all things kitschy, Santa really goes for an over-the-top tiki style drink. This entire class of cocktails (tiki) is an oeuvre meant to evoke a generic Polynesian vibe and transport one to an ambiguously tropical locale. It was “invented” by Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt when he opened Don the Beachcomber, the very first tiki style bar in Hollywood, 1934. A few years later, “Trader Vic” Bergeron remodeled his place up the road, copying Gantt, and sealing the fate of tiki, which became immensely popular thanks to war veterans returning from the South Pacific and the folly of the Hollywood elite. In modern times tiki styling might have been considered cultural appropriation, but tiki cocktail culture was always acknowledged to be a fabrication, not a true representation of authentic Polynesian culture. In this light, it’s simply an art form all on its own.

This year we dive back into the history books for one of Don the Beachcomber’s originals, the Test Pilot. Like many of his classic recipes, it has evolved over time, but should include overproof rum, Puerto Rican rum, Jamaican rum, lime juice, and Don’s signature mix of Angostura Bitters and Pernod (or other anise flavored liqueur such as Herbsaint or Absinthe). Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, new versions of the drink popped up quickly at other bars, with a notable version being the “Jet Pilot”, which added grapefruit juice and cinnamon syrup to the mix. These drinks captured the imagination of the public in the Forties and Fifties, during the “Jet Age” of air speed development, with Edwards Air Force in Southern California host to Chuck Yeager’s 1948 air speed record in an X-1 jet. His record would be surpassed in 1967 by the X-15 rocket plane, which inspired its own cocktail.

Santa's being a little naughty

For Santa’s version of the Jet Pilot, I’ve simply swapped out the Jamaican rum for Becherovka, the Czech spirit I wrote about last winter made with flavors of cinnamon, clove, allspice, ginger and cardamom. It retains the spirit of the rum while adding something festive for the holidays, and works perfectly. Of course, any decent tiki drink needs an outrageous, over-the-top garnish, so here is one made from citrus peels that ought to hit the mark, straight from Santa’s Texas Workshop. Here's wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday season. Cheers!

Naughty and Nice

Sleigh Pilot

1 oz Becherovka

¾ oz Puerto Rican aged rum

¾ oz overproof dark rum

½ oz lime

½ oz grapefruit

½ oz Falernum liqueur

½ oz cinnamon syrup

2 dashes Angostura bitters

6 dashes absinthe

4 oz crushed ice

Flash mix ingredients together in a blender and serve ala tiki style in a favorite mug.

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