Rolling Along

Last week I reached a milestone on the blog, five years of weekly boxes and booze pairings. It seemed like a good place to pause for a bit, maybe take a break and turn attentions elsewhere. So of course here I am, rolling right along anyway. There still seem to be a few more boxes we can talk about, and there has never been a short supply of cocktails.

The Sphere Box by Robert Yarger

So let’s just roll with it and keep going for a while longer. Another Stickman Box might help – the Stickman No. 18 Puzzle Box, fondly known as the “Sphere Box”. This intricate and inviting object is Rob’s contribution to the fidget toy genre. No not really, and created well before that craze hit the world, the Sphere Box was truly a design waiting to happen, just rolling around in the mind of its creator until he was ready to lose his marbles, so to speak. As opposed to an actual fidget toy, which spins with no other purpose in mind, this is a puzzle box, after all, with a method to its madness. Like all of his other creations, it is unlike any other, a round box, with many triangular facets. The box appears to separate into two halves which can twist against one another. However, this internal box is surrounded by a second layer, a spherical cage which intersects at each corner and locks the box in place. There are little spikes all about the internal box, blocking its movement here and there. How to maneuver the many movable parts in a way that will eventually open the box is anything but straightforward - you might even say its ... roundabout. For such a small object, it contains lots of details, not least of which are the many colorful exotic woods used to create it, including

Bloodwood, Cocobolo, Monticello, Padauk and Holly. Because it was so different from his prior creations, the Sphere Box was not initially well received by some collectors, who thought it was perhaps too odd, too simple, or too hard to keep still on the shelf! I think these people were just trying to put a square stick through a round hole.

Roll play adventure  

Like many wood craft artists, Rob hates to throw out any scraps left over from other projects. These often become the building blocks for future puzzles. He had a bucket full of Holly trimmings from the Checkmate Box that were perfectly shaped to make into little triangles.

Many had chipped corners, which became decoratively flattened tips on the box. Rob notes that these common flaws or characteristics of the wood he uses will likely dictate what direction or look a piece takes in the end. He began putting these triangles together, into what he though might be a pyramid, but ended up being a ball. If he lets it happen, he says, a puzzle like this will “create itself”. Maybe if you are Stickman, I suppose. After another week or so of pondering, the idea of a cage for the ball was devised. The outer cages are mostly made from Cocobolo, one of the most fragrant woods. Rob used a doorknob drill bit to cut the cage circles, which generated large amounts of fragrant sawdust. He saved this, and turned it into incense sticks to give as gifts. Nothing is ever wasted in Rob’s workshop. He also recalls that these drill bits would get tremendously hot and even ignite the oily sawdust it created. He says it was the only time he ever came close to burning down his workshop. It also made the shop smell wonderfully fragrant for months after. Another amusing story about these boxes again relates to their unique shape. As Rob works the finishing touches on his boxes, they often sit stacked up around him on his workbench. In this case that led to puzzles that were constantly dropping off the table and rolling away, to the delight of his cat. He would find these later, tucked under furniture all over the house. One more detail brings this story, appropriately enough, full circle, from the bucket of little triangles where it started. The doorknob cutter which helped produce the cage circles for the Sphere Box left a new bucket of smaller wood circles behind. These found their purpose, in time, as little gears in the future Celestial Box.

Holocene

The theme of coming full circle is particularly perfect for this most spherical of all Stickman boxes, and I continue it on into the toast. The cocktail pairing is based on one I came up with a while ago as a seasonal variation on the theme of the Boulevardier. That is a classic cocktail variation itself, based on the Negroni, that beguiling combination of gin, sweet vermouth and Campari. The Boulevardier exchanges the gin for bourbon, and was a favorite drink amongst the ex-patriot crowd living in Paris in the nineteen thirties. That’s when Erskine Gwynne invented it, and gave it the same name as the magazine she published for the avant garde artistic crowd of the era. I’ve written extensively about the Negroni template, which lends itself remarkably well to experimentation. The Boulevardier is a perfect example. By simply switching the base spirit to bourbon, an entirely different drink is created that is reminiscent but completely new.

Moody and evocative

It’s also easy enough to make bold or subtle changes to each component of the three part recipe. I came up with a drink a while back that I named the “Bon Iver”, after one of my favorite musicians. His songs are moody and evocative, and that’s how the drink made me feel. In it, I used apple brandy as the base spirit, Meletti amaro in place of the Campari, and a bold bitter vermouth called Barolo Chinato for that component. Finally I added extra depth with a few bitters made from charred cedar and sapele woods, to complete the feeling of a walk in the autumn countryside on a chilly evening. I paired this drink a few years ago with the Stickman Traditional Box. It seems appropriate that this new version is also paired with a Stickman Box. It has one subtle change, that the base of apple brandy is now split between apple brandy and reposado tequila. Subtle but wonderful, as these two spirits merge so well together and elevate the drink further. In homage to the original I named this one after a Bon Iver song, one that captures the theme for this pairing as well. Here’s to the circular journey – it will always lead you back to yourself. Cheers.

This round's on me

Holocene

¾ oz apple brandy

¾ oz reposado tequila

1 oz Meletti

1 oz Barolo Chinato

Dash Black Cloud Charred Cedar Bitters

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

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