A few weeks ago, I was attending an event at my local indie bookstore, M. Judson Booksellers, to celebrate the launch of my friend Taylor Brown’s incredible new book Wingwalkers — y’all need to read it, by the way — when I had an idea. The event, Books Over Drinks, gives you a chance to meet the author, hear them read, get a copy of a book and a cocktail (or beer/wine if you prefer). That night, because of the book, we were having Paper Planes. It was a perfect pairing. After the event, I went up to the owner of the shop and offered up a proposition — I’d be happy to come up with the custom cocktails and serve them if she gives me a copy of the book to work with and allows me to be at the event. She agreed. Easiest win-win ever, in my opinion. Thankfully, M. Judson had a couple in the immediate future, so I got to work.
The first event I participated in was with Katherine Reay and her new book The London House (Harper Muse 2021). From the author’s site:
An uncovered family secret sets one woman on the journey of a lifetime through the history of Britain’s WWII spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris in an effort to understand her past, save her family, and claim her future.
One call could bring ruin to her family name.
Caroline Payne thinks it is just another day at work when she receives a call from Mat Hammond, a doctoral candidate, who has uncovered a dark and scandalous family secret: her British great-aunt defected to the Nazis to marry her German lover.
The letters tell a different story.
In search of answers, Caroline flies to London to search her grandmother’s diaries and her aunt’s letters. In them she discovers the “Waite girls” and a time of peace and luxury in the interwar years that is beyond anything she ever imagined. But the buoyant tone quickly changes as the sisters grow older, fall in love with the same man, and one leaves home to join the glamorous art scene of 1930s Paris—all amid the rumblings of war.
But history won’t let its secrets go so easily.
The more Caroline learns, the more questions she has. Together Caroline and Mat work to dig out answers, uncovering stories of spies and love, of family rifts, and of one fateful evening in 1941. Will the truth they uncover heal the decades-old family wounds, or will they tear the family even further apart?
From this, I knew I had to use gin, and I wanted to use other ingredients that evoked London. So, tea (naturally).
Note: This one is great hot, too.
Not So Foggy London Town
- 2 oz Bombay Sapphire gin
- 3 oz Cold English breakfast tea
- .5 oz lemon juice
- 2-3 dashes orange bitters
Method: Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a glass with ice and garnish with a lemon wedge.