Blood Hound Cocktail
Over the past couple weeks there has been an incredible movement all over the internet focusing on Black creatives. In the wake of the death of George Floyd, writers, chefs, painters, distributors, influencers and mixologists have come together to magnify the voices of People of Color. In that time, I’ve discovered some amazing accounts and learned about a lot of artists. But they aren’t just current creators, I’ve come across several individuals who were a huge part of making the cocktail industry into what it is today.
We’ve all heard the names of Harry Craddock, Jerry Thomas or Ernest Gantt (aka: Don the Beachcomber); white men who created iconic cocktails and cocktail bibles that have stood the test of time. But they weren’t the only ones putting their mark on the drink industry. There were R. R. Bowie and J. Burke Edelin who created the Black Mixologists Club in 1898: a group of African Americans who found fruitful careers in bartending. I learned about Cato Alexander who was born a slave and went on to open his own successful bar just outside Manhattan in 1810. Then there was Tom Bullock, the first African American to pen a cocktail book. It’s Bullock and his Blood Hound Cocktail that I chose to focus on today.
Tom Bullock
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1872, Bullock started tending bar in country clubs at a very young age. Like all who work behind the stick, Bullock started at the bottom and steadily worked his way up until he became the mixologist to see at the St. Louis Country Club. It was here that he served dignitaries, government officials and the elite, all white folks who relied on this Black bartender to serve up the best cocktail they could get. He eventually wrote and published The Ideal Bartender in 1917, just two years before Prohibition.
Bartender consists of several classics like the Bacardi Cocktail and the Mint Julep, but there are others like the Free Love (a drink clearly way ahead of its time), the Onion Cocktail and the Diarreah Draught (probably not a drink made often). Of these unique concoctions, I’m excited to sample the Twilight and the Champagne Julep (thanks to Katie Stryjewski for introducing me to Bullock and this drink), but today I made the Blood Hound because it was so simple and seemed like the perfect spring sipper.
Made up of strawberries and a London gin, the Blood Hound is a potent tipple with a beautiful pink hue. The macerated strawberries not only add the color, they also bring the subtle strawberry flavor you taste with every sip. If you prefer your gin freezing and straight up or with only a couple extra ingredients, then this is the drink for you. While the strawberries definitely add a subtle fruity sweetness, they don’t take away from the gin. I’ll definitely be making this cocktail again, especially when strawberries are at the height of their season. But this isn’t the only drink from Bullock I look forward to imbibing. As I mentioned earlier, I plan to pore over the Ideal Bartender‘s pages and create as many of them as I can.
Ingredients
- 6 strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
- 2 ounces gin
Instructions
- Place strawberries and gin in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously until thoroughly chilled. Strain into a cocktail coupe, garnish with a strawberry and serve.
