I doubt anybody will be paying attention to non-political blogs today, so I’m going to write about gin.  One way or another, I guess about half the country will really need a drink tonight, and the other half will really want one.

Over the summer I had many a gin and tonic, and really came to appreciate this classic cocktail. In addition, the herbaceous craze for elderflower drove a raft of gin cocktails into vogue, including the Indian Summer I sampled in San Francisco.  Yesterday, I ran across a piece by Jennifer 8 Lee in the New York Times from May that asked, “Can gin make a comeback against vodka?” and deployed a recipe for a cocktail called the Wild Blossom that also included grapefruit juice and herbal liqueur.  And finally, last night at Number 9 Park – enjoying some seasonal duck with D – I had a cocktail called Number Ten, which besides packing a bit of a wallop also included something herbal, something limey, and some fresh grapefruit juice. I guess the Tanqueray Ten trumped the No. 9 in the naming, but I felt that it really went to eleven.

Maybe I’m too tradition-bound, but I definitely pigeonhole gin as a summer drink, and as the days grow shorter, my mixological mind turns back to vodka, the definitive drink of long dark days.  To my Eastern European essentialist horror, and thanks to ass-kicking spirits promoter R, I’ve been turned on to an American vodka, one made in Texas no less, that’s remarkably good.  So to my frozen selection of Русский стандарт, Reyka, and Luksusowa, I now add Tito’s. Perhaps I’ll host a tasting party sometime.

Cheers everybody, and don’t forget to vote at least once.