The Pycho Cocktail

• 1.0 oz. Rye
• 1.0 oz. Cynar
• 1.0 oz. Green Chartreuse
• 0.5 oz. lemon juice
• 10 dashes Peychaud’s
• 5 drops of sriracha

Shake with ice. Strain into chilled coupe.

The first thought behind this was to create something blood red without resorting to a Bloody Mary’s tomato juice, hence the hefty portion of Peychaud’s, which I also found helped balance the sweetness from the Chartreuse and Cynar (itself also a bitter component). The drink is a crossdressing variation on the Last Word, with Rye wearing the Gin’s clothing, and lemon for lime, reduced. The sriracha can be included or not, but I like the little extra bite I thought the Psycho deserved.

My production of Spamalot opens tonight, and so I present the last of the cocktail series with its creator, Mr. Eric Idle.

So Spamalot is not just Holy Grail on stage, but rather a good chunk of Holy Grail with bits and pieces of other Python bits from Flying Circus and the movies, as well as new material written by Mr. Idle and John Du Prez specifically for the show. It just seemed fitting to throw a little bit of everything into this drink. To that end:

Eric Idle

• 1.0 oz. Spam-infused whiskey
• 1.0 oz. Cocchi Americano
• 0.5 oz. Cockburn’s port
• 0.25 oz. Benedictine
• 1.5 oz. Holy Grail ale

Stir all but the ale with ice, then strain into old fashioned over ice. Top with the ale.

Of course I had to do something with Spam. I have infused whiskey with bacon, so doing the same with Spam didn’t seem like too much of a stretch. I sautéd some Spam and had it sit within a bottle of Jack Daniels overnight, then strained out the meat and fat. The Jack Daniels choice was merely because I had a bottle sitting around, I will admit, though it did pair nicely in the end. The result is just a faint flavoring that doesn’t overwhelm (I don’t think you would know if I put a shot in front of you).

After that, for an additional nod to Holy Grail, I grabbed some Benedictine for Brother Maynard (after toying with the thought of some pine-infused eau-de-vie for Roger the Shrubber or an egg for Sir Robin), which added some herbal sweetness. I didn’t want too much, because I also had some rich sweetness from the Cockburn’s port. This ingredient was chosen primarily for its name, as it was the best I could find for acknowledgment of Mr. Idle’s classic “wink wink nudge nudge” character (“Cockburns? I bet it does, I bet it does!”) — perhaps hitting the nail a little too hard on the head, but a double entendre was harder to come by in the liquor store than I expected.

At this point, I had a rather heavy drink, so the Cocchi Americano fortified wine helped to brighten it up a bit and add some bitterness. Yes, the ingredient is actually Italian, but the Americano tag was a tip of the hat to Mr. Idle’s American residency for the past 30 years.

As I was putting this together, I came across the official Monty Python Holy Grail Ale (tempered over burning witches). I just had to. Topping this concoction with the ale was a welcome touch, actually, upping the bitter and muting the sweetness and creating a nice balance.

Say no more!

Spamalot cocktail #5. Now we come to the king.

Graham Chapman

• 1.5 oz. Plymouth gin
• 1.5 oz. pineapple juice
• 0.5 oz. King’s Ginger
• 0.25 oz. Captain Morgan
• 0.25 oz. Byrrh
• 1 dash Boker’s bitters

Shake with ice and strain into coupe. Dust with cinnamon.

Lots going on here, but I had a lot of ground to cover. Mr. Chapman, good for him, was a recovering alcoholic in the end, but during Holy Grail apparently was often plastered. In an interview I saw he mentioned that at his worst he was drinking four pints of gin a day. Holy… grail. There is something that is wrong about even creating a drink for him. Which is why I think he would approve.

So we start with some gin, Plymouth, which I think is decent and military. Under that is something a little fruity (I love the story that when a female fan was appalled to find out that one of the Pythons was gay — Mr. Chapman being one of the first celebrities to publicly come out — Eric Idle responded to them in a letter that the other Pythons had found out who it was and had taken the individual out and had him shot; at about the same time John Cleese had left the group and Mr. Idle always wondered whether the woman had assumed it to be true).

The ginger liqueur, of course, is for King Arthur in the Holy Grail and gives some more sweetness with the pineapple. The rum (went with Private Reserve here) is for Mr. Chapman’s Yellowbeard movie and adds a nice spiciness with the ginger. Byrrh, I’m almost ashamed to admit (almost) is a bad play on letters in order to get a representation of Life of Brian and the jokes about myrrh (“And thanks a lot for the gold and frankincense, er, but don’t worry too much about the myrrh next time.”). It adds some additional sweetness and bitter qualities, and I think brightens the drink up a bit. The Boker’s bitters are fully titled Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Boker’s Bitters, and were included to tone down the sweetness slightly and for Mr. Chapman’s medical beginnings (he studied to be a doctor).

The cinnamon dust is for one of the funniest Chapman bits I saw, in which he appeared posthumously. When the Pythons appeared at a comedy festival in Aspen, they brought out an urn which apparently contained Mr. Chapman’s ashes. During the interview, Terry Gilliam accidentally kicked over the urn, at which point all the Pythons attempted to “recollect” them, one even with a dustbuster.

There you go. As easy as one, two, five.

Next up on the Spamalot cocktail list, Mr. Terry Jones, who codirected with Gilliam the Holy Grail (and who directed the later films), and could play a woman like no one else.

Terry Jones

• 2.5 oz. Aquavit
• 0.5 oz. Creme de Menthe
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• 1 dash burlesque bitters

Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Spray top with absinthe from atomizer.

Following Python, Mr. Jones wrote and directed Erik the Viking, which I must admit on never seeing, though it provided a nice Norwegian base spirit for this drink by way of Aquavit (Linie, from Norway). The Creme de Menthe is for the disgusting Mr. Creosote from The Meaning of Life and the wafer thin mint that did him in. It adds a nice sweetness to this drink. The burlesque bitters are for all his time in drag as well as his nude organist. Just seemed appropriate.

The lemon? Well, sometimes a drink just needs some acid, and I’d rather have a good drink than be stifled by theme too much. The absinthe, though, is for his later work with Brian Froud (of Labyrinth and Dark Crystal fame) on Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book. I would imagine the pressed green fairy would make for a nice, albeit morbid, garnish.

Yesterday was John Cleese’s birthday (along with my daughter’s, as it happens), and so a perfect time to bring out his Spamalot cocktail.

John Cleese

• 1.5 oz. Cognac
• 1.0 oz. dry vermouth (Martini)
• 0.5 oz. Jagermeister
• 0.5 oz. honey syrup*

Stir and strain into coupe rinsed with peaty Scotch (Laphroaig 10).

* For honey syrup, heat equal parts honey and water, reducing slightly.

For Mr. Cleese, I went with an international theme. The Cognac is for the French Taunter in Holy Grail, but could equally be for others, like the waiter in Meaning of Life. The vermouth, much needed in this drink to open it up a bit from the other, sweeter elements, must be an Italian dry like Martini. I put this in for A Fish Called Wanda, as his character of Archie is fluent in Italian and uses this (along with Russian) in a hilarious scene with Jamie Lee Curtis. The Jagermeister is German, but DON’T MENTION THE WAR! It adds a sweetness and bit of an anise hint to the drink. More sweetness comes from the honey syrup, a nod to Eric the Half-a-bee.

If I could have put a silly walk into the drink I would have done that as well.

For cocktail #2 from the Spamalot collection, I turned to the Python who appeared less in front of the camera yet whose illustration and animation defined a good part of the feel of Flying Circus, Terry Gilliam.

Terry Gilliam

• 2.0 oz. Cachaça
• 0.5 oz. lime juice
• 0.5 oz. Coke syrup*
• 0.25 oz. cream of coconut

Shake with ice and strain into ice filled old fashioned.

* For Coke syrup, reduce Coca-cola over heat by half.

As Terry Gilliam has since Python days moved on to establish himself as a unique and talented director, I wanted to start with a base spirit that payed homage to that, and to his masterpiece, in my opinion, Brazil. Enter the sugarcane-based Cachaça, national spirit of Brazil. To this I added lime juice, following a similar path to a Caipirinha, but then added reduced Coke syrup for sweetness as opposed to sugar (and moving in the direction of a Cuba Libre).

There is some thematic thread here as well. I wanted to take a distinctly American product like Coke, since Mr. Gilliam has that origin, and then throw in the lime for his later adoption of Great Britain as home (c’mon, you didn’t think I could get through six Monty Python cocktails without a single Limey reference, did you?).

In addition, I wanted to represent his illustration and animation, a tough task for a drink. Then it came to me to flatten the carbonated soda, a nod to his 2D animation style.

The cream of coconut, of course, is all Holy Grail. Imported by swallows, I believe.

For the Spamalot cocktails, I thought I would focus on the Pythons themselves, not on the show necessarily, drawing from their work both within and outside the troupe. That would give me six cocktails and wealth of sources to draw from. And I started with the “It’s…” Man himself.

Michael Palin

• 1.5 oz. Irish whiskey
• 1.5 oz. Amontillado sherry
• 0.5 oz. Sugar Maple liqueur
• pinch of Himalayan salt

I started with an Irish whiskey base (Jameson’s 12) as Mr. Palin has some Irish roots which he explored in some of his travel series. I also wanted something for his Catholic father from Meaning of Life, and thought an Irish whiskey could be fitting. To this I added some Spanish sherry, which might be unexpected …but “No one expects the Spanish inquisition!” For sweetness, in came the Sugar Maple liqueur, I am sure a favorite of lumberjacks everywhere, and I finished up with pink Himalayan salt, an additional nod to Mr. Palin’s travelogues, one of which was a trip through the Himalayas.

Now must be off. My brain hurts!

I was issued a challenge and gifted an ingredient: Marmite in a cocktail. For those of you not familiar, Marmite is a yeast extract popular in England, often spread thinly on toast. It is strong. Pungent. An acquired taste at best. A cocktail is probably not your first thought on tasting it (unless that thought is to mask the taste).

Not one to back down, I took the Marmite (Marmite Gold as it turned out, a special edition with gold leaf) and after many unsuccessful iterations present Great Scot.

Great Scot

• 2.0 oz. Old Tom Gin
• 1.0 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
• 0.25-0.5 oz. Marmite simple syrup*

Stir with ice and strain into coupe.

* For the simple syrup, reduce 2 cups of water with 2 tablespoons brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of Marmite.

The idea here was not to mask the Marmite flavor, but really to highlight it. If you don’t like Marmite, chances are you will not like this drink. It is certainly more savory than sweet, as I think is appropriate.

Initially, I started down the road with Mezcal, thinking it might pair nicely. It really didn’t. I also had trouble with the Marmite, as it hardened when mixed with liquid into a sort of hard Marmite candy. To get around this I reduced it in some boiling water along with some brown sugar. My house stunk.

After a couple attempts with Mezcal, I tried Old Tom Gin, a slightly sweetened gin, and that worked much better. The Yellow Chartreuse’s herbal qualities I thought played nicely with the Marmite, certainly keeping it featured but toning it slightly down.

The name is a nod to the issuer of the challenge, and hopefully (perhaps only) drinker of the cocktail. A fun challenge. An odd drink.

For my single Roar of the Greasepaint cocktail, I wanted something elevated and something common. I thought I might go with some wine in the mix — there is certainly enough consumed by the characters in the show — but also thought gin made sense for the more common element and couldn’t see the wine working out. In the end, I decided on a half and half recipe representing the two main characters of Sir and Cocky.

Then, of course, came finding the name. There are a number of delightful phrases in the book that could probably fill a bar menu: All Due Respect, Towering Eyeful, Ars Ex Libris, Purple Fit, St. Clarence the Stutterer (or St. Vitus the Uninhibited), Your Move, I could go on and on. The color of the drink recommends The Green-eyed Monster, also spoken in the show, but as that is a reference from Othello it didn’t seem right.

In the end I kept returning to the Unparalleled Philistine, an insult from Sir to Cocky that Cocky misinterprets as a compliment, and a nice phrase of duality to match the ingredients of the drink.

Unparalleled Philistine

• 1.5 oz. G’vine Gin (or use a London Dry)
• 1.5 oz. Green Chartreuse (use VEP if you got it)
• 2 dashes lactart

Stir with lots of ice (needs a good dilution here) and strain into coupe.

Here is common gin (Cocky) mixed with a higher end herbal liqueur (Sir) with a few dashes of lactart (just gives a tartness to a drink — like citric acid from juice without the juice). A London Dry like Beefeater or Gordon’s would probably be more appropriate, but the G’vine here is a nod to the wine in the show (G’vine comes from grapes) and I felt played well with the Chartreuse. The lactart is actually a little bit of acid as a nod to the character of The Kid in the show, Sir’s apprentice and taunter of Cocky.

Cocky does a lot of guzzling in the show. This is definitely one for sipping. With all due respect.

OK, I thought I was done with the Light in the Piazza cocktails, but then I saw a limoncello with the label Fabrizia on it. Fabrizio is the name of the young lover in the show, so I couldn’t pass it up. Thus:

The Flying Hat

• 1.5 oz. Fabrizia limoncello
• 0.75 oz. lemon juice
• 0.5 oz. Herbe di Amalfi Basil liqueur
• 1 barspoon Fernet Branca
• 2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Stir with ice and straing into a champagne flute.
Top with 3.0 oz. American sparkling wine.
Garnish with a half grape on a toothpick.

Once more, stuck to Italian mixers mostly. Basil, lemon, a nice tart sweetness. The Fernet cuts into that just enough. The sparkling wine is American for the character of Clara, but you can top with whatever you’d like, obviously.

The grape is the hat, if not so obviously.