The Best Damn Cocktail
A drink to go with the record, from every VMP catalog.
A drink to go with the record, from every VMP catalog.
VMP-305
The Shrine Chapman
For Fela Kuti, The Best of the Black President
Every city has a drink it doesn’t think of as a cocktail. In Lagos it’s the Chapman. Tall glass, lots of ice, red from grenadine, sharp from Angostura, topped with whatever citrus soda is cold. It gets served at hotel pools, at weddings, at the kind of roadside spot where the chairs are plastic and the music is loud. Nobody writes the recipe down because everybody already knows it. It is also, almost always, non-alcoholic.
The Afrika Shrine was not a non-alcoholic venue. Fela’s club sat in a Lagos neighborhood called Ikeja, and the shows went until the sun came up, and the point was not restraint. So this is a Chapman with the sensible part removed. Gin for the base, because Lagos was a British port and gin got there first. A little Campari, because the bitterness in a Chapman is the whole idea and Angostura alone can’t carry a full pour.
What makes it work with the box is the proportion. Everything in a Chapman is sweet except the bitters, and the bitters are most of what you taste. That’s an Afrobeat record. The groove is the sugar. It runs under everything, it’s easy, it would be a party on its own. Then Fela walks up to the microphone with ten minutes left in the song and tells you what he thinks of the Nigerian army. The bitters are what he’s saying over it.
It’s a long drink on purpose. A Fela side is one song. The glass should last exactly that long, and if it doesn’t, build another one before you flip the record. You will not be in a hurry.
One more thing. Skip the gin and the Campari and you have the original, which is how most of Lagos drinks it, at noon, in the heat, and it is better that way than you’d expect. Make one of each. Give the real one to whoever has to drive.
INGREDIENTS
1.5 oz gin
0.5 oz Campari
0.5 oz grenadine (real pomegranate, not the red corn syrup)
0.5 oz fresh lime
6 to 8 dashes Angostura, don’t be shy
PREPARATION
Build in a tall glass over ice.
Top half bitter lemon soda, half orange soda.
Stir once. Cucumber wheel, orange slice, lime wedge, all in the glass.
Drink one per side.
View the VMP-305 catalog (PDF) · Catalogs · Back to Vinyl Me, Please
The Shrine Chapman
For Fela Kuti, The Best of the Black President
Every city has a drink it doesn’t think of as a cocktail. In Lagos it’s the Chapman. Tall glass, lots of ice, red from grenadine, sharp from Angostura, topped with whatever citrus soda is cold. It gets served at hotel pools, at weddings, at the kind of roadside spot where the chairs are plastic and the music is loud. Nobody writes the recipe down because everybody already knows it. It is also, almost always, non-alcoholic.
The Afrika Shrine was not a non-alcoholic venue. Fela’s club sat in a Lagos neighborhood called Ikeja, and the shows went until the sun came up, and the point was not restraint. So this is a Chapman with the sensible part removed. Gin for the base, because Lagos was a British port and gin got there first. A little Campari, because the bitterness in a Chapman is the whole idea and Angostura alone can’t carry a full pour.
What makes it work with the box is the proportion. Everything in a Chapman is sweet except the bitters, and the bitters are most of what you taste. That’s an Afrobeat record. The groove is the sugar. It runs under everything, it’s easy, it would be a party on its own. Then Fela walks up to the microphone with ten minutes left in the song and tells you what he thinks of the Nigerian army. The bitters are what he’s saying over it.
It’s a long drink on purpose. A Fela side is one song. The glass should last exactly that long, and if it doesn’t, build another one before you flip the record. You will not be in a hurry.
One more thing. Skip the gin and the Campari and you have the original, which is how most of Lagos drinks it, at noon, in the heat, and it is better that way than you’d expect. Make one of each. Give the real one to whoever has to drive.
INGREDIENTS
1.5 oz gin
0.5 oz Campari
0.5 oz grenadine (real pomegranate, not the red corn syrup)
0.5 oz fresh lime
6 to 8 dashes Angostura, don’t be shy
PREPARATION
Build in a tall glass over ice.
Top half bitter lemon soda, half orange soda.
Stir once. Cucumber wheel, orange slice, lime wedge, all in the glass.
Drink one per side.
View the VMP-305 catalog (PDF) · Catalogs · Back to Vinyl Me, Please