You likely know Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer, and if you’ve
had it, you know that Castries Peanut Rum Crème is a deliciously silly tipple,
so in pursuit of a presidential cocktail for the 39th president, I
naturally wanted to incorporate the stuff.
I’d encountered plenty of sweet, froofy Castries cocktails at Tales, but wanted to
create something more complex and maybe a little manlier, as well – after all, Carter
was in the Navy. Bourbon? But it is
hot as Hades out now, and a brown spirit base with a milky component just
sounded wrong, like so much nog. And then it hit me: beer.
A Nutshell History of American Beer: proliferate and
reflective of European beer traditions until Prohibition; stagnant during
Prohibition; dominated by the “big three” in the post-Prohibition era (Anheuser-Busch,
Miller and Coors); and relatively recently, somewhat slowly, flowering into a
full-blown craft beer culture.
Why has it flowered? Arguably, thanks to legislation that
was passed during Jimmy Carter’s presidential tenure, signed off on by the
cardigan-wearing New Southerner himself. For whatever reason (oversight on the
part of lawmakers or conspiracy at the hands of the big three, take your pick),
home brewing had been illegal in the United States since Prohibition. Its
legality led to a greater awareness of good beer, more people attuned to
brewing it, interest in craft breweries and hey presto, great suds at every
corner store in the city.
And so in my presidential series, I celebrate Jimmy Carter
with a cocktail based on good American beer: Anchor Steam’s Anchor Porter, an intense, hoppy, coffee-and-chocolate beer made
with care in San Francisco
by an early beneficiary of the interest in craft brewing - one of the country’s
finest, smallest, and most traditional breweries.
To give the cocktail a little characteristic sass – after all, Carter did lust,
even if only in his heart, and never holds his tongue when criticizing current
world leaders - I served the drink with a rim made from a couple of crushed
peanuts and equal parts salt and sugar. It ends up being roasty, nutty, and
even a little refreshing.
The Jimmy Carter
3 ounces Anchor Porter
1.5 ounces Castries Crème
Shake ingredients over ice and strain into a coupe rimmed
with a salty-sugar blend. Top with a scant scrape of nutmeg.