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Happy Hour #19: Ada Coleman and the Hanky Panky · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and don't come to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Stephane never told your production of I Heart Radio. Yes,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and welcome to another edition of Happy Hour. And today
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: we're going to jump into our episode by celebrating one
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of the most well known female bartenders, Aida Coleman, who,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: by the way, was one of only two women to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: have held the position as head bartender at The Savoy
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in London and as in fact, in a couple of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: articles they say she's the only female bartender. But again
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: there's been some like maybe maybe not, but it was
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: said as in legends. I guess that she would not
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: share her recipes with anyone else, especially the other female bartenders,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: so there may have been some competitiveness in this, but yes,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and celebrate her. We are drinking the Hanky Hanky, which
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: is a drink I've never heard of, and as always
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: with these episodes, drink responsibly if you choose to do so.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: But that's a pretty solid name. It is. It's a
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: very good name. And just to give you the recipe
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of what it is, it is one half ounce of gin,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: one half ounce of sweet vermouth. Two dashes are for
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: net branca. I don't know if I'm saying that, right,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I think, so okay. And then you garnish with an
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: orange twist, which actually I did. I've got my pretty
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: glass and you see it, and I garnished it with
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: my orange twist. Thank you very much. I was trying
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: to be very fancy, of course. Uh. It says, add
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: all the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice and stern.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I did that with a shaker and so I didn't stir. Well,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: you shrain into a chilled cocktail glass. My glass was
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: not chilled, and then garnish with an orange twist. Sit back,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and this is from the actual article ran about doing
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: this specific drink. It says, sit back and enjoy in
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the knowledge that you're a teeny tiny bit smashing the patriarchy.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Ada would be proud. Um. Yeah, so Annie, I dropped
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: off some of the assets for this. How's it going
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: for you? Going well? Um? As I said before we
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: start recording, I love that you gave me a decent
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: amount of for net bronco when there's only a dash
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: that's called for two dashes, Oh two dashes, excuse me.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: That makes all all the difference. And I love that
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: you dropped off an orange because you rightly assumed I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: did not have one, which I did not. The orange
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: twist really makes it. That's usually. To be honest, I'm
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the type of person that really cuts corners in cooking
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and in making drinks. So it's like, you know, the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: slightly nicer thing that you can skip, I usually skip it, right,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: So this is I feel like this is a very
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: elevated drink for me. I did tap mine off with
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: sparkling water. I tried it before without it, but it's
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: so hot in my closet because it's kind of a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: it's a sweet drink that sort of coats your mouth
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: that I thought the sparkling water and the heat would
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: improve it in the situation. It is definitely not something
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I would typically drink, but I do like it. Yeah,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: so I cheated and made it last night because I
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: was like, huh, I have plenty of this, Let me
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: try this and see what I think. And yeah, this
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: is definitely not my alley. This is very liquoricey, which
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: is remooth as well as for net brunka apparently has
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: that kind of sweetness to it, and I'm not the
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: biggest fan of liquorice, so anything like this campari. All
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of that is kind of like, I'm good and usually
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: will avoid it. So I did cheat a little bit
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: as well, and knowing that we were drinking this today,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: and added a squeeze of the orange from which I
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: got the zest from to add to it, because I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: was like, I need a little more cidity, little fruitiness.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And of course I love gin, but it's just straight liquor.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, even though this is for a happy
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: hour and it is afternoon, it's still early in the afternoon,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and we have more to record today, so don't have
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to question away. Let's just be real honest and how
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: we do these episodes. But yeah, so I had to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: kind of space it out. I'm spacing it out as
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I'm drinking it. I also, instead of having a chilled glass,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I have a nice cube and I'm like, yeah, I
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: think I needed to water it down just a little bit. Yeah. Yeah,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: it's strong for sure. And I'm always kind of intrigued by, um,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the ups and downs of people's preferences and alcohol and drink.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: So like the eighties is one of my favorite examples
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: where everything was bright and super sugary and you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: coming from the shelf and then the nineties was like
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: what were we thinking the eighties and trying to correct that.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: So I would love to learn more about when she
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: was creating this in London, what was the preference in
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the cocked else seemed like right, I'm absolutely certain that
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: they were Yeah, darker drinks and for bars most of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the times it was like whiskey for men obviously, um,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: maybe some wine, maybe some ale, and women were probably
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: drinking the small cups of things, the sweeter mold wines
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: type of thing I'm thinking. But yeah, so let's talk
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: about Ada just a little bit. Yes. So, Ada was
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: born in eight and began her career and bartending and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: mixology after father's death, when her father's boss, Rupert duly Kart,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: offered her a job, first in a flower shop, then
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: in the bar at the Clarage Hotel. As she began
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: her career, there were women in the industry that were
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: few and far between according to American statistics at the time,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: but still they were still there. However, they were not
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: considered bartenders but actually barmaids, and many were hoping to
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: push women out as it was seen as quote bad
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: for them and for society physically and morally, that's going
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: back to that hole where women used to not be
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: allowed in like coffee houses. They were swearing going on
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: in there, right. Yeah, I just go to place like
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: medieval times and it's the bar winch. Yeah. I have
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of experience at medieval times. So yeah, I
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: saw your co host already went to ridden Fair. She
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: was ready. People really went all in for red Fare.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: It just opened in Atlanta, you guys near Atlanta. People
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: were into it. Oh they were so ready, masks on,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: ready to go. Yeah. And actually Ada was great at
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: her job, and she learned really quickly, starting with a
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Manhattan and moving on to being the head bartender at
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the Savoy, a bar categorized as an American style bar. There,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: she was lovingly known as Kulli and was a favorite
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: at the bar. And there she created her signature drink,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the Hanky Panky. And the story goes that a comedic
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: actor came in who, by the way, knew his cocktails,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: so she would learn at home and bring it back
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: to him to try. So. Apparently he was the fancy
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: one that she would always test her drinks out on um,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and he came one day tired and needed something with
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: what he said a punch, and after she served him
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: her fancy cocktail, he exclaimed, anyone, let you do this.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I feel like you have a better accent than I
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: do on this. Okay, I'm ready, ready, by jove, this
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: is the real hanky panky lovely, thank you for that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: And according to the English this was not a sexual term,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: which in the U s It is you know, they're
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: getting their hanky panky whatever, but actually meaning witchcraft. So
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: he was like, you're brewing some here potions. I guess
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that's that's my best interpretation of an English guy. I
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: guess we're doing so well. We're doing well. And the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: interpretation Aida continued on until when she retired or maybe
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: was forced out. Yeah. So apparently, according to some of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the conversations, a male bartender came in and was not
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: happy that he was working with women, including the other
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: woman that we talked about. She was pushed out as well,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and according to some of the accounts, Ada was pushed
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: into going back to the flower shop, in which he
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: probably just retired, and when he came in he created
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: actually what is now one of the more famous savoid
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: cocktail books and the only recipe that Aida created that
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: made it into that book was the Hanky Panky, which
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: is why we know of it still today. Right, Just
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: a note here, probably don't probably everyone knows this, but
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of cocktail histories I've learned from the other
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: show I Do savor. There's a lot of myth in
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: like legend around them and three people that fight over
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: who invented it and then really was probably around for
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: a long time, but you know, just put that out there.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Ada passed away at the age of ninety one and
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: continues to be spoken of and remembered through her beverages.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: And yeah, just by making history, right, Annie, did you
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: ever want to be a mixologist or a bartender at
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: any point? I did? And um, my good friend Marissa
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: has been on the show I'm as a traveling nurse.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: She took bartending classes and I was so jealous Afra
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: because she had like, like this little case she would
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: open up and add all these tools and drinks. She
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: would make us all to me very fancy concoctions, and
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: when we would go out and she'd be like, you
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: should order this drink because I think you'll like this,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and I was like so impressed. So you haven't taken
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: any classes either. I guess I haven't taken any classes
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: other than like a one shot on how to make
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: When I was in Spain, I went to like a
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: sancrea making class. I did get my license to serve alcohol,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and I had hoped that from there, that's where I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: wanted to move up to, was making drinks. But as
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I've said before him that show, on the show, I
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I didn't technically lose that job, but I guess we
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: kind of ghosted each other and I was only there
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: for two weeks. You never got paid for that one,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: did you. Nope? But I was gonna say that does
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: go into the next question, have you ever been a server?
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I have, yeah, for two weeks, and then um, I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: will say it was a lot of work. And at
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the place I was, I was doing like the hostess job,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the serving job, and I would like go back and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: get so it was a lot. And also the calculation
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: for how you could tell people how long tables were
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: really made me panic. So I'm I'm pretty sure I
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: told people ridiculous times, way longer than actually right. And
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: then I worked in a like cafeteria situation for a
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: couple of months. But that's it, Okay, Okay, yeah, so
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I've obviously told the story. I think the maybe I'll
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: know that I was a beer kinder, as they like
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: to call it. We were trying to figure out the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: best name because obviously we didn't make cocktails. But being
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: from a specific brewery, I could tell you the ins
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and outs of all of the beers, types of hops,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: types of like grains, all of these things, the brewing process,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: all of those levels. And I'm pretty really pretty good
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: at telling you what you will like. All you have
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to do is give me a description of what your
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: favorite beers are or what your favorite drinks are, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I would go through and I'll be like, Okay, this
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: is for you. I have several of my friends who
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: have helped onto better beer choosing. I'm very proud of that,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and they now understand, oh, these are the quality beers. Okay,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: got it. So that's one of my favorite things to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: do is help recommend the best things. I will say,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: since you and I have been on our little adventures,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: our Star Wars adventures, I have definitely become more experimental.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: But it's always like you always get the basic cocktail
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: and then I flourish it with whatever else I want
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: to add, whether it's like I'm gonna add this herban too, this,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna add this barrier. We're gonna muddle it like
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: this and do this. So that's been really fun to do.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, okay, okay, and while you are the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: queen of creating the names, I'm the one who makes
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the cocktails. I feel like we're a good team on that.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: So you're also good at like coming up with the story. Yeah,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, here's what we need. Collaboration. Yes,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: it's great. And you know our friend Holly over at
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Criminalia As who does all of the cocktails and creates
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: cocktails for them as well as stuff you missed in
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: history class, she did take a class of mixology and
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: she did a whole thing. And when we went to
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: her home for her birthday, she was killing it with
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: all of these cocktails. They were so good. I was like, yeah,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, yeah, that's what I would like to eventually.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I would, just I don't want
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: to serve anymore. I'm done. It's tire. It's tiring. There's
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: so much and I give all of my props and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: we should be tipping more than they should be getting
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: living wages on top of their tips. I still will
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: tip wherever I go, even if it is Europe. I
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: remembering getting weird looks. I was like, no, no, believe me,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: you still deserve this money. They're like weird American Okay,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: But like I think it's really uh, it's a hard job.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: And then the creativity that goes behind and creating what's
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: something new because there's already so much out there whatever? Okay?
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And speaking of creating, what would you want to be
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: your signature cocktail? How would you like to leave out
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: with if you had one cocktail for everybody to remember
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: you buy? Oh you know. Funnily, I have a group
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: of friends they made all these pun name drinks for
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: me based on like when you die, We're going to
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: drink all these drinks. Sounds really morpid, but it was
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: very sweet. I was very touched by it. I think
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I would want something very like I think Jen would
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: be involved because that's my favorite, and I think it
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: would be the color changing Jen. It would be very
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Star Wars themed and maybe some basil or basil uh,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and they would have to have some kind of citrus.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: But I wouldn't want it to be. I would want
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: it to be more interesting, like maybe the grapefruit thing
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: or not not why something a bit more interesting because
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: that's what changes the color of the color changing. Oh okay, yeah,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: you're you're a gin basil grapefoot drink, which I love.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: The last time you made it because we had so
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: much grape for two so it was killer. That was
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: so good. It was so good, and then we had
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the fresh basil. It's beautiful. Yeah, you know, I think
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I'm on the definitely along the same lines. I'm definitely
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: a gin drinker if if anything. I remember when I
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: first ordered gen uh look like twenty twenty four. How
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: did you start drinking? Until later? And I got gin
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: and tonics and people are like how old are you?
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Are you an old man? And I was like, yes,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: yes I am. Don't start with me, but I do
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: love that. I think I would love our little tattooing
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Sunset drink. I think that might be my new like
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: if I could have a signature, that would be my signature,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: which we've talked about before, because I love everything there.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: There's acid, there's berries, and it's pinkish purple and then
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: you have little floating and blackberries in there. I just
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: love that and Champagne. Who doesn't love champagne. Yeah, that's
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: a that's a solid traice. I mean Champagne. If I
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: could get that involved in my gin drink that I'd
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: be tops. And I made that for a friend of
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: mine for me the fourth and she asked me, like,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I want to know Samantha's process and the story behind. Don't.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: I'll make it for her. I got you. One day
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: we just have a giant party. I probably could drink
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: two drinks and just sit down, so that would have
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to be very slow rolling. It cracks me up because
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: you said to me multiple times at champagne or sparkling
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: whine makes you tired, and that's kind of what you
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: start with I do. And I'm like, well, last night
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: we started with the bloody because I was like, Uh,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: that's the drink that I want after I've had a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: little too much drink the night before. If I'm drinking
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: at all, that's gonna be my drink. So yeah, uh,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: sometimes it's fun. Always speak responsibly and let us know
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: what your signature cocktails would be. We would love to
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: hear it. Share recipes with us. If you have something
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: that you have created and want us to feature. Please
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: let us know. We'll give you a huge shout out
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: as well as a tag because we love creating and
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: people creating things for us. Yes, Yes, and you can
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: send any of those suggestions, ideas creations to our email,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: which is Stuffit Media, mom Stuff at I Hurt me
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Instagram at stuff
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I Never Told You or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer Christina, Thank you,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: You production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
• 16:36
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• 16:38
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