PORTLAND, Ore., June 4, 2019 — Now that the children of the 1990s are old enough to buy their own drinks, they’re old enough to make them too. And Sam Slaughter’s new book, Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum?: and Other Cocktails for ‘90s Kids, is just for them. It puts a nostalgic twist on the classic cocktail recipe collection.
Drink Your Nostalgia With a User-Friendly Ode to Last Century’s Last Decade
Slaughter has concocted several dozen ’90s themed cocktails with nods to the TV, cinema, top 40 hits, and early internet culture of the ’90s, with names like the Kimmy Gimlet, the Tubthumper, the A/S/L, and the Windows 75. Some are even boozy updates of classic 90s drinks — remember Hawaiian Punch? Try it scratch made with rum. There’s also the Slimy Mary, a Nickelodeon-slime-colored Bloody Mary made with green tomatoes, pickle juice, lime, and seaweed (and there’s even another drink called the Pickleodeon!). If the names alone don’t warm up those fuzzy feelings of yesteryear, the drinks themselves definitely will.
“Growing up in the ’90s was such a treat because in many ways it was the last decade before the world lost its innocence to the internet age, smartphones, 9/11 and climate change,” says Slaughter. “Even though we can’t go back, we can fondly remember the simple joys of tuning in to Fresh Prince every Friday night and shaking it to Mambo No. 5.”
Mixing Like an Expert While Writing for the Everyman, Slaughter Puts Fun Above All
Slaughter punctuates his creative blends with ’90s playlists, trivia, and drinking games. But first, he sets the stage with a rundown of the tools you need to set up your bar, what the different glasses are, and basic mixing techniques (the latter which includes some hilariously concise instructions on stirring). This makes his book suitable even for very new beginners who might have, as Slaughter puts it, never poured anything fancier than a glass of water.
Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum? is out today through Andrews-McMeel publishing after months of anticipation and presales. Slaughter’s previous book, God in Neon, is a collection of short stories following alcohol dependent protagonists through the weird and sometimes darkly funny back alleys of booze-soaked depravity. God in Neon was published by Lucky Bastard Press in 2016.
Slaughter also serves as Food and Drink Editor for The Manual, a lifestyle magazine for men. His writing about mixmanship has appeared in Maxim, Bloomberg, Thirsty, The Bitter Southerner, and more. His writing has also been featured in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Midwestern Gothic, Heavy Feather Review, and others.
More information about Slaughter is available at The Manual, and you can purchase a copy of Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum? here.
About Sam Slaughter
Sam Slaughter is Food and Drink Editor for men’s lifestyle magazine The Manual. He’s also the author of Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum?: and Other Cocktails for 90’s Kids, a nostalgic cocktail recipe book, as well as God in Neon, a collection of short stories published by Lucky Bastard Press in 2016. He was awarded the 2014 Best of There Will Be Words, and his debut chapbook, When You Cross That Line, was published in May 2015. Slaughter’s writing about spirits is featured in Maxim, Bloomberg, The Bitter Southerner, Thirsty, and elsewhere, while his other nonfiction and fiction writing has appeared in publications such as Midwestern Gothic, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Heavy Feather Review. A graduate of Elon University and Stetson University, Slaughter lives in Greenville, South Carolina. For more information, visit www.thesamslaughter.com.
Follow the author: @slaughterwrites on Twitter | @slaughterwrites on Instagram | Sam Slaughter on LinkedIn | @samslaughterthewriter on Facebook
SOURCE The Manual
Related Links
https://www.themanual.com
https://www.thesamslaughter.com
