Operating machinery is illegal on Sundays in New Hampshire, but operating a Bloody Mary bar at 9 A.M. is perfectly acceptable.
New Hampshire
“Portsmouth wasn’t founded on religion, like a lot of other American towns. It was founded on commerce. This was a brothel town. Imagine that,” he said, and pointed to the building in front of our car. “At one point long ago, that was the tallest building in America.”
—Uber driver (Portsmouth)
New Hampshire is a state that has not received enough love. There are beautifully named towns such as Beecher Falls, West Swanzey, and Holderness. There are rolling hills and mountains to be climbed, and places near and far where some of the friendliest people in the United States are waiting to welcome you into their drinking establishments, homes away from home.
The first American potato was planted in 1719 in New Hampshire, the first alarm clock invented in Concord in 1787; the first free public library was established in Peterborough in 1833 (yay books!); the motto “Live Free or Die” comes from a letter by General John Stark (no relation to the Game of Thrones character) in remembrance of the victorious Battle of Bennington; Newport’s Sarah Josepha Hale wrote a poem called “Mary Had a Little Lamb” in 1830; one of the best American plays, Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, a play-within-a-play, takes place in Grover’s Corners, a fictional town on the eastern side of the state; and the White Mountain State owns the title of one of my favorite US lakes to say out loud and proud, “Lake Winnipesaukee.”
There’s a little something for everyone in New Hampshire’s cocktail scene, but especially if you like mead. Get your mead on with mead-forward cocktails at Sap House Meadery in Center Ossipee, 815 and the Birch in Manchester, and Chuck’s BARbershop in Concord, a gorgeous speakeasy inside a barbershop playing music from the 1920s and serving a wide variety of cocktails—just don’t forget the secret code for entry.
New Hampshire also has a historic sign featuring alien abduction, on Highway 3 near Lincoln. On the evening of September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill “lost” time while driving home to Portsmouth. No word on whether or not they’d had a few Brandy Alexanders before getting in their car, but their watches stopped working after the encounter.
You got nice long legs so I’m sure you got no problem walking into town.
—Hotel concierge (Portsmouth)
BAR SNACK
Vodka can be made from apples. One catch: It takes three hundred apples to make a single bottle of vodka.
BAR SNACK
Mead is one of the oldest beverages in the world, dating back more than seven thousand years to the ancient Egyptians. We make beer from grains and wine from grapes, but mead is made with honey. Simply combine water, wine yeast, and honey, and once the ingredients begin fermentation, the yeast begins eating the sugars in the honey, which converts the ingredients into alcohol and CO2. Though the world of alcohol has many rules, there are no rules for mead. It can be imbibed at any temperature, at any time of day, and even around complete strangers.
NEW HAMPSHIRE’S OLDEST BAR
Part bed-and-breakfast, part tavern, and all romance (it says so on their website—hubba hubba), the historic Hancock Inn has been welcoming travelers since the Revolutionary War, when the first roads in the area were still being built and rum was being passed from town to town. It’s the kind of cozy roadside inn that has a fireplace with a dog lounging nearby, and a classic cocktail waiting for you at the Fox Tavern, which is located inside the Hancock Inn. Pretty nice place to relax after easy-hiking at nearby Mount Monadnock, with resplendent views of surrounding New England.
NEW HAMPSHIRE SPIRIT
No joke. I personally saw enough banana-infused Jameson on cocktail menus in New Hampshire to officially link the state with this concoction. If I had to guess why it was so popular, I would say banana-infused Jameson does a fine job of tasting like actual bananas were used in the creation of this delicious liquid, and that’s the truth. If it were artificially flavored, everyone (or me, at least) would be angry. It’s great on the rocks, in an Old Fashioned or Whiskey Sour, and can even be quite a-peeling (yes, I had to) (you haven’t met a collector of puns until you have met my father) in punches. And it’s easy to create. Pour one 750-millimeter bottle of Jameson into a large nonreactive container with three peeled and sliced ripe bananas. Let them infuse for at least three days, ideally at room temperature and in the shade. Strain out the bananas with a fine strainer and return the Jameson to its rightful place in the bottle. (Incidentally, the next time you peel a banana, try peeling it from the bottom instead of the stem end. It’s always easier. That’s how the monkeys do it, Curious George.)
I live an hour away from Portsmouth, but this is where the best business for me comes from. It’s great, too, except when someone gets sick in my car—but that’s okay, too, because the surcharge is two hundred bucks when someone gets sick in my car. I mean, I can’t work again that night, but I take a photo of the mess, send it in to Uber, go clean the car, and by the time I get home, Uber’s put the money in my bank account. Are you kidding me? That’s great!
—Uber driver (Portsmouth)
NEW HAMPSHIRE BUCKET LIST BAR
What makes Earth Eagle so great is that not only does it deliver on the tasty beer selection, it also features a substantial cocktail menu and health-conscious food options, like hummus (or, as I like to call it, “the new nachos”). The staff greets you with a resounding “Hello” and “How are you doing, friend?” as you walk through the doors. It’s rejuvenating to be in a room where the staff is hustling like that and yet maintaining healthy levels of hospitality for everyone involved, all while cranking Led Zeppelin. And if you’re nice back to the staff, the bartender might give you a sticker, the same way they used to give you a lollipop when you went to the bank with your parents as a kid. 
NEW HAMPSHIRE BEVERAGE
Following the petition of a group of fourth-graders from Jaffrey, the New Hampshire General Court passed a bill in 2010 to adopt apple cider as the state beverage. Not only that, David Goodell, who would become governor of New Hampshire in 1889, is credited with inventing the “Lightning apple parer” in 1864, though I often call the modern-day version “that knife from the drawer.” The Lightning apple parer was a stationary device that allowed an apple to be held in place while one turned a crank, which allowed a peeler to easily strip the apple’s skin. Voilà. It’s off to the apple races.
NEW HAMPSHIRE COCKTAIL BAR
Inside the Wilder, bartenders pour creative cocktails with smiles in a space decorated with art from very talented locals. Once you settle in, it’s evident that every other person is drinking an Espresso Nitro Martini on draft, which is delicious enough to destroy us all. “How many of these do you make in a night?” I asked the bartender. “A million,” he said, expressionless. It takes two seconds to pour into a glass and another two seconds to top off the rich coffee-flavored cocktail with Bailey’s whipped cream, giving it a nicely sweetened crown and making you think you’re having a Guinness Cocktail. You’re not. You’re having an Espresso Martini. And after you’re done having one, you’re having another. And is that a pinball machine in the corner …?
ESPRESSO MARTINI
Espresso Martinis have been popping up on cocktail menus throughout the country, but I saw an abundance in New Hampshire bars. Many classic recipes call for vodka, coffee liqueur, simple syrup, and espresso, but I prefer to use cold brew, as it’s often more readily available and less expensive to produce than homemade espresso, and avoiding hot espresso is ideal, as it dilutes the ice too fast, which would make celebrated cocktail mad scientist and specialty ice enthusiast Dave Arnold (author of Liquid Intelligence) sad, and we can’t have that, kids.
1½ ounces Absolut vodka
¾ ounce St. George NOLA coffee liqueur
½ ounce simple syrup (1:1 sugar to water)
1 ounce cold brew coffee (store-bought, or see below for homemade concentrate recipe)
Cocktails are shaken or stirred, rolled or muddled; they are dry or sweet, creamy or frozen. They are perfect or dirty; they are up or over. But one thing they are not is weak.
—Dale DeGroff, in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
Shake the ingredients well with ice; strain into a chilled cocktail glass and serve up.
Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Makes about 2½ cups concentrate
3 ounces coarsely ground coffee beans (from about ¾ cup whole coffee beans, which have been ground to yield 1½ cups)
3 cups water (filtered, if possible)
I have this game that I play, where, every time I’m home visiting New Hampshire, and I’m in the car, I can put on the radio, and chances are at least two different radio stations are playing Pink Floyd songs. Seriously.
—John Donahue, friend (grew up in Canterbury)
Combine the ingredients in a Mason jar or nonreactive container and stir well. Cover and let steep at room temperature for 12 hours. Strain through a thin paper coffee filter and allow time for all the cold brew to pass through the strainer. What has passed through your paper strainer is your concentrate. Powerful stuff. Best to dilute with equal parts water (e.g., 4 ounces cold brew concentrate to 4 ounces water for each serving). Seal and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week. Note: In recipes asking for cold brew, dilute with 1:1 cold brew concentrate to water.
HULK SMASH
The speakeasy 815 is located in the heart of Manchester, New Hampshire’s capital. They create a lot of their own liqueurs and infusions and have one of the best whiskey selections in the area. Hulk Smash is a spin on the Whiskey Smash, and the rye’s spice matches nicely with the herb-driven green Chartreuse. Once you add some mint to the mix, it’s time to Hulk out.
8 fresh mint leaves
½ ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup (1:1 sugar to water)
1½ ounces High West double rye
½ ounce green Chartreuse
3 dashes Fee Brothers mint bitters
Garnish: fresh mint leaf
Lightly muddle the mint, lime and lemon juices, and syrup in a shaker for 5 to 10 seconds. Add the rye, Chartreuse, and ice and shake well until chilled; fine strain into a chilled coupe glass and top with the bitters. Serve up, garnished with the mint.