This cocktail is a variation of the beloved modern classic 'Death and Taxes'. It started with the idea of swapping gin and whiskey for mezcal and brandy. The name comes from the joke that if death and taxes are unavoidable in life, then marriage and business should be avoided whenever possible. Incidentally, taking the first letters of the spirits also spells M & B.

However, further research revealed many similar cocktails like the 'Plaza Vieja', or variations like 'Souls of the Mountain', 'Dolores del Rio', and '1910' – essentially the same mezcal and brandy combo with just the 'Punte Mes' spot swapped. This made me agonize over how to create a meaningful variation. After much discussion and trial and error, the final solution emerged: replacing 'Punte Mes' with 'Coca Americano' and 'Montenegro'. When I tried it, the result was incredibly satisfying, leading me to introduce it here.

https://youtube.com/shorts/uymR-RGAtv0

I became inspired by the night before's Amaro Rusty Nail, and I took the idea in Malört direction after recalling how well it worked with Drambuie in the Bukowski. The combination ended up a bit too bright, but a dash of Angostura not only gave depth but complementary spice notes to the mix. For a name, I dubbed this one the Anderson Punch, the Chicken Man of Chicago, who was born in 1870 and became a legendary street performer that trained chickens to dance to his accordion and harmonica music. Punch was performing until the age of 101 before passing away in 1974.

In this 250th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this cocktail uses centennial (1876) era ingredients for a libation loosely hewing to a Boulevardier form. Pikesville Rye was originally a Maryland rye product, and the Maryland Line was the name used for Maryland's stalwart regiments in the Continental Army.

This was one of two signature drinks by Tokyo's Café Line in the 1924 "Kokuteeru", but it isn't clear if bartender Yonekishi Maeda created them--although this seems likely.

Most of the other drinks in "Kokuteeru" can be traced to the 1922 book by Vermeire, some to Kappeler's 1895 work, a few to Ensslin's 1917 publication as well as a few others (Boothby, Johnson, Straub.) Since Maeda translated and wrote the names phonetically in Japanese, and they have been translated back to English, a number of the cocktail names are garbled or incomplete in the 2022 reprint--I have a list of about 10 corrected at this time and tied back to their sources. There are a few others that appear either original, combinations of other preceding cocktails with the same name, or so completely altered as to be unrecognizable as to origin.

Created for the Reddit Original Cocktail Challenge, April 2026: Ginger and Cinnamon