BOURBON POMEGRANATE COCKTAIL

I’ve been drinking bourbon lately, neat, poured over ice or mixed in cocktails like this one.  Bourbon was Fast Eddie Felson’s drink of choice in The Hustler, written by Walter Tevis.  Having recently read Tevis’ The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth, I would say that Tevis had a taste for bourbon also. That, and cigarettes.  I kept wanting to light a Camel non-filtered the more I read.  His description of a pool hall was worshipful and palpably smoky.  Alcohol was a character, in fact one of the main protagonists, in his fiction.  If you’ve only watched the movies made from his books, go to the beach and read them.  Have a shot of bourbon or a bourbon cocktail while you do.  Did you know he also wrote The Queen’s Gambit?

The following is a scene in The Hustler, just before Fast Eddie plays Fats and the two men order drinks, revealing their respective mind sets.

Fats: Preach! Go down and get me some White Tavern whisky, a glass, and some ice.
Eddie: Preacher! Go on down and get me some bourbon. J. T. S. Brown. No ice, no glass.