DOTD For Tuesday, September 30, 2025

A Simple, Dark, Yet Flamboyant Drink

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is an In Cold Blood cocktail, inspired by Truman Capote, whose birthday it is today. (Yet another American writer who drank too much. What is it about great American writers drinking too much?)

Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons on September 30 1924 in New Orleans. A lonely child, he taught himself to read and write before he even entered elementary school. Coming from a broken home, he lived with other relatives for several years, but rejoined his mother and her new husband in New York at the age of eight. That’s how he got the Capote surname.

About his early days, Capote said, “I was writing really sort of serious when I was about 11. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day, and I would write for about three hours. I was obsessed by it.”

Capote’s first book, Other Voices, Other Rooms was published in 1948 and gained wide attention. Capote’s successes continued, leading to increased social recognition. He became a fixture at society parties, the hottest clubs, and the best restaurants. His novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s was heavily influenced by his experiences rubbing elbows with the elite, & was made into a1961 film adaptation of the same name.

Capote reveled in the adulation he received. A slight man standing only 5’2”, he was a flamboyant dresser known for both indiscreet comments and the wild parties he threw. He was also openly gay at a time when even a hint of that was enough to ruin the careers of most famous people.

In 1959, Capote became fascinated by an article in the New York Times that described the unexplained murder of a family in rural Kansas. He spent a great deal of his next four years in Kansas doing research, interviewing countless people, and socializing to get information. This work resulted in his epic piece In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences. This pioneering work was perhaps the first “nonfiction novel” published in th U.S. It was also Truman Capote’s last book.

According to Gerald Clarke in Capote: A Biography, by the time he was writing In Cold Blood he would have a double Martini before lunch, another with lunch, and a Stinger after lunch. He also carried a bottle of J&B Rare Scotch to every social gathering. He interspersed all of it with various combinations of prescription medications.

As Truman Capote put it himself, “I’m an alcoholic. I’m a drug addict. I’m homosexual. I’m a genius.”

In a nod to that genius, today’s DOTD is the In Cold Blood cocktail. It first appeared in the Food & Wine 2016 Cocktails Book and is similar to some Negroni variations. Whatever you do in mixing it, don’t forget the pinch of salt.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: