Honey, I Drunk the Deuce

The Inescapable Drink of Late Summer Has Multiplied, With Recipes; Plus Additional Honey-Related Adventures in Vermont and Elsewhere.

Photographing a guy photographing his Honey Deuce. A typical scene at the U.S. Open.

And…..we’re back!

After an all-too-brief, late-summer hiatus, The Mix has returned to its regular publishing schedule. Get ready for an eventful autumn, with coverage both local, domestic and international! We’re also going to be introduced a new regular feature. And, of course, there’s that IACP Awards ceremony coming up on Sept. 26! (Fingers crossed.)

And we’re just in time for the final days of the U.S. Open. Last year, you may recall, I attended that annual clay-court ritual held in Queens in order to tell the full and true story of the Honey Deuce, the most greedily guzzled sports-related cocktail since the Mint Julep.

Part of my research included talking to Nick Mautone, a lifetime bar-world professional and the unsung inventor of the drink. Since then, Mautone has become a little more sung, with articles about him and his creation appearing in the last two weeks in the New York Post, Tasting Table, Forbes, CBS News as well as our friend Amanda Schuster’s Substack.

I returned to Arthur Ashe Stadium this year for more research into the Honey Deuce, which these days comes in as many variations as the Cosmopolitan. But, before we get to that—and the various Honey Deuce riff recipes, which we have in our hands!—let’s rewind the last few weeks, which took us to Vermont, Wisconsin and elsewhere.