International Velvet

One year for Christmas, I took my mother and aunts to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. We enjoyed International Velvets while sitting by the huge fireplace in the Grand Hall.

That Christmas, a friend gave me a pitcher with measurements marked on the side—ostensibly for making Bloody Marys. We discovered the pitcher worked remarkably well for making International Velvets, too, so we made a large batch of them—maybe not the best idea ever. They go down so smoothly that