We’re back to that venerable tome, the Savoy Cocktail Book. Today’s drink was, presumably, named after the card game. It utilizes two different spirits, something modern bartenders often frown upon, but a practice that was fairly common back in the Golden Age of cocktails. In this case, they are rum and calvados, a French apple brandy.…
This drink was almost certainly named after Paul Hardcastle’s 1985 hit single of the same name, the title of which referenced the average age of the American combat soldier in Vietnam. Oh no, wait. This drink came much earlier, first appearing in (as best I can tell) The Savoy Cocktail Book. A slightly different version (substituting…
From 1941’s Here’s How by W. C. Whitfield comes this, another absinthe abomination. I really need to stop wasting absinthe on these things. But, I drink them so you don’t have to. I can’t find much history on this drink, and it doesn’t appear in any of my other bartending guides – but absinthe was banned…
Sometimes, when perusing old bartending guides, one happens upon a recipe that is just too intriguing to pass up. Sometimes these are drinks that sound like they’d be really good, but even more often they sound terrible. Whether they will be as terrible as they sound is pretty much what makes them worth trying. This…
This drink comes from Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up, a postwar (1951) compendium of cocktails, and was created and served at the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City. It bears almost no resemblance to a cocktail of the same name that appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book, apart from being made with gin. The Recipe: 2/3 gin 1/3 cherry…
A few months back, I bought some Dutch black licorice; it was called Dubbel Zout, which means “double salt.” Now, being a fan of both licorice and salt, this sounded delicious. But it wasn’t. It tasted like a licorice-flavored salt lick. It was a taste I had hoped never to experience again. Alas. This drink…
This drink was invented at the Savoy Hotel in London, perhaps by Harry Craddock himself, although the book only specifies that it was “a very great favourite” there. Perhaps tastes have changed, because this thing isn’t very good. In fact, I have yet to find much of anything featuring apple brandy to be especially good.…
With a name like “Sonora,” you might think this one would have tequila in it, an ingredient that pops up extraordinarily rarely in vintage cocktail guides. Well, you would be wrong. Applejack is one of the key ingredients here, along with rum. No tequila at all. Sonora is, in addition to a state in Mexico,…
Another from our now random journey through the Savoy Cocktail Book, this one illustrates very well the problems inherent in Scotch-based cocktails. Despite the occasional gem, Scotch drinks don’t often shine, and you’re more than likely to wind up with something less than enjoyable. The Recipe: 1 dash absinthe 1 dash orange bitters 2 dashes lemon…
It’s the inevitable green drink post for St. Patrick’s Day! Well, ok, that was yesterday, but that’s when I made the drink. This one is of course very well known, right? You all remember this drink…this is the drink everyone drinks on St. Patrick’s Day. Any bar you go to, people are downing this thing…
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