The French 75

It’s time for champagne, and that means the French 75:

• 2 ounces gin
• 1 ounce lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons sugar or 1 teaspoon simple syrup
• champagne

Shake all but the champagne in an iced cocktail shaker. Pour into a tall glass (a collins glass, a zombie glass or a champagne flute will do – the latter preferred). Top with champagne. Stir gently and garnish with a long, thin lemon spiral and a cocktail cherry.

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The Pendennis Cocktail

Named after a private club in Kentucky, here is the Pendennis Cocktail:

• 2 ounces gin
• 1 ounce apricot (some say peach) brandy
• 2-3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
• 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass.

This drink caught my eye because I recent received a postcard from my friend Jonathan in England:

The word “Pendennis” seems slightly naughty to me, but in addition to the castle, it is also the title of a 19th century novel from which the club got its name. Dr. Cocktail states that the club is often erroneously credited with creating the Old Fashioned and while I trust his judgment on these things I am not sure who did actually call it the “Old Fashioned” first. I think it was just that it was one of the first whiskey cocktails so as time when on people just referred to it as an “old-fashioned whiskey cocktail” and then shortened it.

The Blackthorn Cocktail

Another Dubonnet drink, the Blackthorn Cocktail:

• 2.00 ounces gin
• 0.75 ounce Dubonnet Rouge
• 0.75 ounce kirschwasser

Stir in a mixing glass with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry and a lemon twist.

This is the third and last cocktail in the book to use Dubonnet Rouge, the first being Arnaud’s Special Cocktail and the second being the Blue Paradise.

This is probably my favorite of the three, but then again how can you go wrong when gin and Dubonnet seems to be a favorite of the Queen. It’s refreshing and not very sweet. The author notes that it is very similar to the Amarosa Cocktail with Dubonnet instead of amaro.

The Secret Cocktail

The Secret Cocktail, also known at The Pink Lady:

• 1.5 ounces dry gin
• 0.5 ounce applejack
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 egg white
• 2 dashes real pomegranate grenadine

Shake it up with all due vigor in an iced cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve with a cherry

Okay, so as I get close to the end of this experiement – my plan to make every recipe in Ted Haigh’s classic Vintage Spirit’s and Forgotten Cocktails book – I’ve been thinking about the next challenge. I do plan to make the drinks in the “Extra Credit” section, but as I’ve learned more about cocktails in the last year or so I’ve also branched out. I’ve read Wondrich’s Imbibe!, Wilson’s Boozehound, and the amazing Death & Co. recipe book. (Just for completeness, I do own a copy of Liquid Intelligence and I have The Dead Rabbit on my wish list.)

The Amarosa Cocktail

From halfway around the world comes The Amarosa Cocktail:

• 1.0 ounce Amaro Cora
• 1.0 ounce gin
• 1.0 ounce kirschwasser

Stir well and enthusiastically. Strain into a stemmed glass of your choice, but use something pretty, because this cocktail has a very pretty color. Twist a small lemon peel directly over the drink and drop it in.

Okay, I’m not a huge fan of amaro. I just find it to bitter, and while I love what it can do in a cocktail, I was very worried about drinking an amaro-centric libation.

The Flying Dutchman

Featuring another obscure ingredient, here is The Flying Dutchman:

• 2 ounces orange gin
• Juice of ¼ orange
• Juice of ¼ lime
• 3 drops Angostura bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

This drink, from a 1950’s Dutch cocktail book, calls for orange gin. Now gin and fruit juice just go together (as the poet Snoop Dogg pointed out so long ago) so it seems logical that it would be used to create a flavored gin, but at first I was a little hesitant to try this drink because of a bad mental association with flavored vodkas.

The Ford Cocktail

Famous before Henry was, here is The Ford Cocktail:

• 1 ounce Old Tom Gin (Hayman’s Old Tom Gin recommended)
• 1 ounce dry vermouth
• 3 dashes Bénédictine
• 3 dashes orange bitters

Stir well with finely cracked ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Okay, to be honest, I wasn’t in the mood for a gin drink when I made this, but I have a small amount of OCD and I wanted to remove the last place in the index where I had three untried recipes in a row.