Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails

Drinks From the Past for the Future

Curaçao Punch

A old one from 1882, it’s Curaçao Punch:

cocktail

  • 0.5 tablespoon sugar (alter to taste)
  • 2 or 3 dashes of fresh lemon juice
  • 1.0 ounce soda water
  • 1.0 ounce brandy (Martell cognac specified)
  • 2.0 ounces orange curaçao
  • 1.0 ounce Jamaican rum (full-bodied specified)

In a bar glass or goblet, combine the sugar, lemon juice, and soda water. Dissolve the sugar, and fill a glass with finely shaved or thoroughly crushed ice. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir well, and ornament as Liberace might with all the fruit at your disposal.

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Three to One Cocktail

Got some high proof gin? Make the Three to One Cocktail:

cocktail

  • 1.50 ounces 100-proof gin
  • 0.75 ounce Marie Brizard Apry
  • Juice of 1/2 lime

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge

I’m a firm believer in the concept of karma and of serendipity. So when my friends gave me spirits as birthday presents, I have not been surprised to see how easily they fit into my cocktail menu.

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The Blue Moon

Having scored some real Creme de Violette, I made The Blue Moon:

cocktail

  • 2.0 ounces gin
  • 0.5 ounce Crème Yvette or crème de violette
  • 0.5 ounce lemon juice

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

I managed to find some Crème Yvette earlier in this experiment, and I used it in the Aviation. While the taste was fine, I didn’t care for the color. It’s “purple” as in “has a lot of red in it”, versus violet. So when my friend Justin managed to find a source for crème de violette, I was in.

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The Alamagoozlum Cocktail

The first cocktail recipe in the book is the Alamagoozlum Cocktail:

cocktail

  • 0.5 egg white
  • 2.0 ounces genever gin
  • 2.0 ounces water
  • 1.5 ounces Jamaican rum
  • 1.5 ounces yellow or green Chartreuse
  • 1.5 ounces gomme syrup
  • 0.5 ounce orange curaçao
  • 0.5 ounce Angostura bitters

Shake very, very hard and long in a large iced cocktail shaker and serve tremulously into several previously chilled cocktail glasses.

This is an odd one, and I find it ironic that this cocktail managed to come first in the book, as it perfectly illustrates what a vintage and forgotten cocktail should be. It contains a number of obscure ingredients, which took me some time to assemble. Then I had to wait until I had two other friends around who wanted to try it, ’cause the recipe makes enough for three glasses.

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The Mother-In-Law Cocktail

Like bourbon? Have friends who like bourbon? Try the Mother-in-Law Cocktail:

cocktail

  • 1.0 teaspoon Peychaud’s Bitters
  • 1.0 teaspoon Angostura Bitters
  • 1.0 teaspoon Amer Picon (subsitute Torani Amer)
  • 0.5 ounce orange curaçao
  • 0.5 maraschino liqueur
  • 0.5 ounce simple syrup
  • 0.5 ounce maraschino liqueur
  • 9.0 ounces bourbon

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into three cocktail glasses.

This is a great drink, but at over three ounces of spirit in each drink, you need friends (real ones, not imaginary) and it helps if they like bourbon.

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Crimean Cup à la Marmora

A big punch with a big name is the Crimean Cup à la Marmora:

cocktail

  • 2.0 broad slices of lemon peel
  • 1.0 teaspoon sugar
  • 0.5 ounce dark Jamaican rum (Myers’s works well)
  • 1.0 ounce brandy
  • 0.5 maraschino liqueur
  • 0.5 ounce Jamaican rum
  • 2.0 ounces orgeat syrup
  • 0.5 lemon juice
  • 4.0 ounces soda water
  • 3.0 ounces chilled champagne

In a mixing glass, muddle the lemon peel with the sugar and the dark rum. Add remaining ingredients except the champagne, stir vigorously, and pour into 2 goblets with 2 or 3 large lumps of ice. Divide the champagne between the goblets.

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Vieux Carré Cocktail

Shaken, not stirred, it’s the Vieux Carré Cocktail:

cocktail

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain onto fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Normally, drinks that just contain spirits are stirred, drink that contain fruit juice are shaken, and drinks that contain egg are ♬ shaken like you just don’t care ♬.

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