The Blue Moon

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

• 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.

The Alamagoozlum Cocktail

The first cocktail recipe in the book is the Alamagoozlum 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.

The Mother-In-Law Cocktail

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

Crimean Cup à la Marmora

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

• 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:

• 1.00 ounce rye whiskey
• 1.00 ounce cognac
• 1.00 ounce sweet vermouth
• 1/2 teaspoon Benedictine
• 2 dashes Angostur Bitters
• 2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters

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 ♬.

Blue Paradise

Featuring two obscure ingredients, here is the Blue Paradise:

• 2 ounces cognac
• 1 ounce Dubonnet Rouge
• 4 dashes Parfait Amour

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

This cocktail features both Dubonnet Rouge, which I was introduced to in Arnaud’s Special Cocktail and Parfait Amour, which was used in the Jupiter Cocktail. While this drink was invented in the late 1940s in Brussels, which is kind of modern, the use of these ingredients qualifies it as a vintage cocktail, and it is definitely forgotten.

Diki-Diki Cocktail

A drink with a Tiki name, the Diki-Diki Cocktail:

• 1.50 ounces Calvados
• 0.50 ounce Swedish Punsch
• 0.75 ounce grapefruit juice

Shake well with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass.

While this drink sounds like it would be part of the Tiki tradition, it isn’t. Those drinks tend to be sweet and rather strong, while this is a nice, simple cocktail.

The main spirit, Calvados, is an apple brandy which is offset by the spicy rum-like flavor of the Swedish Punsch. I used fresh grapefruit juice which lessens the sweetness of the Calvados just a bit.