Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails

Drinks From the Past for the Future

Rusty Nail

Like Smoky Scotch? Have a Rusty Nail:

cocktail

  • 2 ounces good smoky Scotch
  • 1 ounce Drambuie

Combine in a small rocks glass on a couple of lumps of ice and swizzle. Garnish with a lemon twist.

I don’t like peaty Scotches. I’m not saying they are bad, it’s just that I don’t care for them. I know that some people seek them out, which has resulted in high peat bottlings such as the Peat Monster, but they just aren’t my thing. De gustibus non est disputandum.

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The Rob Roy

In honor of Mike Doughty, here’s The Rob Roy:

cocktail

  • 2.5 ounces Scotch
  • 1.0 ounce sweet vermouth (or more for a sweeter drink)
  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine in an iced cocktail glass. Stir and strain into a cocktail glass or onto fresh rocks in a rocks glass. Either way, garnish with a cherry.

The reason I made this in honor of Mike Doughty is due to a lyric in his song “Lorna Zauberberg”, one of my favorites:
_
Vicious mobs of candy-ravers stalk the night
And methadonians sleep right where they stand
A weeping tranny is cradling a steak knife
And you’re happily slugging Rob Roys with your man
_
Poetry.

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Mamie Taylor

2015-12-31 Scotch Stars - 3 Tarus

Record high temperatures in December call for the Mamie Taylor:

cocktail

  • 2 ounces Scotch
  • 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
  • Spicy ginger ale or ginger beer (Blenheim’s #3 ginger ale recommended)

Pour the Scotch and lime juice into an ice-filled 8-ounce highball glass and fill with ginger ale. Stir and garnish with a lime wedge.

Ginger ale, lime and a spirit is known by many names. If you use vodka, it’s a Moscow Mule. With rum it’s a Dark and Stormy. Use tequila and it’s a Mexican Mule.

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Arnaud’s Special Cocktail

From Arnaud’s Restaurant in New Orleans comes Arnaud’s Special Cocktail:

cocktail

  • 2 ounces Scotch
  • 1 ounce Dubonnet Rouge
  • 3 dashes oranges bitters

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

This cocktail features an obscure apéritif called Dubonnet Rouge. I’ve been waiting to make cocktails with it since I’ve been running low on room in the refrigerator, and like vermouth I assume it should be kept chilled.

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The Modernista

Another rare Scotch-based cocktail, The Modernista:

cocktail

  • 2.0 ounces Scotch
  • 0.5 ounce dark Jamaican rum
  • 1 teaspoon absinthe or pastis (Pernod, Herbsaint and Ricard all work.)
  • 0.5 ounce Swedish Punsch
  • 0.5 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 2 dashes orange bitters

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

This is Dr. Cocktail’s name for The Modern cocktail, and the references I’ve found in the intertoobz all have Scotch, pastis or absinthe, and orange bitters in common, but in vastly different proportions. A couple include sloe gin. The drink is supposed to have originated just after the turn of the century (1900, not 2000), hence the name.

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Vowel Cocktail

Presenting one of the odder drinks in the book, the Vowel Cocktail:

cocktail

  • 1.0 ounce Scotch
  • 1.0 ounce sweet vermouth
  • 0.5 ounce orange juice (preferably fresh squeezed)
  • 0.5 ounce kümmel (Gilka)
  • 1 or 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

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

Okay, this is an odd one. Scotch cocktails are unusual (although the Blood and Sand is one of my favorites) and I’d never heard of kümmel before, but as I am determined to make all of the cocktails in the book, I put it on the shopping list.

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Blood and Sand

Not many cocktails today feature Scotch as the spirit, but this wasn’t always the case as is demonstrated by the Blood and Sand:

cocktail

  • 1.00 ounce Scotch
  • 1.00 ounce orange juice
  • 0.75 ounce cherry-flavored brandy
  • 0.75 ounce sweet vermouth

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

There are a couple of vintage cocktails I’ve seen in the wild, and this is one of them. I have had it at least twice but while I found it good it never wowed me. Until now.

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