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 Fred Collins Fiz

With lemonade from England I was finally able to make the Fred Collins Fiz:

• 2.0 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey
• 0.5 ounce simple syrup
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon orange curaçao
• 6.0 ounces lemonade

Mix the bourbon, simple syrup, and lemon juice in an iced cocktail shaker and shake. Strain into a large bar glass that is half filled with shaved (or finely crushed) ice. Add the curaçao. Pour the lemonade into a collins glass and port the contents of the bar glass into it.

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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 Filmograph Cocktail

The successful search for another odd ingredient resulted in The Filmograph Cocktail:

• 2.00 ounces brandy
• 0.75 ounce lemon syrup (substitute fresh lemon juice unless you like to drink maple syrup out of the can.)
• 0.50 ounce kola tonic

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

The odd ingredient here is the kola tonic, a staple of South African drinking. The resource guide in the book recommends Rose’s Kola Tonic, which is apparently very common in Canada. I didn’t think it would be that hard to get, since Rose’s Lime Juice is readily available even in my small town, but I was wrong.

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.

Jasper’s Rum Punch

Here is another summer cocktail, Jasper’s Rum Punch:

• 1.5 ounces Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum
• 1.5 ounces Jasper’s Secret Mix

Stir with cracked ice in an 8-ounce highball glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Okay, so this doesn’t seem much different than Jasper’s Planter’s Punch – the only change is a different rum. But, man does it really change the flavor.

I like the Planter’s Punch but I loved this drink. Even though you are drinking 126-proof spirit, Jasper’s mix mellows it out and I could drink a pitcher of this stuff.

Leatherneck Cocktail

Did you say you wanted a blue drink? Try the Leatherneck Cocktail:

• 2.00 ounces blended whiskey (Crown Royal recommended)
• 0.75 ounce blue curaçao
• 0.50 ounce fresh lime juice

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

Okay, I don’t like blue curaçao. Curaçao is supposed to be a colorless spirit, but it is often dyed blue to add a weird color to drinks. Seriously, there is no blue food so there should be no blue drinks.