337. Star Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Laird’s Applejack
  1 oz  Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Fill mixing-glass half-full of ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Applejack Manhattan with a NOLA twist is included in JM 1908. The same recipe occurs in Straub alongside a Star Old Fashioned calling for sugar and other fancy extras. McElhone is more fussy, building a stronger drink in equal parts gin and calvados tinged with a tsp of grapefruit and a dash each of dry and sweet vermouth. He describes it as a popular drink at the Plaza Hotel, NY. Grohusko’s simpler, sweeter recipe is more nearly echoed in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book, using orange bitters instead of Peychaud’s.
 

316. Savoy Tango Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  1 oz Laird’s Applejack 

Shake 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This boozy Duo recipe (of course it takes two to “tango”), originally from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) is first borrowed for JM1933, but with the unfortunate typo which turns the original sloe gin into an unspecified kind of gin and makes a less palatable drink (esp. if you only have Applejack instead of the Bonded Apple Brandy), which is why we cannot suppose the alteration from sloe gin to gin to be purposeful (usually in JM1933, “gin” represents an older Tom gin, while dry gin and plymouth gin are specified by name).
 

The original Savoy cocktail is less boozy and more balanced:
 

278. Pink Lady Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  1 oz Laird’s Blended Applejack
  2 tsp Jack Rudy Grenadine / 1 tsp Rose’s Grenadine
  1 T fresh lime juice

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This beguiling ride with a pretty paint job, Liquor in the front seat, and a Sour in the back, is first found in Straub 1913 and borrowed for JM1916. Barflies & Cocktails (1927) gives the recipe as brandy, gin, grenadine, and egg white (no lime juice). The Savoy (1930) version consists simply of gin, grenadine, and egg white without lime, applejack, or brandy. In all cases, as usual, the choice of grenadine, and its quantity, will require adjustment in order to obtain the proper color. In any event, you will want a color somewhere between the two examples below, with a flavor more approximating the first:

12. Applejack Cocktail (Special)

My Interpretation:
  2 oz Laird & Co. Applejack
  1 oz Liber & Co. Grenadine
  Juice of 1/2 lime or lemon

Using four barspoons of juice, the lime works better than the lemon. I ended up making several at a party and only had time to snap one before it was grabbed.

11. Applejack Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  3 oz Laird’s Applejack 

“Cider brandy” sure sounds a lot better than Applejack, if it weren’t for the name . . . Anyway, a slight variation on the instructions, as usual when peels are involved in the mixture: Stir over cracked ice (with a spoon this time!), strain into glass. Drop in medium-size olive, squeeze lemon peel over drink, discard. Serve drink.