371. Webster Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Gin
  0.5 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot
  0.25 oz fresh lime juice

Shake well (30 seconds suffices to achieve good consistency, strain into cocktail glass, serve. —  The first thing to notice about this delicious Martini riff augmented by discreet portions of Apricot and lime, is that the math is all wrong. Jack may have meant percentages of 2 oz (a grown man’s drink), making this a larger drink than usual (i.e., 2.6 oz + dilution). However, I think it quite instructive to refer to the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) here, the putative source, which calls for the proportion outlined above in my interpretation. This leads us to conclude that there is here a typo in the second line, and that apricot brandy should read 20%, not 50%. Of course, in type the characters are approximately mirrored along a horizontal axis. That would put us at 2 oz plus about 1 tsp., well within cocktail glass capacity of the time after dilution.

365. Waldorf Special Cocktail.

 My interpretation:
  2 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot
  1 T lime juice

Shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, if it may be called that (better, an apricot liqueur treatment neatly balanced with a little lime), which makes a nice post-prandial, is first described in Straub 1913 (specifying “apricotine”) before appearing in JM 1916. It does not appear in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book—which doesn’t mean, of course, that it was not served or invented there. When combined with a dry martini, it becomes a Webster (q.v.)

360. Van Zandt Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London dry gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi extra dry vermouth
  1 dash Rothman & Winter apricot liqueur

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This martini + apricot first appears in JM 1908 as a shaken drink, but is reproduced in Straub as a stirred one. Apparently a man named Van Zandt ordered them frequently enough to get them included in Grohusko’s repertoire. It is absent from other cocktail books.
  

342. Tango Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1.25 oz Castle & Key Gin

  0.75 oz Vermut Lustau

  1/2 tsp Copper & Kings brandy

Fill shaker with ice, shake about 40 strokes, serve. — This recipe comes from Straub 1914 (not in 1913 ed.) where the brandy is specified to be Apricot Brandy. That specifier is unapologetically omitted in JM1916. McElhone in 1927 uses the name Tango for a combination of Plymouth gin, sweet vermouth, orange juice, and curaçao, finished with an orange twist. The Savoy (1930) follows suit, omitting the twist. The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) has two Tangos: 1 is a dry martini with egg white, shaken; 2 calls for dry and sweet vermouth, rum, gin, and orange juice frappé, essentially a variant on the McElhone recipe.

329. Smith Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & Kings brandy
  1 oz Rothman & Winter apricot liqueur 
  1 tsp Hiram Walker crème de menthe (white)
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte (to finish)

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, add dash absinthe (with atomizer if desired), serve. — This brandy / apricot dessert Duo comes from Straub 1913 and is picked up by Jack Grohusko for JM1916. It is good, if rather indistinguishable from a number of brandy-based dessert drinks.

264. Paradise Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1.25 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur

  0.75 oz Aria American Dry Gin

Shake with broken ice 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This simple dessert Duo, emphasizing the fruit brandy, appears in Straub 1913 before showing up in JM 1916. The Barflies & Cocktails (1927) has the recipe with the addition of orange juice in three equal parts (pushing it toward a brunch or lunch tipple). The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) doubles the gin over the apricot and OJ and adds a dash of lemon juice. The addition of citrus in other books reimagines the Paradise as a sort of blossom or punch.

231. McHenry Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  1 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negra
  1 dash Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1 tsp or bsp Rothman & Winter Apricot liqueur

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain, serve. — This augmented Martini, previously in JM1916, is found first in Straub 1913, where, as here, the reader is referred to the Martini Cocktail. To begin, therefore, we consult the Martini Cocktail on the previous page:

The only difference there is that Straub calls for stirring the Martini “well.” To this, then, is added 1 tsp of Apricot “brandy” (Hungarian in Straub), meaning, we may safely say, not the clean eau de vie des apricots, but the sweet, fruity, fragrant kind of dram pungent enough to be noticeable at the ratio of 1 tsp to 2 oz of remaining liquids (Straub specifies 1 bsp).

220. Mallory Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Western Grace Spanish Brandy
  0.75 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur
  0.66 oz Hiram Walker Creme de Menthe (white)
  1 dash St. George Absinthe Verte

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This dessert Trio first appears in Straub 1913 (who seems to harbor a distinct fondness for such toothsome postprandials) and is taken from thence into JM1916 with Jack’s usual tweak of the perfect thirds recipe to reduce slightly the crème de menthe, which might otherwise overpower the apricot and dash of absinthe.

 

165. Havana Cocktail

 

My interpretation:

  1 oz Kronan Swedish Punsch

  0.75 oz Aviation American Gin

  0.25 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur

  1 dash fresh lemon juice.

Shake for 30 seconds with broken ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, only appearing in JM1933, seems to be a correction (at least, an improvement) of the recipe in the Savoy Cocktail Book, which calls for a 1/2 jigger of Apricot and a 1/4 each of Swedish Punsch and Gin. Making this more of a rum-gin base with apricot / lemon accent makes a lot of sense for the cocktail realm, unless a sweet dessert drink is desired. The final color of the drink rich and distinctive.

 

147. Frankenjack Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.0 oz Castle & Key London Dry
  0.75 oz Martini & Rossi Dry
  0.5 oz Cointreau
  0.25 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot 

Combine in shaker 1/2 full of ice, shake well (20 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This drink can be memorized proportionally as 1/2/3/4  ACDG, alphabetical order in numerical order.
 

135. Fifth Avenue Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  0.5 oz Hiram Walker Crème de Cacao
  0.5 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur
  0.25 oz heavy cream

Pour ingredients carefully in order over the back of a spoon. — This recipe first appears in 1933, following the recipe described in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book.

131. Fairbanks Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Gin Lane 1751 Lond Dry
  0.5 oz Dolin Dry
  0.5 oz Rothman & Winter Apricot
  1 dash lemon juice
  1 dash Jack Rudy Grenadine

Shake well (30 seconds) with ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with cherry (here Amarena). — The first recipe to appear in Jack’s Manual under this name resembled the Evans with a larger portion of Apricot:

After 1916, Jack must have gotten wind that Douglas F. didn’t drink this one, or else he was corrected by the 1930 Savoy Book, whose Fairbanks No. 1 this recipe closely resembles; the Savoy’s gin-based Fairbanks No. 2 does not, however, resemble the old Rye and Apricot one. Straub has the Rye-Apricot-Boker’s recipe and further specifies using an Old Fashioned glass. Pictured here is the later 1933 recipe in the Savoy Cocktail-Book style.

128. Evans' Cocktail

 My interpretation:
  2 oz Hochstadter’s Straight Rye
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 dash Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur
  1 dash Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters (Boker’s Style)

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This JM 1908 standby, a variation on a traditional “fancy” whisky cocktail, originally called for Boker’s Bitters, though this specification soon fell away before the 2nd edition in 1910 (I use Fee Brothers cardamom in tribute to this, and it fits really well with the profile). The apostrophe in the name was added in 1933. Straub borrows the recipe in 1913, omitting bitters altogether. Note that I have taken apricot brandy to indicate the sweeter, fruitier brandy-based liqueur, rather than a drier brandy distilled from apricots; this is supported by the small dosage required, suggesting a more flavorful quality.
 

63. Bud's Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Bombay Sapphire
  0.75 oz Gallo Extra Dry
  0.75 oz Yzaguirre Rojo
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1 dash Hiram Walker Apricot Brandy

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain, serve. Garnish with twisted orange peel. — This Cocktail, a “perfect Martini with a couple extras,” first appears in the reorganized and expanded JM 1916.