368. Washington Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  1 dash Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This light, vermouth-forward aperitif recipe first appears in JM1912 and remains a standard part of the JM repertoire. It later appears from an undetermined source in McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927) in the ratio 2:1 vermouth to brandy, with 2 dashes of syrup instead of curacao, and 2 dashes of bitters. That recipe is reproduced exactly in
The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930).
 

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.

323. Sidecar Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & Kings brandy
  1 oz Cointreau
  3/4 T lime juice

In shaker with ice, add ingredients including half lime, shake well (30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe from McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927) proved so popular, it had to be included in JM1933. There the recipe calls for equal thirds of cointreau (triple sec), cognac, and lemon juice, and is attributed to MacGarry of Buck’s Club, London. The Savoy (1930) Sidecar has twice the brandy but still lemon.
 

315. Saratoga Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Rouge
  0.25 oz Rittenhouse BiB
  2 barspoons pineapple syrup
  2 dashes Angostura bitters

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This pineapple-tinged Brandy-Vermouth cocktail—no relation to the Saratoga Cooler as found in Harry Johnson—with an added slug of Rye, betrays the great care and consideration that went into its alteration, and the effect is admirable. This late-19th century favorite appears, e.g., in the Hoffman House Bartender’s Guide (1905) with maraschino, strawberries, and champagne, but Jack Grohusko includes his own pared-down, more historic version from the outset in 1908 and continues unchanged. The drink by this name in Straub is 2 oz of brandy with pineapple syrup, maraschino, and orange bitters—this is the modern version; but Grohusko does not apparently feel the need to conform to new ideas, with the exception of pineapple syrup (much as serious coffee-houses usually, reluctantly, offer some sort of analog to a Starbucks “caramel macchiato”). Dominique Migliore’s 1925 L’Art du Shaker is more similar to Grohusko but forgoing the novel pineapple: brandy and sweet vermouth with Angostura, curaçao, and absinthe. McElhone, in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) restores to Straub’s version of the newer recipe the missing two strawberries and a top-up of champagne as the turn-of-the-century Hoffman House version. The pineapple in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) is a slice rather than syrup, and the champagne top-up is downgraded to seltzer.

 

290. Quaker's Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  0.5 oz Myers’s Rum
  0.25 oz homemade raspberry syrup
  1 T or 0.25 oz lemon juice

Shake well, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This balanced Rum Daisy-inspired concoction first appears in Barflies (1927) and Savoy (1930) books with equal portions of the Rum and Brandy, from which it is probably borrowed and adjusted for JM 1933.
  

289. Pueblo Cocktail

My interpretation:
  .33 oz Hiram Walker crème de menthe (dyed green)
  .33 oz Raspberry syrup
  .33 oz Luxardo Maraschino
  .33 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  .33 oz Chartreuse Yellow
  .33 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao (dyed brown)

Combine ingredients in shaker with ice, shake 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass (or pousse café glass if you like), serve. — This interesting and somewhat sweet, if not beautiful, concoction seems like a jest, but likely has a very practical origin as a way to use a botched Pousse Café, e.g., when poured incautiously, sequenced incorrectly, or accidentally disturbed. Into the shaker it would go, given a new name and so the ingredients salvaged (it may have been offered at a discounted rate or even on the house, in which case, at least the ingredients did not go to waste). If this indeed is the case, and as the recipe suggests, the drink produced will be only a little larger than a Pousse Café due to dilution while shaking; thus a smaller glass may be preferred. Otherwise, if one actually sets out to make a Pueblo, the ingredients might well be enlarged to a 1/3 oz each.

We find this recipe in Straub, and then JM 1916, under the name “Peblo,” and in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) as “Peplo.”
 

282. Polo Farm Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  0.75 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
  1 barspoon Copper & Kings Brandy

Fill mixing glass with ice, stir, strain into chilled, brandy-rinsed cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, a stiff dry Martini with a quiet brandy tinge, only appears previously in Straub, from which it is apparently borrowed for JM 1916.
 

270. Peacock Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  1 dash Amaro Ciociaro
  1 dash St. George Absinthe Verte

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe, a sort of augmented Brandy suitable for daytime and pre-dinner (where brandy is usually after dinner), is first found in print in Straub 1913, and is first borrowed in JM 1916. While modern drinks bearing this name often include brightly-colored mixers in honor of the name, our present mixture may possibly be named by portmanteau from the formula “Pic(on)” + “Cock(tail).” But the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) suggests as the origin the famous Peacock Alley corridor originally connecting the two halves of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. A movie and a restaurant by the same name came later. Note that Amaro Ciociaro is used here in place of the Amer Picon or “Picon bitters,” unobtainable in its old formula. Bigallet China-China Amer would also work.

262. Panama Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.75 oz Copper & Kings Brandy
  0.75 oz Hiram Walker Creme de cacao
  0.33 oz light cream

Shake well (25 seconds), strain into chilled cocktail glass, serve. — This drink, which amounts to a Brandy Alexander (as it is today commonly named), appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book in equal parts. Here the cream is reduced to accent the alcohol and bring the parts in better alignment. Adjustments of the recipe in books of the 30s and 40s tended to increased the brandy to about 3 parts to 1 part each of cream and cacao.