359. Van Wyck Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London dry gin
  1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters

Shake well with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This frothy yin-yang Duo of strong and syrupy hanging in dubious balance, strapped together with a cord of faint but deep orange bitters, first appears in Straub 1913 with “dry gin.” In JM 1916 it becomes the second of three “Vans” in the cocktail section of Grohusko’s, also specifying dry gin. This agreement suggests the Waldorf Bar as the common source, which is tentatively confirmed by reference to the Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931), where the drink appears with Old Tom gin and sloe gin in a 2:1 ratio, with the orange bitters, stirred, with “fruit in glass.” It was apparently to be drunk in the Van Wyck tunnel.

352. Turn Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  4 dashes Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This mostly sweet, slightly bitter postprandial recipe first appears in JM 1912 under this name, and is evidently unknown by that name in other books. It represents a mild improvement on unadulterated sloe gin, and a great improvement on the room-temperature variety.
 

326. Sloe Gin Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat & Co. Rouge

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This simple Duo that leans on the sloe gin and seemingly attempts to balance this with a smaller dose of sweet vermouth, first appears in JM1908. It is a simple aperitif for those who like sloe gin. Two other Sloe Gin Cocktails of note are Craddock’s and Crockett’s in the Savoy Cocktail Book and the Old Waldorf Bar Days respectively. The former turns Jack’s recipe into a Perfect by addition of dry vermouth, the latter reformulates it as 2:1 Sloe Gin and Plymouth Gin with orange bitters. This resembles Craddock’s Sloeberry cocktail, which adds Angostura and orange bitters to a glass of Sloe Gin.
 

318. Schulke Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz home-infused orange gin (Gin Lane 1751 Old Tom + orange peels)
  0.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1 T lime juice

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain, serve. — This interesting Trio balanced with a little lime juice, comes off like a Savoy punch-style drink, though it makes its appearance much earlier in JM1910. The orange gin of the day was Booth’s. Today a number of options are starting to appear again, but home-infused orange gin may still be the best resort in many parts of the States.

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:
 

309. Ruby Royal

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  3 dashes homemade raspberry syrup

Shake vigorously with fine ice 20 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with amarena cherry, serve. — This light dessert Duo, combining a liqueur and a vermouth, first appears in Straub 1913, from which it is borrowed for JM 1916. There are some similarities to some Ruby recipes but not enough to demonstrate firmly an intentional relation or derivation. The final color with good sloe gin is somewhat nearer rust-red than ruby. It is not recommended to use a brightly dyed sloe gin (such as Bols or De Kuyper) since, while it bestows a rubicund hue more reminiscent of the namesake jewel, it generally tastes like saccharine medicine.

246. Nicholas Cocktail

This luxuriant dessert Duo, first appearing in JM1912, might be construed as a sweet-tooth variant on the old Gin-Sweet Vermouth workhorse cocktail base which finds so many iterations in the old books. The orange-infused gin is not much sweeter than a Tom Gin (I use Hayman’s as the base here), though the original Booth’s Orange Gin may have been much sweeter (it was 60 proof, thus more of a liqueur based on gin), and (here) Plymouth Sloe Gin—Jack used Field’s Sloe Gin—which is only slightly thicker and more syrupy than the deepest, darkest sweet vermouth. The balance when the two combine is pleasantly surprising. Foolishly attempting to use a cheap sloe gin here will get you an incongruous cotton-candy note and medicinal aftertaste. Incidentally, Straub, who picks this up in 1913, specifies Old Tom gin (Booth’s brand) instead of orange gin. Here is my take of Grohusko’s recipe with my own home-infused orange gin.

206. Lawrence Cocktail

My interpretation:
  2/3 oz Captive Spirits Big Gin
  1/3 oz Casa Mariol Vermut
  2/3 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  1/3 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Shake with broken ice, strain into cocktail glass, and serve. — This recipe first appears in JM 1910 (his 2nd Edition) and is evidently designed in complementary doses, so that the total ingredients may be measured in two ponies. In any event, the result is a sort of elegant, fruity perfect martini, subtracting some of the gin in favor of the sweetening Sloe Gin, and offsetting with the pungent Peychaud’s.
 

149. Futurity Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
  2 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir in mixing-glass half-full of cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Straub 1913 cocktail, a sweet, slightly bitter, aperitif, was borrowed in JM 1916. It is probably the best use of Sloe Gin featured thus far in Jack’s Manual.
 

91. Clove Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1 tsp Remy Martin VSOP

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, and serve. — This is a recipe, not in JM 1910 or earlier, is from Straub, and is essentially the same as the Clare Cocktail (or Duo) but that it is shaken, not stirred. For more variation and interest I am trying the Cocchi amber vermouth here, and cognac instead of my standard German brandy. I like the colder, thinner feel here with the slight bitterness and the nice layer of foam from shaking.

 

87. Clare Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1.5 oz Yzaguirre Rojo
  1 barspoon Asbach Uralt

Stir well (20 seconds) in mixing-glass full of cracked ice; strain into glass, serve. — This inoffensive postprandial Duo with a brandy flourish, essentially a riff on the Blackthorne Cocktail, entered JM 1916 from Straub 1913/1914.
 

44. Blackthorne Cocktail

A couple things to note about this recipe. In 1933, the teaspoonful of syrup has been (perhaps?) increased to a plain spoonful. The 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice was changed in 1916 to the juice of a 1/4 lemon, and that continues in 1933. The original 3 dashes of Angostura bitters (besides the 2 of orange bitters) were reduced to two dashes of unspecified bitters in 1910 and eliminated thereafter.

My interpretation:
  1 teaspoon syrup
  juice of 1/4 lemon (= 1 teaspoon)
  2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
  1.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin

Fill mixing-glass 2/3 full of fine ice (beaten with mallet and bag), stir well (20 seconds), strain, serve. — An old and venerable cocktail. One can’t help wishing the Angostura bitters had been left in; the drink is not quite there without them, though still quite drinkable.

39. Black Hawk Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Bulleit 95 pf Rye
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, stir, strain, serve in cocktail glass. — Note, this is technically a duo, not a cocktail, and might best be called simply a Black Hawk.

 

34. Billin Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.75 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1.25 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain, serve. Garnish with lemon. — An overproof gin like Death’s Door would improve this drink a bit.
 

14. Ardsley Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz homemade Calisaya mixture (using chinchona and gentian liqueurs with a focus on orange and warm spices)
  1.5 Plymouth Sloe Gin. 

Shake (with broken ice), strain, and serve. Garnish with orange peel.

Note: Since Elixir’s Calisaya is not sold here, I created a fair stand-inMy Calisaya mixture was designed to pair with this drink as well as to answer the descriptions given in other sources. In any event, it counterbalances the thick syrupy qualities of the Sloe with some bracing bitterness and complexity. 

9. Anne's Delight

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
  1.5 oz Depart Brandy VSOP

Instructions followed without variation. It’s a sweet drink. There’s not much else to say. The sloe gin has a nice deep stonefruit flavor but the brandy does not cut it; only the thinning effect of the cracked ice offers balance to the sweetness and mouthfeel. Perhaps best served as a small dessert cocktail.