281. Polo Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Hayman’s Old Tom Gin
  2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
  2 oz fresh orange juice 

Shake, strain into claret glass, serve. — This gentle orange-grapefruit Blossom (juice with a bit of liquor) with about 2/3 mixer and 1/3 booze, appears first in Straub, where indeed it is prescribed in equal thirds. Grohusko, as usual, adjusts the recipe for his JM 1916 version, perhaps to make it his own. In doing so, he weakens it slightly but not significantly. The Savoy (1930), using Plymouth Gin, calls this Polo No. 2. The Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931) gives it with rum instead of gin. The large serving glass (claret glass, a 5-6 oz stemmed glass) here takes account of the larger amount of juice involved, probably from earlier recipes involving integers of fruit (whole or half orange, grapefruit, etc.) rather than percentages or measures. A larger portion is also warranted by the weaker nature of this drink, which is, probably, the ideal brunch cocktail.

257. Orange Blossom Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz fresh orange juice
  1 oz Aria American Dry Gin

Fill mixing-glass half-full of cracked ice, shake well (20 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This citrusy brunchtime libation does not enter the JM repertoire until 1933, and not with Straub’s (1913/1914) ratio of 1 jigger of each, which I have used here, but with that found in the 1927 Barflies & Cocktails, viz., the juice of one orange (= about 2 oz or 4 T) and 1 glass (= 2 oz) of Gordon (dry) gin. The proportions are thus equal, but a larger drink is produced. This makes it the same as the Harvester. JM 1933 does not clarify what do with the larger drink, but B&C 1927 specifies the use of a small wineglass, which I take to mean what JM would call a claret glass, holding about 6 oz at the rim. The drink thus produced, being about 5 oz, fits comfortably. The Savoy Cocktail Book allows for either presentation, simply stating 1/2 and 1/2, but by specifying a cocktail glass, suggests the smaller drink of Straub. In the Old Waldorf Bar Book (1931), with instruction to frappé, it is called the Orange Blossom No. 2, the No. 1 having Tom Gin and sweet vermouth. Replacing half the orange juice with raspberry syrup produces the Leonora (Blossom). Other similar drinks include the Hawaiian (reducing OJ and adding curaçao), the Bronx (adding sweet and dry vermouths), and the Bronx Dry (adding dry vermouth).