373. West India Cocktail

My interpretation:

  2 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry

  2 dashes Angostura Bitters

  2 lemon peels (for the shaker)

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe is first found in Straub 1913; from there it makes its way to JM 1916. McElhone has a related West Indian Cocktail built in a tumbler with sugar, Angostura, gin, lemon juice, and ice. This stronger drink is reproduced by Craddock as well. Though featuring a different base, these drinks indicate that the West India was visually conceived, at least, as a lowball drink, and ought properly to be presented as such here. The Old Waldorf Bar Days recipe splits the difference, half Tom gin and half dry vermouth, with Angostura or (any other) West India bitters available; in which recipe no sugar is added, the Old Tom being sweeter already. This drink is stirred rather than shaken, and though not specifying the tumbler or lowball glass, this instruction may hint at as much.

372. Wedding Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Sweet Spice Gin
  0.25 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry
  0.25 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  2 barspoons Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
  1 oz fresh orange juice

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain into a claret glass (a stemmed glass of about 5 oz capacity), and serve. —This cocktail as described in JM1933 is without precedent. However, McElhone and Craddock both mention a similar cocktail consisting of gin, orange juice, cherry brandy, and Dubonnet, called the Wedding Belle or Wedding Bells, of which this may theoretically represent a variant. In effect, it is a long Bronx sweetened by addition of curaçao and additional juice.

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.

369. Watkins Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Gin (Sweet Spice)
  0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
  0.5 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  1 slice pineapple in mixing-glass
  1 slice orange in mixing-glass

Fill mixing-glass with cracked ice, shake, strain, serve. — This fruit-laced Perfect Martini recipe, first appearing in JM1912 bears a close resemblance to the later Straub’s Waldorf Queen[’s] (see above) added in 1916—which might stand out more if the Old Waldorf Bar Days recipe for the Waldorf Bronx (2:1 gin to orange juice, with 2 pineapple slices) had been followed.

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).
 

366. Waldorf Queen Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Tinkerman’s Gin (Sweet Spice)
  0.5 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso
  0.5 Dolin Dry
  1 quarter orange
  2 quarter-slices pineapple

Muddle pineapple in shaker, add ingredients and fine ice, rappé well (shake vigorously 30 till nicely frosted), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — In 1913, Jacques Straub, ever the entrepeneur of all things Waldorf, includes this Bronx variant under the name Waldorf Queen’s. JM1916 picks up with slight variation, dropping the possessive marker (and thus any connection to a New York borough name, a là Bronx). The same drink proved popular and was included in books like McElhone’s 1927 Barflies & Cocktails (under the simplified name Waldorf). The Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931), which usually holds the best claim, calls it the Waldorf Bronx and makes it much simpler than a Bronx, with only gin, orange juice, and pineapple slices:

Here is my version of Jack’s recipe.

362. Vienna Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso (sweet vermouth)
  1 oz Noilly Prat extra dry vermouth
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte

Fill mixing-glass with fine ice, frappé (shake vigorously), strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This vermouth x2 duo + absinthe first appears in Straub 1913. A light drink that can be enjoyed anytime, it can easily be imagined being deposited on a small café table in Vienna, Austria or Vienna, Virginia.

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.
  

356. U. C. Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte

Fill shaker with ice, shake about 30 strokes, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This shaken Martini+absinthe recipe first appears in Straub 1913 without a hint as to the source of the name.
 

354. Tuxedo Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Gin Lane 1751 Old Tom Gin
  1.5 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
  3 dashes Angostura bitters
  1 dash Luxardo maraschino
  1 dash St. George absinthe verte

Fill mixing-glass half full with ice, stir well (about 30 seconds), strain into cocktail glass, add cherry (here Amarena), serve. —This heavy-hitter classic cocktail from the Tuxedo Club, NY, is offered by Grohusko in a redder, more heavily bittered incarnation. Straub 1913 sees Jack and raises him a barspoon of sherry wine (authentic secret or misguided allusion to the Tussetto? See previous post). McElhone garnishes this with a lemon twist. Craddock (in the No. 2 by this name) has cherry and expressed lemon peel, but the drink is shaken. For further information, see Difford’s detailed post.
 

349. Tulane Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  1 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
  1 tsp strawberry syrup

Fill shaker with fine ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Dry Martini with a strawberry twist first appears in Straub 1914. Since I had strawberry syrup made recently, I used that instead of strawberry brandy. The difference is probably minimal at such a small quantity.

348. Tucker Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky 100 pf
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
  1 dash Angostura bitters

Pour ingredients directly in glass with large piece of ice and lemon twist. — This Dry Manhattan served down on the rocks appears first in JM1910. The instructions generally seem to imply that the lemon twist should be placed in the glass first before stirring.
 

345. Treasurer Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Gin
  1 slice orange (for mixing)

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, stir, strain, garnish with orange twist, serve. — This strong dry martini with an orange twist appears in Straub 1913 by the slightly different name Treasury, with an orange slice instead of twist, to be shaken (frappéed) with the other ingredients. I have included the orange component on both ends for the added distinction from other similar recipes.

 

344. Tiptop Cocktail

My intepretation:
  2 oz Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth
  4 dashes DOM Benedictine
  3 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1 dash Angostura aromatic bitters

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This light, vermouth-based drink appropriate for any time of day, first appears in print in Straub 1913, from which it is borrowed for JM1916. The drink probably originates with the Old Waldorf bar. The 1931 publication of the manual includes this recipe with the following differences: 2 dashes Angostura (not 1), no orange bitters, stirred (not shaken), lemon twist.

343. Taxi Cocktail

My interpretation:

  1 oz Castle & Key dry gin

  1 oz Dolin Dry

  2 tsp lime juice

  2 tsp St. George absinthe verte

Fill shaker with fine ice, frappé / shake vigorously 40-50 strokes, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This cold dry martini with lime and absinthe comes from Straub 1913 and finds its way thence into JM1916, which changes barspoons to teaspoons but keeps everything else the same.

340. Sunshine Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Extra Dry Vermouth
  1 tsp lime juice
  1/2 tsp Jack Rudy Grenadine
  1 egg white

Shake vigorously with a little ice about 45 seconds, strain into claret glass or 5-6 oz stemmed glass, serve. — This gin-and-lime brunch recipe, resembling a frothed up, fancy Gin Daisy/Sour, first appears in Straub 1913 with some additional details (Old Tom gin, 2-person drink), whence it finds its way into JM1916. An unrelated drink by this name in Barflies & Cocktails (1927) is essentially a brandy-rum sour. The 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days has a somewhat related Sunshine amounting to a lemon-lime silver fizz in a lemonade glass, omitting sweetener. Modern drinks bearing this name are unrelated, or perhaps derived from McElhone’s recipe.
  

336. Stanton Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Beefeater Gin
  1 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  2 dashes D.O.M. Benedictine

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This Dry Martini riff with Benedictine tinge first appears in JM1908, an apparent Grohusko original. Earlier instances of hte recipe specify dry gin, so the absence of a modifier here is not a hint at something less-than-dry, but probably a typo. Stanton is the name of a street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, not far from Baracca’s Eating-House / Jack’s bar.
 

335. Sphinx Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Beefeater Dry Gin
  0.33 oz Dolin Dry
  0.33 oz Vermut Lustau

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with lemon peel or slice. — This perfect martini riff with thin lemon garnish first appears in Straub 1913 and is picked up in JM1916.

332. Soul Kiss Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Dubonnet Rouge
  0.5 oz Bulleit Rye
  0.5 oz Noilly Prat Dry
  0.5 oz fresh orange juice
  1/2 tsp sugar
  
Fill mixing-glass half-full with ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, top up with soda, serve. — This mixture, named after a musical comedy, first appears in JM 1912 (3rd Edition) and resembles a perfect Manhattan with Dubonnet (originally Byrrh) replacing vermouth, and the addition of sugar, orange, and soda, suggesting a hybrid recipe, unless the fizz water indicates a long drink. Here, however, it seems to add only a slight fizz edge to the final service. A larger cocktail glass seems appropriate. The recipe is also found in Straub 1913 (as “Soul Kiss No. 2”) and in McElhone’s Barflies & Cocktails (1927). The drink by this name in the Waldorf Bar Days is a dry martini shaken with egg white. Of the two recipes by the name in the Savoy book (1930), the no. 2 is more similar, having rye whiskey instead of Italian vermouth (the other ingredients are all shared: Dubonnet, orange juice, and dry vermouth).

330. Society Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Beefeater Gin
  0.75 oz Dolin Dry
  1 dash Jack Rudy Grenadine

Fill mixing-glass with broken ice, shake, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This martini with a dash of grenadine first appears in Straub 1913 and is borrowed for JM 1916.