278. Pink Lady Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 oz Aria American Dry Gin
  1 oz Laird’s Blended Applejack
  2 tsp Jack Rudy Grenadine / 1 tsp Rose’s Grenadine
  1 T fresh lime juice

Fill mixing-glass with ice, shake 30 seconds, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This beguiling ride with a pretty paint job, Liquor in the front seat, and a Sour in the back, is first found in Straub 1913 and borrowed for JM1916. Barflies & Cocktails (1927) gives the recipe as brandy, gin, grenadine, and egg white (no lime juice). The Savoy (1930) version consists simply of gin, grenadine, and egg white without lime, applejack, or brandy. In all cases, as usual, the choice of grenadine, and its quantity, will require adjustment in order to obtain the proper color. In any event, you will want a color somewhere between the two examples below, with a flavor more approximating the first:

30. Belmont Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.25 oz Rose’s Grenadine
  1.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin
  1 tsp heavy cream
  
Shake well (20 seconds) with cracked ice, double strain, serve. Notes: A good grenadine is a necessity for this dessert drink. Rose’s should not be the star of the show. Try Liber & Co. or Jack Rudy’s version. Otherwise, a modern palate might prefer a ratio of 1:2 grenadine to gin.

 

29. Beauty Spot Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.25 oz fresh orange juice
  0.75 oz Yzaguirre Rojo
  0.75 oz  Martini & Rossi Extra Dry
  1.5 oz Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin
  1 dash Rose’s Grenadine

Shake with ice, strain, serve. If desired, reserve grenadine till end and drop the dash through the top, creating a “spot” (this works better when the recipe with eggwhite is used).

 

18. Aviation Cocktail

A couple preliminary remarks are due here. Firstly, this is clearly not the Aviation Cocktail that predominates today, but the signature in-flight cocktail featured on a certain airline cocktail menu, which eventually fell out favor. You might sometimes find this cocktail called Aviation #1, which suits me fine. Jack knows of crème Yvette, but not of the Aviation #2. Secondly, note that the math doesn’t quite add up. The proportions are actually in relation to separate jiggers, as clarified in Jacques Straub’s 1914 book:

My interpretation:
  2.25 oz Laird & Co. Applejack
  0.75 oz fresh lime juice
  1 dash Grand Absente absinthe
  6 dashes (2 barspoons) Rose’s Grenadine

Shake well over ice, strain, garnish with lime wedge. The absinthe works here in a way similar to the Monkey Gland, and really takes it a notch above the “Applejack Cocktail (Special)” in a previous post.

 

13. Apple-Pie Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Bacardí 8
  1.5 oz Casa Mariol Vermut Negro
  4 dashes (one barspoon) Hiram Walker Apricot Brandy
  2 dashes Rose’s Grenadine
  2 barspoons lime (not pictured)

Shake well (on broken ice), strain, serve. It doesn’t taste like apple-pie (you can find lots of recipes that do that these days), and I’m not sure if it was meant to, but the specific brand of apricot liqueur might have something to do with it. A nice Abrikos would improve it, as would a better (i.e., not a last-minute purchase) grenadine, like Liber & Co.—which I used up at a party making Applejack Specials—or Jack Rudy.