370. Waxen Cocktail

My interpretation:
  0.5 oz Gine Lane 1751 Old Tom Gin
  0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth
  0.5 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy
  0.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse

Fill mixing-glass with ice, stir, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This recipe first appears in Straub 1913 and is borrowed from thence for JM1916. The same recipe is found in McElhone’s Barflies . . . under the name “Warday’s” with the notable and in fact sensible reduction of chartreuse to 1 tsp., leaving the rest in equal thirds (about 0.75 oz each). That recipe and name are reproduced exactly in The Savoy (1930). While the Warday’s Cocktail is rightly deserving some attention today, it is well to note that Straub and Grohusko did it first, sort of, and to give credit where due. They may be independent creations, but I find it unlikely, given their proximity in the alphabet. The Waxen is also getting attention here and there.

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.”
 

94. Club Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Castle & Key London Dry Gin
  0.5 oz Yzaguirre Rojo
  1 dash Chartreuse (Green)

Shake well with ice, strain into cocktail glass, serve. — This cocktail, new to the JM 1933, is found in The Savoy Cocktail book with yellow chartreuse. It is unknown whether Jack’s Manual, borrowing perhaps from Savoy, or else local tradition, omitted this by accident or purposefully changed it. With Green, it is similar to a Bijou with altered proportions. The lighter, sweeter quality of the Yellow tends to disappear this ratio.

80. Chocolate Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse
  0.5 tsp powdered unsweetened chocolate
  0.25 tsp sugar
  1 tsp warm water
  1 Vital Farms egg yolk
  
In mixing-glass stir chocolate, sugar, and water until smooth, add egg yolk, stir until smooth, add cracked ice and chartreuse, shake 20 seconds, finely strain, and serve. — A Chocolate Cocktail without chocolate (like the Coffee Cocktail without coffee) has substantial tradition in mixed-drink history, probably for reason of appearance; cf. Jack’s Chocolate Punch, consisting of Port, curaçao, and milk. Jacques Straub in 1913 has no chocolate powder, but instead maraschino and blackberry liqueur; the Savoy, however, has both the chocolate powder and the maraschino. Jack Grohusko, for his part opts for a more on-the-nose approach with the cocktail in the JM 1916, thus forestalling potential questions by potentially confused or indignant customers, I presume.

3. Alaska Cocktail

My interpretation:
  1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
  1.25 oz Yellow Chartreuse
  1.75 oz Uncle Val’s Restorative Gin

Talk about laconic instructions (see previous post), here Jack gives us none. I take my cue instead from the great state of Alaska and stir it over a glass 3/4 full of cracked ice. (Although my Hayman’s Old Tom was not accessible at the time of preparation, I think the Uncle Val’s Restorative worked well in the cocktail, especially given the sweetness of the chartreuse.) Garnish with orange peel—though sans garnish would be fine.