Aviation

Wow, hard to believe it's been so long since I've been able to post regularly. A big thanks to all my readers! I hope to be "taking off" again soon. Here's a look at the Aviation to get us well off!

While I did get an early copy of the PDT cocktail book, I didn't get a chance to read it until recently. Section One, "Setting Up the Bar" should be required reading for every bartender. The advice is spot on and there is an an amazing amount of craft bar know-how being shared in these pages.

Getting into the cocktails, I quickly came across the Aviation and realized I had yet to write a post on this cult favorite.

The Aviation was born along with the dawn of aviation history in the early twentieth century.

1916 Cessna

Airplane flying over Dearborn, MI in 1916

The original recipe from Hugo Ensslin's 1916 book Recipes for Mixed Drinks, was not commonly known until recently. David Wondrich was paging through a copy of Hugo's book that he had just scored on ebay back in 2004 when he came across a recipe for the Aviation and "almost dropped the book into his soup".

Up until David's discovery it was commonly thought that the Aviation originated in the 1930 classic Savoy Cocktail Book, in fact - it was a "cornerstone" drink from the Savoy book.

This discovery lead to a larger understanding of Harry Craddock's book, which for at least three generations of discerning barkeeps, served as treasured reference to the art of American mixed drinks - an art that was mostly lost after prohibition. Since Craddock did not attribute any drinks origins in the book, drinks that did not appear in earlier books haven been authored to him.

Wondrich found that Craddock had either used one of Ensslin's adoptions for a standard drink, or directly copied one of Ensslin's original drinks a staggering 146 times! The Affinity, the Alice Mine, Brandy Blazer, the Castle Dip, the Deshler, Fair & Warmer, Fluffy Ruffles, Raymond Hitchcocktail, and many more - all appearing in Ensslin's book first making Recipes for Mixed Drinks one of the more important and useful books to have in your collection. (Mud Puddle makes an excellent reproduction!).

There was one more surprise though, Ensslin called for the addition of a fairly rare ingredient, "Creme de Violette", an unctuous, deep-purple liqueur made from macerated violets. (Austrian maker "Rothman & Winter" make a very good and readily available "Creme de Violette").

The Creme de Violette turns the mixture a nice color, reminiscent of a late evening sky, which does go a long way to explaining the drinks name in the first place.

Hugo Ensslin Recipe from Recipes for Mixed Drinks 1916

Jim Meehan Recipe from The PDT Cocktail Book 2011

Ensslin calls for equal parts maraschino and creme de violette. I prefer the adaptation in the PDT book calling for more maraschino, as this drink can be a little tart without the extra sweetness the maraschino provides. Go easy on the Creme de Violette though, a little goes a long way here.

THE AVIATION


2 ounces (60 ml) Good (& strong) London Dry Gin
3/4 ounce (22ml) Lemon Juice
1/2 ounce (15 ml) Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
1/4 ounce (7ml...even 5-6ml) Rothman & Winter Creme de Violette


Shake and Strain into a chilled coupe.

No Garnish

I prefer Gordon's Export Strength Gin (47.3% A.B.V.) when I can get it, otherwise Beefeater is a great choice.

This one is tart and gin forward to be sure. It really shows off the Maraschino nicely. If you don't use too much Creme de Violette then you have a nice subtle complexity that's hard to pin down. Too much and you will know it!

Sour Kisses

From Hugo Ensslin's Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916-1917)

SOUR KISSES


2 ounces London Dry Gin (strong like Beefeaters or Gordon's 47.3%)
1 ounce French Vermouth (I like Lillet Blanc for this one)
1/2-3/4 ounce egg white
1 dash Orange Flower Water


Shake well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain into a small stem glass and serve.


A refreshing summer way to enjoy your vermouth and gin. Great name for this drink, and apt too.

The fluffy egg and thick, wet Lillet combine for a texture that is velvety and soft like a kiss. It is slightly sour and very vermouth forward, even with the soft Lillet.

Be careful not to use too much orange flower water. It should be the salt in your soup. A little goes a long way to bring out the flavors already there. Just as with bitters, if you can taste it, you have used too much.

Frankenjack

Here's How!, published in 1927, is a title known to collectors for the many recipes that were copied verbatim into the 1930 Savoy cocktail book. Harry Craddock and the book's editors also borrowed from McElhone, Ensslin and Vermeire among others, which puts the book in good company. 

Judge Jr. was the nomes de plume of one Norman Hume Anthony, who spent quite a bit of time in Frank & Jack's according to an article from TIME magazine from June 19,1939.

Apparently, Norman was still the editor of the Judge in 1927 when Here's How was published...he was fired in 1930 though and spent "several months biting his nails" in Frank & Jack's speakeasy.

There's a bit of a"wardrobe malfunction" going on here if you look close.

Eventually he was hired by Publisher John Delacorte to start the very successful "Ballyhoo" publication, described as a "bathroom burlesque of bathroom advertising".

The "Frankenjack" cocktail was among the recipes first published in this book, and as it states in the notes, was named after the proprietors of a "very, very" well-known speakeasy in New York City.

A famous Frank and Jack's speakeasy, which I think we can safely assume is the same establishment, was described in Michael Batterberry's “On the Town in New York” as follows:

More typical was Frank and Jack’s, a jolly place where there were generally a hundred people jammed into a tiny kitchen barely large enough to hold three tables. Among those struggling for air and room enough to laugh might be Jimmy Durante, Pat Rooney, or Peggy Hopkins Joyce. It was Frank and Jack who perfected the gambit of getting rid of one drunk by asking him to assist another out the door. 

The Frankenjack from Here's How by "Judge Jr." as pub'd in 1927

THE FRANKENJACK

1 ounce (30 ml) Gordon's Export gin (or Beefeater)

1 ounce (30 ml) French Vermouth (I used my fav Kina Lillet sub, Cocchi Americano)

1/2 ounce (15 ml) apricot brandy (Marie Brizard "Apry")

1/2 ounce (15 ml) Cointreau

Stir well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Over the years many recipes have called for this to be a shaken drink. With the absence of citrus however this drink is much better suited to being well stirred.

This drink is basically a Claridge cocktail (sans the chocolate powder dusting) from Harry McElhone's 1922 ABC of Mixing Cocktails. The Frankenjack sounds like something you'd actually order at a bar though, and made for a good story here.

It's a nice drink. Too fruity to be a martini, though that is obviously the base drink here. I suppose if they'd named this 60 years later it would be a "Aprytini" or something "clever" like that. 

The Apry is certainly the dominate flavor, with the Cointreau's orange playing a supporting role only.

Using the Cocchi Americano over a regular dry vermouth gives the drink a nice roundness and silky mouth feel putting this drink more on the sweet side. 

The 47.3% A.B.V. Gordon's Export does a great job of making sure things don't get too sweet, use a good quality, high proof gin for this one for sure.

Little King

Gin, apricot brandy, applejack and lemon juice. That got my attention. Created by a cartoonist, sounded even more interesting. I came across this in the Big Bartender's Book and was surprised it had not caught my eye before. 

Otto Soglow (December 23, 1900 -April 3, 1975)

From Ted Saucier's 1951 title Bottoms Up, and accredited to cartoonist Otto Soglow, this drink was named after a popular comic strip that Otto created for the New Yorker in 1931.

A 32 year old Otto is on the far left, celebrating the end of prohibition in 1933 with some of his fellow cartoonists.

An article in LIFE from 1951 suggested that Soglow and a number of other cartoonists (one is partially visible in the photo above at the right) were brought together to test the properties of waterproof ink; as after being drawn on, the models were doused in water. 

This is also the year Ted Saucier published the Little King recipe in his book Bottoms Up....coincidence? Most likely, but what a great one to document here!

Ted's recipe from 1951 was listed as:

Little King

Juice 1/4 Lemon

1/4 jigger Apricot Brandy

1/4 jigger Applejack

1/2 jigger Gin

Let's assume a 2 ounce jigger so we can get closer to a 3 ounce drink. The 1/4 lemon is trickier - after some experimenting I've found that 1/3 of an ounce makes for a nicely balanced drink.

Little King

1 ounce Plymouth gin

1/2 ounce Apry

1/2 ounce Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy

1/3 ounce fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Delicate and dry, the drink is well balanced by the slightly sweet apricot and apple notes. With the lemon juice just right, it walks the line between sweet and sour well, trending on the dry side, but only a bit.

I've also noticed that this drink opens up very well, that is, when I've allowed it to sit that long - which hasn't been often!

The Bramble

The Bramble was created in the mid 1980's by London's legendary bar master, Dick Bradsell, during his tenure at Fred's Club in London's Soho.

It is a simplified Singapore Sling as Dick made at the Zanzabar club, built to be a truly "British" cocktail, but you should really hear it from the man himself. You can do just that in this excellent video interview from DRÉ Masso's website: www.ginandtales.com

Since its creation, it has seemed to work its way onto nearly every cocktail menu in London at some point or another, and it remains on of the city's favorite warm weather coolers. A modern classic from London's "godfather" of cocktails.


THE BRAMBLE


2 ounces (60 ml) Plymouth gin
1 ounce (30 ml) lemon juice
2 teaspoons (10 ml) simple syrup
1/2 ounce (15 ml) (nice quality) cremé de mûre


Combine the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup and shake well with ice, then strain into an old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Add the cremé de mûre and stir.  Garnish with a blackberry and a slice of lemon.

For the crushed ice in your serving glass, break out the swing-away ice crusher (worth picking up on ebay if you do not have one). You can also crush your ice in a lewis bag with great results.

What we have here is a gin sour, sans the optional egg, wonderfully laced with the cremé de mûre.

The drink is very gin forward, which is why I think that Dick recommends the smooth and subtle Plymouth gin. For you gin lovers out there though, don't be afraid to use a nice bold gin as they work very well here too. (Not that I need to tell you).

It's also worth noting that for non-gin drinkers this is a very approachable drink and a great way to introduce yourself to the spirit, especially if you go with a mild and smooth gin like Plymouth.

The Massenez cremé de mûre is a very nice liqueur, and one of the better brands available here in the states. The blackberry flavor is somehow bold and subtle at the same time.

This drink really develops well as it sits, becoming more and more enjoyable as you get on with it. That is, if you can get it to last that long.

Douglas Fairbanks Cocktail

I came across an adaptation of this cocktail  in Jeff Masson and Greg Boehm's uber-treasury of classic drinks, The Big Bartender's Book. 

After trying the recipe a few times and finding it very enjoyable, I started doing a little research and found that there were may variations on this drink out there, and none of them matched the adaptation I was using.

(From the 1935 ed of Sloppy Joe's)

The original recipe is from the classic Cuban cocktail title Sloppy Joe's Cocktails Manual: Season 1934 by Jose Abeal and Valentin Garcia (1934), and this original recipe matched up perfectly with their adaptation. 

Thus proving to me once again, that the Big Bartender's Book is an authoritative and accurate resource. Honestly, if I could only choose one book to have behind the bar, this would be it! 

Here is the recipe as it appears in the Big Bartender's Book:

Douglas Fairbanks Cocktail

2 ounces (60 ml) gin

1 ounce (30 ml) apricot brandy

3/4 ounce (22 ml) lime juice

1/2 ounce (15 ml) egg white

Shake with ice and strain into a flute.

Marie Brizard Apry and Plymouth gin work really well together in this one. Plymouth is a very light and clean gin and when it is combined with the concentrated flavors of the Apry against the bright lime juice, you end up with a very nice cocktail from the "sour" family of drinks.

Add the silky, airy mouth feel you get from the egg white, and you also get a very drinkable and accessible cocktail in the Douglas Fairbanks. One that should be nearly as popular at a cocktail party as Doug himself would have been!

Gordon's Export Gin

Think you know Gordon's gin? If the 40% abv bottling we get here in the states, or even the 37% abv sold in the UK has been your only exposure, then there's one more you should try before dismissing the stuff as middle of the road tipple at best. The Gordon's "Yellow Label" London Dry Gin, at the special 47.3%  export strength, is incredibly good stuff.

Gordon's is produced in the U.K. and under licence in several former British territories including Canada and New Zealand. Apparently, though all the distillation plants use the "exact" same recipe, the water used at each plant, and the strength it is bottled at has a lot to do with the finished product's flavor. Depending on the market, Gordon's is sold in several different strengths. The U.S. version is bottled at 40% abv.

Gordon's claims to be the world's biggest seller of gin and estimates that more than two bottles of Gordon's are drunk every second of every day somewhere in the world. Gordon's is also the only gin to hold two Royal Warrants and currently holds a Royal Warrant from both HRH Queen Elizabeth II and HRH the Queen Mother.

Gordon's London Dry 40% a.b.v (U.S. Market)

London Dry Gin

Distilled in Norwalk, CT, USA

SCORE: 70

NOSE: Turpentine and industrial alcohol tempered by hints of juniper and  pepper. 17/25.

PALATE: Alcoholic, abrasive, slightly oily. 16/25

FINISH: The finish is where this gin has made its following here in the states. It has a medium long finish with mild alcoholic burn. It's the flavor in that gin and juice or gin and tonic that tells you you are drinking gin and not vodka. To me, it's as if the juniper oils were allowed to oxidize too long before being used, but it is obviously made with fairly good quality juniper berries.  19/25

BALANCE:  This is a good quality mixer with a strong, if slightly "off", juniper flavor. For the money, its going to be one of the better choices in the range. Still, it is a rough and unrefined spirit. 18/25

Gordon's London Dry 47.3% a.b.v (Export Market)

London Dry Gin

Distilled in Great Britain

SCORE: 92

NOSE: Completely different experience from the 80 proof. Soft and round with juniper, coriander, citrus, pepper with delicate florals. 23/25.

PALATE: Better viscosity than the 80 proof, smoother and rounder mouth feel. Though stronger in alcoholic content, not as bracingly alcoholic as its US counterpart. The gin is very juniper forward with hints of coriander and bit of white pepper. 22/25

FINISH: The finish is long and complex. The British distillation plant obviously took more care with their juniper. It comes across light and fresh, the difference between the juniper profile in the gins is like the difference between fresh roasted coffee beans and fully oxidized beans.  23/25

BALANCE:  Nearly perfect balance for a gin. It is crisp, clean and fresh with fantastic botanicals. Amazing juniper flavor that comes on strong and stays with you in such a lovely way. Will play well with others but this is a gin you can simply sip on by itself. 24/25

The Vesper is the perfect cocktail to showcase here, a traditional  use for the original 47.3% strength Gordons since Ian Flemming had James Bond order a Vesper in Casino Royale as follows:

:..three parts Gordon's gin, one part Russian vodka, a half measure of Kina Lillet aperitif, shaken until ice-cold, served with a slice of lemon peel."

Subject to a fair amount of debate, this recipe has been interpreted a number of ways. So as not to end up with a 4 1/2 ounce knock out drink, I'm going with some more favorable math.

VESPER MARTINI

2 ounces (60 ml) gin

2/3 ounce (20 ml) vodka

1/3 ounce (10 ml) Kina Lillet

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. 

This is a classic for good reason when made with the right ingredients. In 1953 Gordon's was stronger stuff, somewhere in the 44.4%-47.3% range. It's really not worth trying this drink with regular 40% Gordon's. Go for Beefeater or Tanqueray if you do not have access to the export strength Gordon's.

Unless you want to up the quinine level in your Lillet blanc by adding quinine powder or bark, go with Cocchi Americano for the Kina Lillet as it is much closer in character to the original Kina Lillet formula.

Use a nice Russian vodka and you are ready to go! 

Appropriately named for the original Bond girl. It's silky smooth and super dry - yet perfumed in wonderful florals. A very nice shaken libation, with a little Russian spirit lurking within. The Vesper.

CapRock Organic Gin

Disclaimer: I was given a bottle of this gin recently by a rep for Peak Spirits. I had not yet tried this "farm to bottle" new world style organic gin though, and was happy to have the opportunity to give it a spin.

According to the distiller's site: CapRock™ Organic Dry Gin is a unique blend of fruits, buds, seeds, and spices infused and distilled in a base spirit made with organic Jonathon and Braeburn apples. The apples are organically grown by Gunnison River Farms, Ela Family Farms and Mountain Spirits Farm. 12 different "botanicals" (some dried some fresh) and 2 fresh juices are either macerated and/or boiled or steamed all together at final distillation to produce layers of fresh aromas and tastes. CapRock Gin is 41% alc and available in 750ML and 200ML bottles.

______________

Apple based organic gin from the western slope, that's different. Their tagline of "This is not your grandmother's gin" does make sense. That much is blatantly evident on the nose. 

This is more like an aromatic juniper infused eau de vie than a traditional gin. That is not necessarily a bad thing, I just wouldn't to go head first into traditional recipes with this gin considering its strong and unique botanical profile. This bottle will certainly have its uses however.

CapRock Organic Gin

"New World" American Aromatic Gin

SCORE: 89

NOSE: Lavender, roses, juniper, pepper, very soft, subtle and round. The use of fresh, organic botanicals is evident in the fidelity of the aromas. The juniper here really takes a back seat here though and I wish it was just a little more pronounced. 22/25.

PALATE: The flavors on the nose carry through well. There is a nice burst of juniper mid palate. The roses are subtle, the lavender is not - I can't help but feel a little hit over the head with it. Wet, only slightly oily in the mouth. 21/25

FINISH: The finish is fairly long and complex. The apples finally come to light, the roses fill your nose like a big bouquet, the lavender relaxes a bit and finally yields to the juniper. NOT a typical "English dry" gin finish, but that's not what the folks at Peak Spirits seem to have been going for here. Very unique. 24/25

BALANCE:  I like the overall effect of the type of product the producers are going for here and think they have done a good job achieving a quality culinary gin. The rose and lavender comes across a little strong for my taste, but their flavors aromas are authentic and intoxicating. It's complex, and certainly not one dimensional - its use in cocktails will not be universal however, and it will take some forethought and experimentation to be successful. 22/25

This really is a surprisingly nice spirit, whatever you want to call it. I think having to call it gin is a little unfortunate as it leads to certain expectations. You don't go into a genever or an old tom expecting to find Bombay Dry. Going into this expecting "gin" could lead you to a similar disappointment, and "organic gin" does not really tell you much about what is going on inside the bottle.

_______________________

This is a new gin so it's only fitting that I provide a new recipe. I've been on a bit of a Fernet kick lately and thought the CapRock's lavendar and rose flavors would play well together with it, and they did.

Here's a lab original using CapRock gin, Peak Spirits peach eau de vie and Fernet Branca, enjoy.

Versante Occidentale (Western Slope) Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) CapRock "New World" Organic Gin

3/4 ounce (22 ml) Fernet Branca

1/2 ounce (15 ml) Cocchi Americano

1/4 ounce (7.5 ml) Peak Spirits Peach eau de vie brandy

1-2 dashes angostura bitters

1 dash angostura orange bitters

Mix ingredients well with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with lemon twist.

The Fernet and Cocchi provide good structure to balance and support the strong flavors of the other spirits. The flavors build to a crescendo, then end quickly with a crisp, dry finish leaving hints of roses and pine on the nose.

The Jimmie Lee

An Old Waldorf Bar Days Recipe

For some reason, March is always madness for me. I know posts have been slow in the coming this month, but the day job has to come first!

I'm sure my great-grandpba Parker, an Irish-American from county Cork, would not approve of my failing to post a good drink in honor of the day though...so to him I raise this Gaelic inspired riff on a classic perfect martini, because a great gin and vermouth drink is always good in my book!

The recipe appears in the 1931 title, Old Wardorf Bar Days, as follows:

A good story, though hard to say if there is any truth to it. Johnnie Solon was apparently prone to embellishment in his fact giving. 

If nothing else, it's a great drink...and what can be more appropriate for St. Patty's day, and to honor my own ancestor, than a (good) drink named in honor of a Irish-American immigrant from the early 20th century.

Jimmie Lee

1 ounce (30 ml) Noilly Prat dry French vermouth

1 ounce (30 ml) Punt e Mes sweet Italian vermouth

1 ounce (30 ml) Plymouth Gin

1 dash Peychaid's Bitters

Stir the gin and vermouth well with ice, pour into a double rocks glass mostly filled with crushed ice. Add some more crushed ice to the top and add dash of bitters to the fresh ice. Twist a slice of orange peel over top, rub the rim of the glass and drop in as a garnish.

As you could expect with 2/3 the volume being made of vermouth, the drink has strong herbal and wine characteristics, but the gin gives the drink a backbone. 

It reminded me a lot of a good a sherry cobbler (yes, they are growing on me). The Peychaud's bitters on top allows its aromatic qualities to really shine, especially with the added orange zest.

It is quite refreshing, and seemed to give a hint of the warm weather around the corner, when crushed ice season will return in full force!

Since the hint of spring is what this holiday has always really been about to me anyway, I chose this recipe to celebrate it. Happy St. Patty's everyone, I raise this one to you as well!

(By the way, if you happen to have Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal, a few dashes on the top in addition to the Peychaud's sends this one to a whole 'nother level - Cheers!)

Easy

An Old Waldorf Bar Days Recipe

Easy


1 3/4 ounces (52.5 ml) Bombay Dry Gin
1/4 oz (7.5 ml) Carpano Antica Vermouth
1 dash Angostura Orange Bitters


Shake and Strain into a cocktail glass.

I'll admit that I was in the mood for something easy and gin forward when I came across this one. It's very much both of those things. A great choice for gin lovers.

I have made and enjoyed a lot of shaken gin martinis in my day prior to discovering the wonders of the mixing glass.

While common wisdom today would call for this to be stirred, and I would certainly agree looking at the list, I decided to follow the instructions on this one.

This is very gin forward and does take me back to my early days with the martini, though this is much better than any I tried back then.

Do be careful adding the orange bitters, it is easy to overdo them, 3-5 drops and your good. A healthy "dash" right from the standard sized bottle is likely to be too much.

The drink is almost all gin, and that's what you end up tasting the most, but the touch of sweet vermouth adds just enough character to the drink to make it interesting. The orange bitters, when not overdone, makes up for the lack of zested citrus peel garnish and gives the drink some nice clean citrus notes.

If you do stir this, give it a good long stir with lots of ice to reach maximum chill (2-3 minutes). This drink should be served ice cold - and since shaking is the most efficient way to reach that temperature it is not a bad way to go, especially when you are in the mood for something easy.

The Lone Tree Cocktail

I was recently blessed with a rare first edition of Albert Stevens Crockett's 1931 classic, Old Waldorf Bar Days, from an extremely generous friend as a birthday gift.

There will be more posts to come from this treasured volume. The Lone Tree may not be the sexiest drink to start with, but I've always had an interest in trying it as I've come across the recipe in different books. So when I found it again here, it sounded like a great place to start.

As it is explained in David Wondrich's introduction to the Mud Puddle reprint of Jacques Straub's 1914 book Drinks, many of the recipes from Straub's books were likely "borrowed" from the famous hand-written books of the Waldorf bar with some limited help from his friend Oscar.

Jacques and Oscar Tschirky (who was one of the Waldorf's most famous bartenders) came over to America from Switzerland together on the same boat, and Oscar even contributed a blurb to the beginning of Straub's book.

The beauty of Old Waldorf Bar Days, which was not written until at least 17-18 years after Drinks, is that Crockett had the full cooperation of many of the "veteran employees" of the old Waldorf, among other collaborators that had "been regular patrons of the Bar who knew its habitués and what went on there."

Both titles are great resources. Drinks contains over 700 recipes in a pocket sized format. The instructions are usually wrong, and the drinks do take a fair amount of general knowledge to be successful with, but it's been a favored book for nearly 100 years for it's inspirational and practical nature.

The Old Waldorf Bar Days advertises "Four Hundred and Ninety-one Appealing Appetizers and Salutary Potations" in a handsome 6x9 perfect bound volume and its recipes are rich in detail, explanation and refinement (not to mention the many wonderful illustrations by Leighton Budd).

(Early history: The Lone Tree appeared first in 1900 in The Cocktail Book, A Sideboard Manual for Gentleman, as well as in the 1913 edition of Applegreen's Bar Book.) 

Straub in 1914 lists the Lone Tree Cocktail as:

When it appears in Old Waldorf Days in 1931, there is an accompanying story.

Tom gin has become Plymouth, a big change! Orange bitters have been added, and the ratio has been taken from 2:1 gin to vermouth, to a 1:1 ratio.

It appears to have been a very popular cocktail, and I'm thinking that word must have spread quickly - and likely by mouth - as the recipes lack consistency.

Four years before the Old Waldorf Bar Days was published, in Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone (1927), you have this recipe:

Five years after it was published, Frank Mier (working in Paris) provided this recipe in the 1936 classic The Artistry of Mixing Drinks.

So what's a person to do? To me, these similarities point to a sweet martini with a bitter orange influence.

Based on the back-story provided in the Old Waldorf Bar Days book, I feel a bit better prepared to give it a try, so here's my version of the "that-time" drink for your refreshment.

The Lone Tree Cocktail

1.5 ounces (45 ml) Plymouth Gin
1.5 ounces (45 ml) Sweet Vermouth (Punt e Mes)
1 dash orange bitters


Stir well with ice, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.


(Since this post is also introducing the Crockett book, it's only fitting to use his recipe.)

The 1:1 ratio of the clean-crisp Plymouth gin to the spicy-bitter, "grapefruity" Punt e Mes, along with the nice citrus hit from the bitters and orange peel oils, provide a very rich "sweet martini" experience...fitting for a recipe from the Old Waldof.

Enjoy!