Picador

The "Picador", from W.J. Tarling's 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book (Coronation Edition). Another of Tarling's darling early Tequila recipes. 

The Picador


1.5 ounces (45 ml) Tequila
3/4 ounce (22 ml) Cointreau
3/4 ounce (22 ml) fresh Lime or Lemon Juice


Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. 

As simple and tasty as this is, you may want to make two. A Picador is one of a pair after-all, (a "Picador" is one of the two horsemen that spear the bull in a Spanish bullfight with a lance.).

Can't decide between lemon or lime? Try one of each!

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!

Nuclear Daiquiri

The Nuclear Daiquiri, as it appears in the Big Bartender's Book by Mud Puddle.

Nuclear Daiquiri


3/4 ounce (22 ml) Wray & Nephew Overproof Rum
3/4 ounce (22ml) green Chartreuse
1/3 ounce (10 ml) falernum
3/4 ounce (22 ml) lime juice


Shake with Ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

My eyes were closed, but I think I dipped dangerously close to sucking the mix in through my nose as I inhaled the aromas. The Chartreuse green really comes to life in this mix with a big, resinous forest pine aroma.

I have used John D. Taylor's "Velvet Falernum" in this drink many times in the past with good results. This was the first time I tried the recipe with the Trader Tiki's Falernum, and viva la differance!

The bottle of falernum claims flavors of "Lime, Ginger, Almond, Clove and hints of Jamaican potstill rum."

When mixed with the clear, bright, grassy-sweet "Wray and Nephew Overproof",and the 130 herbal extracts present in the Chartreuse green, it is very easy to get lost in the aroma alone.

The flavors are no less complex. The resinous pine comes through on the palate. The mix of herbals, ginger, clove and lime all getting along remarkably well.

If you are looking for a rich and full-bodied daiquiri, go Nuclear!

The drink was created by Gregor De Gruyther (1979-2009).

Toreador

Toreador


1 1/2 ounces (45 ml) Tequila
3/4 ounce (22 ml) Apry
3/4 ounce (22 ml) fresh lime Juice


Shake well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.


Here is another early tequila drink from Tarling's 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book.

The apricot brandy brings a bold, sweet fruit flavor to balance the sour notes from the lime juice making the Toreador more approachable than the Tia Juano.

I went top shelf for this one and used the Ocho reposado from 2008 - and while it made for a very good drink, it was probably overkill.

The really nice thing about this one is that you can use just about any decent tequila you want and get good results.

NOTE: This is also VERY good using Del Meguey Mezcal Vida and lemon juice!!!

Palm Breeze

This one appears in Mud Puddle's Cocktail Handbook by Jeff Masson and Greg Boehm and was adopted from a recipe appearing in the 1953 edition of the United Kingdom Bartenders' Guild Guide To Drinks.


Palm Breeze


1 1/2 oz (45 ml) Jamaican dark rum
1 ounce (30 ml) yellow Chartreuse
1/2 ounce (15 ml) white creme de cacao
1/2 ounce (15 ml) lime juice
1 dash grenadine


Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Wow this one's good! Big rum, the chocolate is subtle and the yellow Chartreuse brings it all together. With only 1/2 ounce of lime juice this is a more booze forward sour.

I used Smith & Cross for the Jamaican rum and subbed in Mozart Dry for the white creme de cacao.

The dash of grenadine providing a little color and just a touch of sweet to back those boozy flavors off a bit.

The results are a deep dark & earthy "daiquiri-style" drink. A challenging drink, but very much "yum" in my book.

Fannie Ward Cocktail

Here's a third drink from "The Ideal Bartender" (1917) written by Thomas Bullock. Before I get into the drink though, a bit about it's author.

The Ideal Bartender is the first cocktail book to be written by an African-American. (An original copy recently sold on ebay for more than $2500, but you can find it on Google books for free).

Thomas Bullock (1873-1964) author of "The Ideal Bartender"

He worked for over 25 years at the very exclusive "St. Louis Country Club", and made drinks for the social elite and their visiting guests.

By way of introduction to the man and his book, the following appears on page 3:

 "A testimonial from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch which appeared in the form of an editorial, Wednesday evening, May 28, 1913, at a time when Col. Roosevelt was vindicating, by a libel suit, his reputation for sobriety and temperance.

Colonel Roosevelt's fatal admission that he drank just a part of one julep at the St. Louis Country Club will come vегу near losing his case.

Who was ever known to drink just a part of one of Tom's? Tom, than whom there is no greater mixologist of any race, color or condition of servitude, was taught the art of the julep by no less than Marse Lilburn G. McNair, the father of the julep. In fact, the very cup that Col. Roosevelt drank it from belonged to Governor McNair, the first Governor of Missouri, the great-grandfather of Marse Lilburn and the greatgreat-grandfather of the julep.

As is well known, the Country Club mint originally sprang on the slopes of Parnassus and was transplanted thence to the bosky banks of Culpeper Creek, Gaines County, Ky., and thence to our own environs; while the classic distillation with which Tom mingles it to produce his chief d'oeuvre is the oft-quoted liquefied soul of a Southern moonbeam falling aslant the dewy elopes of the Cumberland Mountains.

To believe that a red-blooded man, and a true Colonel at that, ever stopped with just a part of one of those refreshments which have made St. Louis hospitality proverbial and become one of our most distinctive genre institutions, is to strain credulity too far. Are the Colonel's powers of self restraint altogether transcendent? Have we found the living superman at last?

When the Colonel says that he consumed just a part of one he doubtless meant that he did not swallow the mint itself, munch the ice and devour the very cup."

By the way, the "Colonel" was Theodore Roosevelt, who was more commonly addressed as "Colonel Roosevelt" in the years after he left the White House in 1909 until his death in 1919.

Fannie Ward, for whom the drink in this post was named, was an early star of the stage and silver screen. She was known for her comedic roles and in 1915 appeared in Cecil B. Demille's sex-charged film, The Cheat.

The drink named in her honor appears in Tom's book as follows:

FANNIE WARD 

Use a large Mixing glass with Lump Ice.
White of an Egg.
Juice 1/2 Lime.
2 dashes imported Grenadine.
1 jigger Bacardi Rum.

Shake and strain into Cocktail glass.

My adaptation...

FANNIE WARD 

2 ounces (60 ml) white rum.

3/4 ounce (22 ml) lime juice.
1/4 ounce (7.5 ml) Grenadine. 
White of an Egg.


Shake ingredients once with ice, once without, and strain into Cocktail glass.

This is indeed a very tasty beverage. As you'd expect from the ingredients, this is light, sweet, tart and airy. Not unlike descriptions of Fannie herself.