Santiago Cocktail
2 Dashes Grenadine. (1 teaspoon Small Hands Food Grenadine)
2 Dashes Lemon Juice. (1 teaspoon Lemon Juice)
1 Glass Bacardi Rum. (2 oz Barbancourt White Rum)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
Being slightly generous here with the proportions of Grenadine and Lemon Juice in this Daiquiri-like cocktail. I’m also picking a slightly more flavorful r(h)um that I would typically, as the drink is basically all spirits.
It isn’t awful, exactly, as I am very fond of Barbancourt’s white rum in most contexts. It is not, however, the sort of drink that you would probably make for someone who doesn’t like the flavor of booze in their cocktails.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Roulette Cocktail.
1/4 Swedish Punch. (1/2 oz Underhill-Lounge Homemade)
1/4 Bacardi Rum. (1/2 oz Montecristo White Rum)
1/2 Calvados. (1 oz Roger Groult Reserve Calvados)
Shake (I stirred) will and strain into cocktail glass.
Well, this is quite sweet. Still, it is kind of interesting as a vehicle for Calvados and Swedish Punch. It would not be a horrible after dinner drink. The Montecristo White seems to simply serve as filler here, not really contributing much, at least in the face of such strong flavors as the Calvados and Swedish Punch.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
President Cocktail.
2 Dashes Grenadine. (1/2 tsp. homemade grenadine)
The Juice of 1/4 Orange.
1 glass Bacardi Rum. (2 oz Mathusalem Platino)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. (Squeeze Orange peel over glass.)
This should be better than it is. But I think the main problem is the lack of character in the Mathusalem Platino. If ever there was a rum that is nearly vodka, this is it. I can barely detect rum in any cocktail I make with it.
I dunno, maybe if you had really good oranges and the best homemade grenadine evar (or small hand foods grenadine) this might be worth experimenting with.
As it is, it’s basically a screwdriver.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Pooh-Bah Cocktail.
1/3 Bacardi Rum. (3/4 oz Ron Mathusalem Platino)
1 Dash Apricot Brandy. (1 dash Rothman and Winter Apricot Liqueur)
1/3 Swedish Punch. (3/4 oz Underhill-Punsch)
1/3 Dry Gin. (3/4 oz North Shore Distiller’s No. 6)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. (Add a Luxardo Chery.)
We always get a couple orders for these during Savoy Night at Alembic Bar. I guess because of the funny name and the fact that it contains Swedish Punch. And, frankly you could do worse.
Still, it it is awfully sweet, so you could definitely do better, and you could definitely to a lot to improve it by making it with a more interesting rum than the Mathusalem Platino.
Personally, I’d be awfully tempted to grab the Appleton V/X or a mild Agricole like Barbancourt.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Poker Cocktail.
1/2 Italian Vermouth. (1 oz Punt e Mes)
1/2 Bacardi Rum. (1 oz Havana Club 7 Year)
Shake (I stirred) well and strain into cocktail glass.
I decided to not gamble too much with the Poker Cocktail and upped the ante with Punt e Mes and an aged rum.
While I wouldn’t call this exactly a royal flush or four of a kind, it certainly beats a pair of deuces, hands down.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Hercules remains, more or less, a mystery.
To summarize, for many years because of a description in Stan Jones’ Barguide which called it an Absinthe substitute, it was thought to be exactly that. Something like Ricard or Pernod.
However, when I started making these Savoy recipes, none of them made taste sense when made with Pernod or Ricard. They were just awful.
About this time, I saw an advertisement that popped up from time to time on the front page of the cocktaildb. It was for a Dutch product called Hercules which was a aromatized and fortified red wine. I made a couple cocktails which call for Hercules with Cocchi’s Barolo Chinato and they made a lot more sense.
I started doing more digging and turned up some advertisements in Google Books for a product called Hercules available at about the same time the Savoy Cocktail Book was published.
HERCULES “HEALTH – COCKTAILS ARE SERVED AT LEADING BARS. “Hercules” can be had plain, when so preferred, or as the chief and most fascinating ingredient…that Create Appetite and Stimulate Digestion “Hercules” Wine Aperitif contains the phenomenal properties of Yerba-Mate, which has won the high opinion…TO TEST “HERCULES” WINE APERITIF send fi/6 for a full-sired bottle, carriage paid.
We will despatch by return. Later supplies must be obtained of Wine…
Instead of being an Absinthe substitute, Hercules turned out to be a wine based aperitif one of whose ingredients was Yerba Mate!
In addition, a London friend, Jeff Masson asked around about it. Turned out that a friend of his was acquainted with some of the ex-Savoy bartenders. While the most recent bartender didn’t recall Hercules, his predecessor at the bar did!
From Jeff:
Did a little more research into this mystery ingredient but found nothing amazing.
I spoke to a friend who knows Peter Dorelli, the former head bartender of the Savoy, very well. I asked him to find out what he could.
Peter had never tasted the ingredient but called his former head bartender, Joe Gilmore, who is now around 85!
He remembered Hercules quite well and described it as a cross between an aperetif and a bitters. It was light pink in colour and bore no resemblance to Absinthe. He didn’t have any real suggestions for a substitute but mentioned Dubonnet would not be appropriate.
Not conclusive but quite interesting.
OK, a bitter wine based aperitif flavored with Yerba Mate.
Current try at reproduction:
1 bottle Navarro White Table Wine
1/4 cup Yerba Mate
1 tablespoon Gentian
1 clove
Dried Peel from 1 Seville Orange
1/2 stick Ceylon Cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Havana Club 8 Year Rum
Method: Combine all ingredients other than rum, bring to 140 degrees for 10 minutes. Strain off solids, cool, and add rum. Refrigerate.
I purposely kept this simple, to try and get more of a feel for appropriate taste combinations with the Yerba Mate. Initial thoughts are that it has too much gentian to be drunk on it’s own for pleasure. But it’s close. Tasting other vermouth I have around, I find many seem to have more culinary herbs in the middle flavors than this. Might have to experiment with including some thyme, mint, or oregano next time. I’m also not sure if the color came from the wine or if it was colored, so skipped that for the time being. Since most vermouth is made on a white wine base, I would guess it was colored, perhaps with cochineal or similar.
New Life Cocktail
1/4 Hercules. (1/2 oz “Hercules”)
1/4 Bacardi Rum. (1/2 oz Montecristo Rum)
1/2 Cointreau. (1 oz Cointreau)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
That’s a lot of Cointreau, but every other recipe for the New Life I can find uses the same proportions, so I guess it isn’t a typo.
While it is sweet, it is kind of tasty. However, drinking it, I was reminded of the unique flavors of Armazem Viera’s Esmeralda Cachaca. Remaking it with Cachaca instead of the Montecristo rum did make for a much more interesting cocktail. Interesting that these two South American flavors would compliment each other.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
The Nevada Cocktail
1 Hooker of Bacardi Rum. (1 1/2 oz Montecristo White)
The Juice of 1/2 Grapefruit. (Shoot, should have measured.)
The Juice of 1 Lime. (Juice 1/2 lemon)
Powdered Sugar. (Scant teaspoon caster sugar)
1 Dash Bitters. (1 dash Angostura)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
This is another one from Judge Jr.’s prohibition era tome, “Here’s How!”
Actually probably the best drink of any from that book so far. Really highlights the floral flavors of the rum, grapefruit, and bitters.
About all I’d say is it’s a bit too large. Divided in two, this would be a good appetizer cocktail. Bittersweet and tart. This large and it gets a bit acid-ey on the stomach by the end.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Melba Cocktail
2 Dashes Grenadine. (2/3 teaspoon Homemade Grenadine)
2 Dashes Absinthe. (2/3 teaspoon Verte de Fougerolles Absinthe)
The Juice of 1/4 Lemon or 1/2 Lime. (Juice 1/2 lime)
1/2 Glass Bacardi Rum. (1 oz Montecristo Silver)
1/2 Glass Swedish Punch. (1 oz Homemade Swedish Punsch)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. (If desired add a cherry, preferably Luxardo or Toschi.)
I had high hopes for the Melba, but I’m not quite sure it lived up to them.
A very good cocktail, that I could imagine being popular, it just doesn’t quite have the magic of the very similar Corpse Reviver No. 2 (with Swedish Punsch).
By pushing the sweet/sour focus out a bit further, it loses the refreshing lightness of the Corpse Reviver. Ends up being a bit heavy.
Still, all in all, a tasty cocktail. One of the few I can think of involving Absinthe and Rum. Definitely some promise there!
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Mary Pickford Cocktail
1/2 Bacardi Rum. (1 oz Montecristo White Rum)
1/2 Pineapple Juice. (1 oz Knudsen Pineapple)
1 Teaspoonful Grenadine. (1 barspoon Homemade Grenadine)
6 Drops Maraschino. (6 drops Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur)
Oddly another Savoy Cocktail which lacks directions. I’m gonna say shake, because it is so much more fun to get that nice little head you get with shaking pineapple juice.
Way back when we talked about the Fairbanks cocktail we talked about the tension in the Fairbanks/Pickford house. Mary Pickford, “America’s Sweetheart”, enjoyed the odd drink. Douglas Fairbanks did not and did not approve of her drinking.
I don’t know who could argue with a fine, light, and enjoyable drink like this. I doubt even Fairbanks would notice it was alcoholic!
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Margato Cocktail (Special)
1/3 Bacardi Rum. (3/4 oz Montecristo White Rum)
1/3 French Vermouth. (3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)
1/3 Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Carpano Antica)
1 Dash Kirsch. (1/3 tsp. Trimbach Kirsch)
The Juice of 1/2 Lemon.
The Juice of 1/3 Lime.
A little sugar (scant teaspoon caster sugar) dissolved in soda-water.
Shake well and serve in cocktail glass.
Uh right. If this recipe makes sense to anyone, feel free to let me know. Who measures “The Juice of 1/3 Lime”?
It’s pretty OK. Tasting mostly like a slightly vermouth-ey glass of tart lemonade. Certainly, the alcohol is well disguised. Maybe that is the point?
There is a Cuban rum cocktail with dry vermouth and lime. Not El Presidente, I can’t think of what it is called. I suppose this is sort of a “perfect” version of that cocktail.
Oh right, to answer my own question, it is the “Presidente Vincent” cocktail.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
