Rainbow Cocktail.
1/7 Crème de Cacao. (1/4 oz Mozart Black Chocolate Liqueur)
1/7 Crème de Violette. (1/4 oz Rothman & Winter Violette)
1/7 Yellow Chartreuse. (1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse)
1/7 Maraschino. (1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino)
1/7 Benedictine. (1/4 oz Benedictine)
1/7 Green Chartreuse. (1/4 oz Green Chartreuse)
1/7 Brandy. (1/4 oz Chateau de Pellehaut Reserve Armagnac)
Use liqueur glass and pour ingredients carefully so that they do not mix.
For those of you keeping track, the ingredients arranged themselves in the following order, bottom to top: Mozart Black, Luxardo Maraschino, Benedictine/YellowChartreuse, R&W Violette, Green Chartreuse, Brandy.
Every once in a while someone orders this during Savoy Cocktail Nights at Alembic Bar and we all groan. Why, oh why?
It’s true these are all perfectly palatable liqueurs, but this is just such a pain in the ass to concoct. And the whole thing together, while not entirely unpleasant, is a bit of a shock to the system, if you are sensitive to sugar.
I finished it, it is true, more out of curiosity than anything else.
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.
I’ve been making this cocktail for a while when cocktail geeky or bartender type people ask me for a Mezcal, Tequila, or Agave “Dealer’s Choice Cocktail”. It’s just kind of fun to mess with people and not make a shaken citrus or fruit based cocktail. For obvious reasons, I usually just call it a “Death and Company” or “Phil Ward” style cocktail. However, checking with one of the bartenders at Death and Co, it turns out it isn’t actually a Death and Company cocktail. Damn. That meant I had to think of a name.
A guest the other night quite enjoyed it and suggested calling it the “Balthazar Cocktail”. Odd. The Donkey or the Getty? The Burro or the Ass? I didn’t ask, so I leave it up to you to make the call.
Balthazar Cocktail
1 1/2 oz El Tesoro platinum tequila
1/4 oz Benesin Mezcal
1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse Liqueur
3/4 oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth
dash orange bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Squeeze orange peel over glass and discard.
Golden Slipper Cocktail
1/2 Liqueur Glass Yellow Chartreuse. (1 oz Yellow Chartreuse)
The Yolk of 1 Fresh Egg.
1/2 Liqueur Glass Eau de Vie de Danzig. (1 oz Danzig Goldwasser)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
I guess an interesting point, if yer a cocktail geek, about the Golden Slipper, is that Robert Vermeire places it in with his Pousse Cafe drinks. But, but by the 1930s, both Craddock and Duffy are saying it is a shaken drink.
Being an old-school kind of guy, I figured pousse cafe. Plus, if you’re shaking the thing, it sort of negates the point of using the gold wasser.
Golden Slipper Cocktail, Old School
1/2 Liqueur Glass Yellow Chartreuse. (1 oz Yellow Chartreuse)
The Yolk of 1 Fresh Egg.
1/2 Liqueur Glass Eau de Vie de Danzig. (1 oz Danzig Goldwasser)
Pour Yellow Chartreuse into a sherry glass. Gently drop in whole egg yolk. Pouring over the back of a spoon, slowly add Danzig Goldwasser, so the two liquids do not mix.
It doesn’t seem like there is a huge visual difference between yellow Chartreuse and Danzig Goldwasser, but the flavors are fairly distinct. The Gold Wasser is not as sweet with more of a gin-like edge than the chartreuse.
On the “golden slipper” front, “The Golden Slipper” appears to be a folk tale of Asian origin. The best, and spookiest, google I found, was this vietnamese version:
A Cinderella Tale from Vietnam
Wow, it’s got ghosts, skeletons, murder, cruelty, etc. Anyway, yeah, that’s Cinderella, all right. Amazing the whitewashed stuff we Anglos get stuck with.
Also, “Golden Slipper” was the name of a charity formed by a group of Jewish Masons in 1922.
Perhaps they enjoyed the odd cocktail?
Update regarding Goldwasser, I received a question, “but is the dantzig sweet? i thought it was just russian eau de vie that had gold flake in it…”
Everything I’ve read suggests that Eau-de-Vie de Danzig and Goldwasser are synonymous. The one I used, “Der Lachs Original Danziger Goldwasser,” is an 80 proof herbal/spice liqueur. It didn’t seem quite as sweet as Yellow Chartreuse, but I didn’t try them side by side, just together in the drink.
Nice article here:
Gdansk Goldwasser: Alchemic Elixir
Goldwasser liqueur (literally ‘gold water’ in German), has been a popular Gdansk tradition since 1598. And though other brands and distilleries have tried to copy it, Goldwasser continues to be inextricably linked to Gdansk. A strong (40%) root and herbal liqueur, Goldwasser’s famous feature is the small flecks of 22 karat gold flake that float in the beverage. Though the posh prestige of the alcohol has historically made it a favorite drink of such darlings as Russia’s Catherine the Great, the rather diminutive gold flakes suspended in Goldwasser fail to make its price inordinate or its health effects negligible.
Hope that helps!
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.
Club Cocktail
2/3 Dry Gin (1 1/2 oz Boodles Gin)
1/3 Italian Vermouth (3/4 oz Carpano Antica)
1 Dash Yellow Chartreuse
Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass.
Here’s one I expected to like a lot. While I found it fine, it didn’t jump out of the glass at me. I think the Boodles may have been a bad choice. Something like Tanqueray or Junipero would have fought it out more actively with the sweet vermouth and Chartreuse.
Remade with Junipero and Cinzano Rosso, I found I did enjoy it to a much greater extent. Sort of a light version of the Bijou/Jewel.
Really should double strain these stirred cocktails, as pieces of cracked ice sometimes get out around the side of the julep strainer. Not very attractive.
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.
Chocolate Cocktail (No. 1)
1 Teaspoonful of Powdered Chocolate (heaping teaspoon of Scharffen Berger cocoa powder)
1 Egg
1 Liqueur Glass Maraschino (1 oz Luxardo Maraschino)
1 Liqueur Glass Yellow Chartreuse (1 oz Yellow Chartreuse)
(dash Pierre Ferrand Cognac)
Shake well and strain into large glass.
Now, I’m not sure if “Chocolate Powder” means something other than cocoa powder; but, if you’re going to use Cocoa Powder, it’s going to be a bit more complicated than the above instructions, unless you want a lumpy mess.
Extra equipment: 2 small bowls, rubber spatula, and a whisk or fork.
(Method: Dump a generous teaspoon of unsweetened Cocoa Power into one of your bowls. Add a teaspoon of water and mix until it starts to form a paste. Add a little more water at a time and continue mixing until it reaches the consistency of melted chocolate. Whisk up your egg in the other bowl and pour it into chocolate. Whisk together. Measure the liqueurs into your mixing tin or glass. Pour in the egg and chocolate mixture. Add ice and shake well. Strain into cocktail glass.)
Like the Cafe Kirsch Cocktail, I had no real hope that I would enjoy this. And like the Cafe Kirsch, I found it a really tasty cocktail. The Yellow Chartreuse and Maraschino combine in really interesting ways with the cocoa. Mrs. Underhill even enjoyed it.
The two ounces of liqueur might seemed like a lot. However, using unsweetened cocoa powder, that’s about what you’re going to need to balance the bitterness of the chocolate. It seemed on par or less sweet than most hot cocoa or cold chocolate drinks.
If you have a choc-a-holic friend, this might be a nice change for them from the usual “chocotini”.
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.
