8 vintage cocktails & history

INDEX - (8 cocktails, most vintage & one modern along with their recipes & histories)

death in the afternoon (absinthe & champagne)
waldorf cocktail (absinthe & bourbon)
lime rickey (gin & lime)
moscow mule (vodka & ginger beer)
orange blossom (gin & juice)
sidecar (cointreau & cognac)
whiskey sour (sour mix & whiskey)
pickle back (whiskey & pickle brine)


* Death in the Afternoon *

Ernest Hemingway gets credit for this recipe which combines Absinthe with Champagne to achieve the proper opalescent milkiness.  The cocktail was invented after he spent time in the Left Bank, Paris, and enjoyed the absinthe there even suggesting, "Drink three to five of these slowly." The cocktail shares a name with Hemingway’s book and the recipe was published in "So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon," a 1935 cocktail book with contributions from famous authors. 

    1 jigger (1 1/2 oz) absinthe
    1/2 to 3/4 cup (4 to 6 ounces) cold Champagne or sparkling wine

Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness.


* Waldorf Cocktail *

The Waldorf Cocktail offers a stout mix of Absinthe, Bourbon and sweet vermouth and was one of the signature drinks of the Waldorf-Astoria Bar at the beginning of the 20th Century. Listed in the pre-Prohibition recipies of The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book by A.S. Crockett.

    2 oz Bourbon
    2 oz Absinthe
    1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
    1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake the bourbon, Absinthe, sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters with cracked ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass


* Lime Rickey *

This cocktail combines Gin with lime and soda for a light refreshing drink.  Shoomaker’s Saloon had been thriving in Washington D.C. since before the Mexican-American War. All evidence suggests that Colonel Joe Rickey of Missouri first conceived his signature drink there in the typically hot 1883 summer campaign season. The bartender prepared it to the colonel’s instructions, and the first one was actually a rye Rickey made with Shoomaker’s own house-label whiskey. Though Colonel Joe remained faithful to his original concoction, in short order gin would eclipse the rye in popularity (and inspired a whole family of drinks called Rickeys).   

1 1/2 oz Gin
3/4 oz (fresh) Lime Juice
8 oz Club Soda    Mixer
1 oz Simple Syrup              
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Build all ingredients in a collins glass and top with soda. Garnish with a spiral of lime peel, and serve.

* Moscow Mule *

A simple, memorable drink featuring Vodka, lime and ginger beer created in 1941 to market the then-exotic Russian spirit, by owners of Smirnoff vodka and the Cock 'n Bull Tavern in Hollywood who create this cocktail. Wildly popular among the movie crowd in Los Angeles, the cocktail caught on elsewhere and for a brief while was one of the most popular drinks of the era.   

    1 1/2 ounce vodka
    1 tsp. sugar syrup
    Fresh lime juice
    1/2 cup ginger beer
    1 sprig fresh mint
    1 slice of lime

pour vodka over ice. Add sugar syrup and lime juice. Top with ginger beer and stir. Garnish with mint sprig and lime slice.

* Orange Blossom *

Orange Blossom is a mix of Gin and orange juice with sweet vermouth and was likely created by "some young bridegroom or other who wanted something novel to use at his final stag party" in the Waldorf-Astoria Bar, whose heyday was from 1897 - 1919 until prohibition closed it down. 

    2 oz gin
    3/4 oz sweet vermouth
    2 oz orange juice

    Pour the gin into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice.
    Top with orange juice.

* Sidecar *

The first recipe for the Sidecar mixing Cognac, Cointreau and lemon was printed in 1922 at the end of WWI. Its origin is disputed. Some say the inventor was a "Popular bar-tender at Buck's Club, London". Others credits the invention of the drink to Harry’s Bar in Paris where an American Army captain in Paris during World War I, "named after the motorcycle sidecar in which the good captain was driven to and from the little bistro where the drink was born and christened".   

    3/4 ounce Cointreau
    3/4 ounce lemon juice
    1 1/2 ounces cognac

Shake well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass that has had its outside rim rubbed with lemon juice and dipped in sugar.

*Whiskey Sour *

While not fancy with a simple mix of lemon, sugar and whiskey, the whiskey sour has a history belonging to one of the old families of original cocktails. It appeared in the Jerry Thomas' Bartender's Guide from 1862, alongside other cocktail ancestors like the juleps, slings, sangarees, cobblers and smashes that are mostly lost to the ages. 

1 level tsp superfine sugar
¾ oz lemon juice
2 oz whiskey

shake sugar & lemon together in a cocktail shaker. (It's easier to dissolve the sugar without the booze.)  add whiskey to shaker of ice, shake like a jackhammer operator, and strain into chilled cocktail glass

*Pickle Back*

A one two punch of a shot, excellent in summer time where pickle juice is served to prevent dehydration.  Supposedly originating in 2006 at Brooklyn’s Bushwick Country Club, whose owner who was friend to pickle maker Bob McClure.  A customer asked for a glass of the pickle brine on a hot summer day & the bartender was disgusted by her request but consented to give it to her as long as she joined him for a shot of hard liquor first.

2 oz shot of whisky
2 oz shot of dill or kosher dill pickle juice

Chill whiskey.  Serve one shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice as the back. 

http://www.esquire.com/drinks/sidecar-drink-recipe
http://www.cocktailchronicles.com/2005/09/25/make-yourself-comfortable/
www.mcclurespickles.com