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Manyann Cocktail The Juice of 1 Lemon. 2 Dashes Curacao. (generous 1 tsp. Bols Dry Orange Curacao) 1/2 Gin. (1 oz Boodles Gin) 1/2 Caperitif. (1 oz St. Raphael Aperitif Gold) Shake well and strain into port wine glass. In the interest of my own edification, and in the absence of Caperitif, I picked up a bottle of St. Raphael Gold, having read it was some sort of Quinquina. Uh, hmmm.... Well, the St. Raphael Gold is interesting. To me it tastes more like a moderately sweet, pale sherry than a Quinquina. Odd, I've never before tried an Aperitif Wine that reminded me of a Sherry. I'm also not sure what to make of the recipe. It's about the only one in the Savoy that combines lemon with Caperitif, so it makes me suspect that it isn't the Caperitif providing sweetness. That it was at least a somewhat dry aperitif. To be honest, the Manyann might be pretty refreshing with a bit more curacao, ice, and some seltzer. As written above, I can't say I found it rated much more than a "drinkable".

Manhattan Cocktail (Dry) 1/4 French Vermouth. (3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth) 1/4 Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Carpano Antica) 1/2 Rye or Canadian Club Whisky. (1 1/2 oz Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey) (dash angostura bitters) Stir well and strain into cocktail glass. I saved the Sazerac Rye for last, as it is one of my favorite Manhattan Whiskies. Oddly, I didn't care for it. The drier blend of vermouths really accented the musty character of the whiskey. When examining various Manhattan recipes, the instructions from this Manhattan recipe from the Mud Puddle Books reprint of the 1900 edition of Harry Johnson's Bartender's Manual stuck out:

If any of you read (or write) blogs which cover cocktails, you might know that Paul over at Cocktail Chronicles has been organizing a monthly online cocktail event he calls Mixology Mondays. This month's event is being hosted by my fine friends Joe and Dinah at their blog Bibulo.us. The theme is 19th Century Cocktails. I guess that is pretty self explanatory, they're looking for cocktails which predate 1900. So dust off your copy of David Wondrich's Imbibe! or pull out that copy of Jerry Thomas, William Boothby, or Harry Johnson, and mix us up something interesting. If you would like to participate, please write up a cocktail in this topic before Monday, September 15th at midnight. I will compile a list of cocktails posted and email them to the organizers.

Manhattan Cocktail (Sweet) 1/2 Italian Vermouth. (1 1/2 oz Carpano Antica Vermouth) 1/2 Rye or Canadian Club Whisky. (1 1/2 oz Michter's, U.S. #1 Straight Rye) (dash Angostura Bitters) Stir well and strain into cocktail glass. (Luxardo Cherry.) Couldn't leave out the bitters, sorry. This Manhattan was also really tasty, I must say. Well integrated and harmonious flavors.

The Alfonso Cocktail was actually one Craddock (or the Savoy Editors) likely swiped from Harry McElhone's "Barflies and Cocktails" (Cocktail Kingdom link) or "Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails". In "Barflies and Cocktails" Mr. McElhone notes, "The above cocktail was very popular at Deuville in 1922, during his majesty the King of Spain’s stay at the popular Normandy resort." Thus, I suspect it was named after King Alfonso XIII of Spain (wikipedia link).

While the drink sounds disgusting, and certainly, anyone who orders it might be better off sitting out from alcohol the rest of their life, personally, if it happened to me, I'd be curious what part of it I had such a severe reaction to. I mean unless one of the alcohols was tampered with, really, there's no particular reason this woman's head should have swollen. Seems like it is probably a severe allergic reaction to something in the drink. Be good to know what that something is. You know, just so you can avoid it the rest of your life.

MANHATTAN COCKTAIL. (No. 2.) 1 Dash Angostura Bitters. 2/3 Canadian Club Whisky. (1 1/2 oz Pikesville Rye Whiskey. Sorry Canadians.) 1/3 Ballor Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Carpano Antica Vermouth) Shake (I stirred) well, strain into cocktail glass, with cherry (Uh, oops. And damn I have some really good cherries!). Anyway, this, to me, is pretty much the quintessential Manhattan. 2/3 Rye Whiskey, 1/3 Italian Vermouth, with a dash of bitters. If I had to pick one cocktail that I was gonna be stuck with for the rest of my life, this would be it.

To be difficult, I'll add another you should have down or with a substitution ready: The Lemon Drop. Daiquiri or Sidecar instead seem like the obvious suggestions...

When I explain Corpse Revivers to people, I usually say they were more of a class of drinks from the 19th Century than a specific drink. Drinks for, "the morning after the night before," to quote McElhone in "Barflies and Cocktails". But I find scant evidence of Corpse Revivers in any of the pre-prohibition cocktail books I have at hand. To the best of my knowlege there are about four known Corpse Revivers. 1) Vermouth, Apple Brandy, Grape Brandy 2) Gin, Kina Lillet, Cointreau, Lemon, Absinthe 2a) Gin, Swedish Punsch, Cointreau, Lemon, Absinthe 2b) Absinthe, Champagne (or when attributed to Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon.) Does anyone have pre "Savoy Cocktail Book" or "The Official Mixer's Manual" sources for these drinks? 2a) may have been a 20th Century innovation of Trader Vic. 2b) is usually attributed to Frank Meier at the Ritz Paris. Anyone got any solid ideas for 1 or 2? Is No. 2 a Harry Craddock drink? He did love using the Cointreau.

One of the things that has been puzzling me lately is the relationship between the James Beard edited version of Patrick Duffy's "The Official Mixer's Manual" and the 1948 edition of "Bartender's Guide...by Trader Vic". There are a number of recipes in both that are sort of unusual. The Corpse Reviver with Swedish Punsch and the Aviation with Apricot Brandy come to mind. Initially, I thought probably Beard, or some other earlier editor of Duffy made these changes, and Trader Vic then replicated them. Turns out, it may have been the other way around. Doubleday published* both the 1947 edition of "Bartender's Guide..." and editions of "The Official Mixer's Manual" from 1948 onwards. I asked around a bit and while talking to Ted Haigh, he mentioned that Duffy's "Official Mixer's Manual" didn't get expanded and revised until Beard's edition in the 1960s. The last Copyright date on my Duffy/Beard is 1958, but it contains information on wine vintages up until 1961. So it seems like these changes to the vintage recipes came from the Trader Vic book, and then were carried forward when Beard edited Duffy. For what it is worth, it looks like Stan Jones' also got much of his corpus of his pre-prohibition cocktails from the 1947/48 Trader Vic. Though he altered many of the recipes. So while I still puzzle over the addition of Apricot Brandy to the Aviation, I may have Victor Bergeron to thank for the delicious, and kind of tropical tasting, Corpse Reviver No. 2 with Swedish Punsch. *The Trader Vic I have is from 1948 and published by Garden City Books, but at the beginning it sez,"Garden City Reprint Edition, 1948, by special arrangement with Doubleday & Company, Inc., Copyright, 1947, By Doubleday & Company, Inc."

Not sure if this is exactly the right topic... But anyway, I had the pleasure of helping out in the Slow Food Expo Spirits pavilion this last weekend. First, I gotta say the San Francisco Bartender's Guild members and the Slow Food volunteers rocked this thing. You might have seen some of those guys pretty sloppy drunk at Tales, but put a suit on them and they clean up real nice. Anyway, I worked with one of the spirits vendors and made the Corpse Reviver No. 2 variation with Swedish Punsch instead of Kina Lillet. These were mostly not cocktail people drinking. Foodies, yeah, and sustainable whatsit hoozle folks. Restaurant and food geeks. Restaurant and food service professionals. Maybe some wine geeks. But mostly not cocktail geeks. I'd work on selling it to the ingredients to them after I hooked them with the name. "Gin, Cointreau, Lemon Juice, Swedish Punsch and a touch of St. George Absinthe." I usually had to explain Swedish Punch and often about the nature of the gin. But, like everyone else making drinks there, I got great reactions. We were all gunning for bear and pulling no punches, despite the volume we were preparing for. Comments like, "Why can't I get a drink like this in a bar?" "Where can I get this cocktail?" "I usually don't like drinking cocktails in bars, they're always too sweet." For me it was a lot of fun on so many levels. First that I was making a 50 year old cocktail and surprising people with it, even many of the bar professionals who were there. Second it validated my idea that many people are thirsty for well made cocktails, especially those people with some interest in taste and food. To try to bring it back around, at least at our booth, we were not sponsored by or serving really big name booze. Southern, I guess was involved, with some sponsorship, along with the USBG, which I suppose is pretty big. But there were no fancy displays, booth girls, or anything else. Pretty much just sincere bartenders, (and others, like me,) doing their best to wow people with really good drinks. And from what I can tell, it was a roaring success.

I'm embarrassed to admit that whenever I have a cocktail party of any size, I always make sure to have the ingredients on hand for: Cosmopolitans, Vodka Tonics, and Gin and Tonics. I've actually never had anyone ask for a Cosmo, but it makes me feel better to know that, if they asked, I could make one.

Manhattan Cocktail (No. 1) Use small Bar glass. 2 Dashes Curacao or Maraschino. 1 Pony Rye Whisky. 1 Wineglass Vermouth (Mixed). 3 Dashes Angostura Bitters. 2 Small Lumps of ice. Shake up well, and strain into a claret glass. Put a quarter of a slice of lemon In the glass and serve. If preferred very sweet add two dashes of gum syrup. So the Savoy Manhattan Cocktail (No. 1) is pretty much verbatim from Jerry Thomas: The only real differences being the directive to use "1 Wineglass Vermouth (Mixed)", which I can only assume to mean a mixture of Dry and Sweet Vermouth and Angostura vs. Boker's. I was trying to think of way to make this a little more than, as David Wondrich describes it, "a vermouth cocktail with a stick." The first thing that occurred to me was to use a cask strength whiskey. I contemplated the Handy, and then decided to go with the... Yeah, well, sorry about that. On the bright side, the new Buffalo Trace Antique Collection should be available again soon. And, well, speaking of things that it is unlikely that many other people have... Yeah, the bitter truth guys made a stab at a Boker's replica a while ago. It's a nice old-school bitters with a strong cardamom element. At this point, I'm thinking, heck if I'm going to use 2 obscure ingredients, I might as well use 3... So, the cocktail is: 1 teaspoon Bols Dry Orange Curacao 1 oz George T. Stagg Whiskey 1 oz Carpano Antica Vermouth 1 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth 1 tsp. Bitter Truth Boker's Bitters Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Lemon Peel. I wasn't sure what to expect with this cocktail. I have to admit I've never gone this far into whiskey debt when making a Manhattan, nor have I ever had the courage to add that much bitters. To be honest, it doesn't really taste like what I think of when I imagine a Manhattan. But it is, actually, a very nice cocktail. Very complex with only a little hint of the brawn of the whiskey towards the end of the cocktail when it warms up. Very drinkable.

Oh, oops forgot to note. I used the Fever Tree Ginger Ale. It's not super spicy, but I like it because it has a nice clean taste and isn't overly sweet. Some of those Jamaican Style Ginger Beers are really funky tasting.

The Mamie Taylor Cocktail 1 Hooker Whisky. (2 oz Famous Grouse) The Juice of 2 Limes. (Juice of 1 lime) Fill tall glass with Ginger Ale (Fever Tree Ginger Ale). It seems the Savoy gets this "2 limes" in a Mamie Taylor craziness from Judge Jr.'s prohibition book, "Here's How". Unless they are unusually small limes, 1 is plenty. In fact most recipes only call for only the juice of half a lime. The Savoy also fails to note that the proper whisky for the drink is Scotch. Oh, and it is usually made over ice. Extremely popular in the early part of the 20th Century, the Mamie Taylor fell out of favor during prohibition and never really recovered. Which is too bad, as it is really quite an enjoyable and refreshing drink. I know I recently read an article or write up about the drink. I thought it was in David Wondrich's "Imbibe!". However, paging through, I don't see it. I suspect it may have been one of Ted Haigh's columns for the magazine Imbibe. There's much information on the webtender wiki page: Mamie Taylor This seems the most pertinent regarding the drinks creation...

Maiden’s Prayer Cocktail (No. 2*) 1/3 Kina Lillet. (3/4 oz Cocchi Americano) 1/3 Dry Gin. (3/4 oz North Shore Distiller's No. 6) 1/6 Calvados. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Groult Calvados Réserve 3 years old) 1/6 Pricota. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot) Shake (I stirred) well and strain into cocktail glass. According to cocktaildb Pricota was, "Defunct but highly-respected proprietary brand of English apricot-flavored brandy liqueur. Produced by Humphrey Taylor & Co. of London in the late 18th and 19th centuries," so we'll use the highly respected R&W Orchard Apricot instead. Again, even though it is a modern gin, I've previously found that the North Shore No. 6 works well with apricot flavors, so I've deployed it here. My bottle of Cocchi Aperitivo Americano, though it has served me well, is nearing a state of tragic emptiness. Here's hoping someone soon manages to convince the TTB to allow it back into the country. I've found pleasure in the prayers of both of these Maidens and would be hard pressed to pick a favorite. The sweet-tart No. 1 or the bitter-sweet No. 2. Both are well balanced, witty, and sophisticated young ladies, err... cocktails! Chuckle, while I appreciate the bloom of sweet-tart youth, I guess I have come to a point in my life where some bitter-sweet experience is more appealing. In cocktails, that is. Right?

I don't quite get the Rittenhouse pricing either. Binny's sells it for $14.99 in Chicago. At retail in San Francisco, it usually costs somewhere in the mid-20s (when I can find it). At least Hi-Times stocks it for the more sensible $16.99. Certainly makes it easy to justify the shipping costs to myself!

Hey there! Are you saying I have tastes like a "Maiden"? I resent that implication! Besides, the Maiden's Prayer is about the same sweetness as a Corpse Reviver.

My usual answer, valencia oranges from the farmers' market. Sorry! As much of our household produce as possible, including cocktail ingredients, comes from the Saturday Alemany Farmers' Market down the street from our house. Seasonality, and the progress of the stomp, sometimes dictates purchasing produce or herbs from grocery stores, but not very often.

Maiden’s Prayer Cocktail (No. 1) 1/8 Orange Juice. (1/4 oz fresh Orange Juice) 1/8 Lemon Juice. (1/4 oz fresh Lemon Juice) 3/8 Cointreau. (3/4 oz Cointreau) 3/8 Dry Gin. (3/4 oz Plymouth Gin) Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Annoying as hell to measure, but very tasty, well balanced, and drinkable. The orange flavor really "pops" in this cocktail. One of the better Savoy cocktails I've run across in a while.

Well, to be honest I think the book really is intended as a sort of tongue in cheek "Ladies' Companion". Gaige often mentions the contributions the fairer sex has made to drinking culture since their arrival in the bar, post prohibition. Being dense, it took me this long to realize the title is probably a bit of a play on Chas Baker's "Gentleman's Companion" books.

Maiden’s Blush Cocktail (No. 2) 1/3 Absinthe. (3/4 oz Kubler Absinthe) 2/3 Dry Gin. (1 1/2 oz Aviation Gin) 1 Teaspoonful Grenadine. (1 tsp. homemade Grenadine) Shake (I stirred) well and strain into cocktail glass. Robert Vermeire notes that this recipe was, "by Mr. Frank Newman, Paris" About all I'm hoping is that this maiden got someone to call her a cab home.

A lot of San Francisco's best bars are restaurants and most offer at least a limited menu for bar seating. Personally, I really enjoy to show up early and sit at the bar for a couple cocktails, appetizers, some dinner, and a nice glass of wine at places like Absinthe, Beretta, Flora, NOPA, range, and Slanted Door. About the only bar I can think of that is really trying to do the food thing seriously is Alembic. It's definitely small and rather expensive plates of more or less finger food. They do have a new-ish chef(s?) who is into messy food and variety meats. I've seen bone marrow on the specials menu a couple times now. Not sure how that works at the bar, but I'd like to find out.

Wow, that is truly interesting news. I find it really surprising that they would choose to reformulate the product. I wonder what the story is. Anyone have any connections at Torani?

Maiden’s Blush Cocktail (No. 1) 1 Dash Lemon Juice. (1/3 tsp Lemon Juice) 4 Dashes Orange Curacao. (generous 1 tsp. Bols Dry Orange Curacao) 4 Dashes Grenadine. (generous 1 tsp. Homemade Grenadine) 1 Glass Dry Gin. (2 oz Plymouth Gin) Shake (I stirred) well and strain into cocktail glass. (Luxardo Cherry.) Apparently Maidens of yore were made of sterner stuff than they are today. It looks like a Cosmo, but it's mostly a glass of cold gin. And this one definitely needs a cherry.