Are these really Classic Cocktails?

[ThinkingBartender]

Just wondering if anyone recognises the following cocktails as legitimate

"Classic Cocktails"? And if anyone knows the recipes for them, please share (except the ones with an asterix).

Berlin Station Chief.

Caprice.

Deshler.

De la Louisiane.

Dr. Blinker.

East India Cocktail*

Guinness Punch*.

Journalist.

Keoke Cocktail.

Last Word*.

Liberal.

Metropole.

Obituary Cocktail.

Old Pal*

Opera

Periodista

Rose

Rosita*

Straits Sling*.

Vieux Carré*.

Widow’s Kiss.

And when I say classics, I do not mean a recipe that was found in an old book, and must therefore it has to be a classic due to being old.

Cheers!

George

[Nathan]

I recognize the following as classic:

Deshler.

De la Louisiane.

East India Cocktail*

Last Word*.

Obituary

Vieux Carré*.

Widow’s Kiss

I believe the "Straits Sling" was developed by Dr. Cocktail as a variation on the Singapore Sling.

The Liberal, Metropole, Opera, Old Pal and Rose are old...but I don't think they're made much.

The Widow's Kiss and Last Word are unquestionably classics.

I have recipes for all of these at home....and can give you those tomorrow.

offhand, the Widow's Kiss is:

2 parts Calvados

1 part Benedictine

1 part Chartreuse

Angostura

I'm guessing a little googling would find you all the others as well.

Edited February 9, 2007 by Nathan (log)

[eje]

How old do they have to be?

Are you looking for concrete citations?

[ThinkingBartender]

How old do they have to be? 

Are you looking for concrete citations?

←

Well that depends on what I mean by "Classic Cocktail", I am open to suggestions for what defines a drink as Classic.

One of the things that doesn't qualify, IMHO, is a drink that was all but forgotten, but then someone intentionally looking for old recipes in old books, picks it up and holds it up as a classic. Old does not mean classic.

I would have to say that any drink from the last 10 years is hardly a classic either, will people remember it in another 10 years.

No, I am not looking for concrete citations, though they are always welcome, I mean just recipes, because I have never heard of some of these drinks, and "I ain't no noob!".

Cheers!

George

[ThinkingBartender]

I believe the "Straits Sling" was developed by Dr. Cocktail as a variation on the Singapore Sling.

The Straits Sling is a drink from Robert Vermiere's 1922 book: "Cocktails and How to Mix Them". Doctor Cocktail called the Straits Sling the first Singapore Sling, or something along those lines, but he was incorrect. The Straits Sling is not a Classic, though it is old, and will soon be revealed to be a red herring, as the original recipe for the Raffles Hotel Gin Sling has been known all along (I will be posting about it, in depth, on the 15th of this month).

The Liberal, Metropole, Opera, Old Pal and Rose are old...but I don't think they're made much.

This is what I mean: Old doesn't mean classic.

The Widow's Kiss and Last Word are unquestionably classics.

I question it, hence the initial posting!

The Last Word is an old drink, which was only mentioned in a few books, and has only recently been heralded as a Classic drink. The Last Word is an old drink, but it is not a Classic...yet!

The Last Word should be seen as a new drink from an old book.

I'm guessing a little googling would find you all the others as well.

Nope, some of these drinks are just nowhere to be seen. I am not the world expert on cocktails, but if I haven't heard of these cocktails, then the chances are that they aren't classic.

Cheers!

George

[plattetude]

I do believe that the Last Word, at least, is more of a dusted-off great than a classic in the "classic" sense. It's noted on DrinkBoy.com, that it was revived by the ZigZag Cafe in Seattle a few years back.

Given that few on your original list can be ordered reliably in all but the most top notch of cocktail bars, I'd be hard pressed to call any of them "classics" in the broad sense.

And while I don't have specifics to back it up, I thought the Rosita was a more recent creation.

Christopher

[ThinkingBartender]

And while I don't have specifics to back it up, I thought the Rosita was a more recent creation.

←

I was wondering about the Rosita, because even though I have heard of it (from Drinkboy.com), I have yet to see it on a menu, or met anyone who has tasted it.

The Rosita is on my website, purely because it looked interesting, rather than I assumed it was a classic.

Cheers!

George

[plattetude]

Oh I've tasted it. Boy have I ever. (Not that I'm someone you've met, of course.) It's really superb and very exciting how the tequila and Campari play together.

Christopher

[Splificator]

Just wondering if anyone recognises the following cocktails as legitimate

"Classic Cocktails"? And if anyone knows the recipes for them, please share (except the ones with an asterix).

Berlin Station Chief.

Caprice.

Deshler.

De la Louisiane.

Dr. Blinker.

East India Cocktail*

Guinness Punch*.

Journalist.

Keoke Cocktail.

Last Word*.

Liberal.

Metropole.

Obituary Cocktail.

Old Pal*

Opera 

Periodista

Rose 

Rosita*

Straits Sling*.

Vieux Carré*.

Widow’s Kiss.

And when I say classics, I do not mean a recipe that was found in an old book, and must therefore it has to be a classic due to being old.

Cheers!

George

←

These were mostly drinks of local popularity--i.e., not available in every American Bar in creation, but popular in a certain city at a certain time. The Journalist, the Old Pal and the Rose were Paris drinks from the '20s; the Rose in particular was quite popular.

The Metrople--one of my favorite drinks--was a New York drink of the 1890s and 1900s, house cocktail at a popular sporting hotel of that name. The Widow's Kiss was a George Kappeler drink, and appears to have been popular at his bar. The Straits Sling is simply an alternate name for the Singapore Sling (Singapore being the former Straits Colony). Etc. etc.

Out of curiosity, where pray tell are you going with this?

I'm always very suspicious of this kind of classic-policing. If we restrict "classic" status to the narrowest handful of poems, drinks, whatever; to the towering figures who come along once a generation; we both misrepresent the period we're supposedly validating and impoverish our own culture as well.

This kind of classifying always contains a value judgment, and that judgment, often based on ignorance, has real consequences. In Late Antiquity, the monks in their scriptoria applied this kind of reasoning to their literary heritage, deeming Vergil and Ovid classic but not Catullus or Lucretius (both difficult to understand and less famous). As a result, we are very lucky indeed to have a tiny handful of corrupt manuscripts of the latter, while hundreds of copies of the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses survive. Not to mention the dozens and dozens of second- and third-tier authors whose works only survive in fragments quoted by grammarians.

In other words, I tend to favor a much more generous approach to the canon, be it of poems or cocktails.

Edited to add a mis-

Edited February 9, 2007 by Splificator (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

I think Classic is such a subjective idea. You might read a book or see a car that came out two months ago and consider it a classic. Or it might be The Old Man and the Sea or a '69 Corvette. I have read many books considered classics and not cared much for them, though I have probably enjoyed the majority of them very much. I think drinks are the same. If it's old and you like it a LOT, then it's a classic for you. If it's new, but reminds you of an old drink, and you like it a lot, then hey thats a classic for you. For me, in the subjective sense, Margaritas are not classic, because I don't care for Tequila. But in any objective sense, it's definitely a classic, and probably the only drink being ordered by all generations where you can actually taste the liquor.

Of your list, I enjoy the following (thus making them classics in my eyes):

De La Louisiane

Dr. Blinker. -- Perhaps this is the same as the Blinker?

East India Cocktail

Liberal

Metropole

Rose

Straits Sling

Vieux Carré

Widow's Kiss

The others I have either never heard of, have yet to try, or--didn't care for.

-Andy

Edit: Punctuation

Edited February 9, 2007 by thirtyoneknots (log)

[gethin]

I don't know if its what prompted your query , but they are all classic enough to be described as such by the Museum of the American Cocktail and included in their pocket recipe guide among the 100 drinks any bar tender should know. I wouldn't quibble with them myself but I guess classic may mean different things to different people.

The only ones I drink at all regularly (from your sub set of the 100) are

the Berlin Station Chief (which derives from a Norman Mailer novel , Harlot's Ghost, where its the favorite drink of the CIA station chief in Berlin. (Rince ice with a nice smokey malt, tip out excess, addd lemon peel then a good slug of gin. Stir , Drink)

the Widows Kiss , which Ted Haigh dates to 1895. (George Kappeler- Modern American Drinks) . Equal quantities Yellow Chartreuse and Benedictine, double the quantity of Calvados, dash of angostura- stir with ice, strain , drink . Actually I think its better if u cut back a bit on the Benedictine.

gethin

Edited February 9, 2007 by gethin (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

De La Louisiane, Metropole, Vieux Carre, and Widow's Kiss are definitely worth having on the radar, the 1st and 3rd listed are definitely on my short list of favorites (obvious weakness for rye and Benedictine).

-Andy

[Nathan]

George,

We might have some trans-Atlantic differences here.

The Last Word has been redundant in American cocktilian bars over the last few years...not as much as the Aviation...but redundant nonetheless.

As for the Widow's Kiss...it shows up on virtually every list of Chartreuse-containing drinks that I've seen. a damn fine drink too.

the Vieux Carre and De La Louisiane are New Orleans classics. Its more than possible that they did not cross the Atlantic much. Neither were they commonly made in New York to the best of my knowledge. But they were standard in New Orleans...which makes them classics in my view.

edit: as I noted up the thread, I can vouch for at least 13 of those drinks as being of "old" origin...(14 if the Dr. Blinker is the Blinker). I would be surprised if the other 6-7 are of recent provenance.

Edited February 9, 2007 by Nathan (log)