The Jack Rose Cocktail

When you have a bar in your living room, you end up collecting bottles of spirits. Some are gifts, some are random purchases and some end up there when people move and don’t want to ship the bottles, etc.

Thus I have no idea how a bottle of Captain Apple Jack ended up in my collection, but I figured I’d use it in the Jack Rose Cocktail:

• 1.5 ounces applejack
• Juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon – about one ounce)
• 2 or more dashes of real pomegranate grenadine

Shake well in an iced cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lime or lemon wedge

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The Straits Sling

Andrea works in a larger city than where we live and they have an ABC store that stocks a greater variety of things. Last night she brought home a bottle of Bénédictine (which I would have to order locally) and so I decided to make a cocktail that featured it: The Straits Sling.

• 2.0 ounces gin
• 0.5 ounce kirschwasser
• 0.5 ounce Bénédictine
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• soda water

Shake everything but the soda water in an iced cocktail shaker. Strain into a sour glass or champagne flute. Fill with soda water. Garnish with a cheery, an orange wheel, a lemon twist … go crazy

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Park Avenue Cocktail

In my previous post I was lamenting the fact that I had returned from a trip and while I wanted to try a new cocktail, I was out of fresh fruit which limited my choices.

The next morning I was eating breakfast, which for me usually consists of fruit. As I was finishing off a container of pineapple that I had sliced, Andrea pointed and said, “hey, didn’t you need pineapple juice for your cocktail?”

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

I had just come back from a trip to Germany, and even though my body was supposed to be at four in the morning, I found myself a little too wired to sleep. I figured a nice cocktail would be just the thing, but since I’d been gone for a week I had no fresh fruit in the refrigerator. Going through all of the recipes in the book I kept getting stymied due to a lack of lime, lemon, orange or even grapefruit juice.

The Boulevardier

Of the 87 or so recipes in the book, I’ve seen a handful of them in the wild. This is one of them.

According to the text, the cocktail was the signature drink of Erskine Gwynne who was an “expatriate writer, socialite and nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt”. Gwynne edited a magazine called The Paris Boulevardier, hence the name.

• 1.5 ounce bourbon
• 1 ounce Campari
• 1 ounce sweet vermouth

Stir long and well with ice in a mixing glass and then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

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The Avenue

I almost wanted to call this drink “The Amazon” since I had to order most of the ingredients on-line.

• 1 ounce bourbon
• 1 ounce Calvados
• 1 ounce passion fruit juice or nectar
• 1 dash real pomegranate grenadine
• 1 dash orange flower water

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a glass. Garnish with a carnation boutonnière

The author found this recipe in a book called the Café Royal Cocktail Book (1937). Times were different 70 years ago, and I hope that it is okay that I left off the boutonnière garnish.

Life is Beautiful

It may seem funny that my second cocktail post doesn’t come from the book that inspired the website, but my love of cocktails was inspired by a number of people as well, including my friends Demetri and Cat in Chicago.

Whenever I would visit we would end up at the bar at the Florentine, which is located in the JW Marriott hotel. On one visit I was introduced to “Life is Beautiful” and not only is it my go-to cocktail when I’m there, it is my go-to at home as well.