The Spirit World

I think I can participate this round! I know just the drink….

The Spencer Cocktail
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
1 Dash Orange Juice
1/3 Apricot Brandy
2/3 Dry Gin

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a cherry and squeeze orange peel on top.

The Savoy Cocktail Book, Page 153

Here’s one of my favorite apr. brandy recipies. I like it because it uses Pimm’s No 1, not often you use that in a cocktail - and, since I’m from Denmark, because it’s an original Danish recipe. The old Danish cocktail manual I found it in says that the drink was invented by John Jakobsen who was bartending at the Bellevue Strandhotel in Klampenborg, probably in the sixties.

STARDUST
Equal measures of gin, brown (red) vermouth, Pimm’s no 1, and apricot brandy.
Splash of orange bitters (try Fee Bros. West Indian o.b.)
Stir with ice and strain into martini glass.
Serve without garnish.

Use good quality apr. brandy (mine’s from Joseph Cartron) or the vermouth will knock the a.br. out of balance.

And just for luck, here’s another one featuring apr. brandy and vermouth in equal measures, only this time french vermouth:

KLOSTERS
Equal measures of vodka, dry vermouth, kirsch, and apricot brandy
Stir with ice and strain into martini glass.
Garnish with cherry.

This one comes from page 23 of The Savoy Cocktail Book

APRICOT COCKTAIL

1/4 Lemon Juice
1/4 Orange Juice
1/2 Apricot Brandy
1 Dash Dry Gin
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

This one is from page 150 of 1934 “Cocktail Bill” Boothby’s — World Drinks and how to mix them

SANTA BARBARA
Whiskey……….. 1/2 jigger
Apricot Brandy…. 2 dashes
Grapefruit…….. 1/4 jigger
Suger Syrup……. 2 dashes

Stir well with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass and serve.

SORRY, forgot to mention the cocktail book that has the recipies above:

Viggo Christensen: Cocktails & Drinks (1968, Gyldendal, Denmark)

The book’s a gold mine of European and South American competition winning recipies from the sixties, plus of course Danish ones.

I would like to nominate a drink from the book that first drew me into Cocktails, The Gentleman’s Companion: The Exotic Drinking Book by Charles H. Baker, Jr. Baker’s writing is droll, seductive and endlessly fascinating. Every drink has its own story of some far-off place. The stories are better than the cocktails in most instances, but there are a few that shine. My choice here is one of these: The Grande Bretagne Cocktail No. 1.
For the story, find the book. Baker’s reciept is as follows:

1 jigger of the best dry gin possible, 1/2 pony apricot brandy, 1/2 pony or so of strained lime or lemon juice, 1 tsp of very fresh egg white, 1 dash of orange bitters. Shake with lots of ice and turn into a chilled Manhattan glass.

Translating that into modern terms and measures, we have:
The Grande Bretagne Cocktail No. 1
1-1/2 oz. dry gin
1/2 oz. apricot brandy
1/2 oz. strained lime or lemon juice
1 tsp. egg white
1 dash orange bitters
Shake with lots of ice and turn into a chilled cocktail glass.

A few caveats:
- Baker emphasizes using “dry imported apricot brandy, never the sweet syrupy American copy.” Until just recently, I did not know a true apricot brandy to exist. This drink works wonderfully with Apry from Marie Brizard. I’d like to try it with a dry brandy sometime to see what Baker is going on about.
- It is a good idea to use very fresh egg white, but measuring a teaspoon of it is nearly impossible. Fresh egg white is not entirely liquid, it has a lot of structure. Eggwhite will fill a measuring spoon just fine and then pull itself back out again when you lift the spoon away from your bowl. I found that beating it a little with a fork before attempting to measure helps. Even then it will take a few tries.
- Shake this vigorously to mix in the egg white thoroughly.

I would like to submit my cocktail concoction:

An Apricot In Paradise

1 ½ oz apricot brandy

1 ½ oz coconut rum
1 ½ oz orange juice



Combine in an ice filled cocktail shaker. Give a few good shakes to chill and combine the ingredients and pour into an ice filled short glass with a coconut rim. Garnish with an orange slice.

No publication. Thank you for arranging this blogging event!

The Periodista is a classic

1 1/2 oz white rum
1/4 oz apricot brandy
1/4 oz Cointreau
juice of half a lime
barspoon of superfine sugar

Shake with ice cubes and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.

From “American Bar” by Charles Schumann

This one comes from the 1940
OFFICIAL MIXER’S MANUAL by
Patrick Gavin Duffy

on page 152
Babbie’s Special Cocktail
1 Dash Gin
1/3 Sweet Cream
2/3 Apricot Brandy
Shake well and strain into glass.
Use glass number 1
———————————–
The front of the book has drawings of glassware. Glass number 1 looks to be a sherry glass.
Regular cream is sweet cream.

[…] We’re also only a week or so out from the close for Raiders of the Lost Cocktail, hosted at The Spirit World. I’m the — what? — arbiter, grand poobah, custodian, etc. for this month’s event, and in my bountiful wisdom I have chosen apricot brandy as my spirit of choice to be sampled throughout the land. Details on the event are here and here, and to participate, just stick your drink and appropriate references in one of the comment areas (don’t worry, I’ll make sure they’re all accounted for over at The Spirit World). Of course, I realize I’ve committed myself to trying the participating drinks, which means I’ll probably lose my appetite for apricot brandy within three hours of the event’s close, but these are the sacrifices we make. […]

On behalf of the ladies of LUPEC Boston, I present to you: The MiMi! One of our founding broads took this one as her “namesake” drink. It’s most delicious.

The Mimi comes from Ted Saucier’s Bottom’s Up, copyright 1951. Here’s the recipe as it appears….

MIMI
Courtesy, Hotel Georges V, Paris

1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 dashes grenadine
1/5 apricot brandy
3/5 gin
2 drops cognac
1 egg white

Rub rim of small wine glass with slice of lemon. Dip edge into powdered sugar. Shake ingredients with ice, and strain into glass.

Cin-cin, all!

I had planned on waiting until tomorrow and getting my co-conspirator at the Den to help me, but then I figured, what the heck, I think I know what I want to do.

I don’t have a lot of the really old cocktail books, but I saw four recipes in Ted Haigh’s _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_ and a number of recipes in Gary Regan’s _The Joy of Mixology_.

I skipped a number of them that had stuff like rum in them since I didn’t feel like dealing with rum this week. I went through the rest and got rid of ones I felt were derivative of each other, or at least rather similar.

Finally I had one recipe and it was time to give it a shot - I wouldn’t make y’all drink something that I wouldn’t drink myself! So I made one, and hey - not bad. Then I realized it had Calvados in it, and that’s not exactly the most common ingredient in the world - I still get overly excited when I see a bar with it.

Thus I had to go with a different one. It’s from the same book, but had what I liked - a nice clean taste, simple construction (no ambiguities), and best of all, I didn’t have to try to make a lemon twist or something (which I’m not very good at).

It had a nice tart taste to it - I’ll be making it again when we get up to Kentucky Derby time, since it’s named for a private club in Louisville. I got it from page 102 of Haigh’s _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_.

Pendennis Cocktail
2 ounces gin
1 ounce apricot brandy
2 or 3 dashes Peychaud bitters
3/4 ounce lime juice

Shake in an iced shaker and strain into a cocktail glass.

My second place cocktail, with that whole Calvados problem, was this one from pages 38-39 of the same book:
The Golden Dawn
3/4 oz Calvados
3/4 oz dry gin
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz apricot-flavored brandy
3/4 oz orange juice
Shake and strain. Drop a stemless cherry into it as a garnish. Dribble some real grenadine into it (but don’t stir!). (I can’t wait to try this one with applejack, but I see that even less in bars around the DC area than Calvados.)

Anyways, hope y’all enjoy.

- SeanMike in the Scofflaw’s Den (East Falls Church outpost)

APRIHOT

3oz. Apricot-flavored brandy

3oz. Boiling water

Combine in coffee mug with a dash of cinnamon, and garnish with an orange or lemon slice.

Mr. Boston Official bartender’s and party Guide, pag. 202

Though the trackback will likely beat me to the punch, here’s my entry.
From Trader Vic’ Book of Food and Drink (1946)

Honi Honi*

1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce apricot brandy
1 ounce Puerto Rican Rum (Ron Merito, Boca Chica, or Brugal)

Shake well with ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass.

*- Means kisses in Hawaiian

See more at:
http://www.tradertiki.com/rotlc-apricot-brandy-honi-honi/

My favourite cocktail from a bunch I tried using apricot brandy was the Tulip Cocktail:

1 oz Calvados
1 oz sweet vermouth
½ oz lemon juice juice
½ oz apricot brandy

Shake with ice, strain in to a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon zest twist. Taken from the Savoy Cocktail Book.

Also notable was the Claridge Cocktail:

1½ oz gin
1½ oz dry vermouth
½ oz Cointreau
½ oz apricot brandy

Again, shake with ice, strain in to a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon zest twist. Also taken from the Savoy Cocktail Book.

I also covered a few more which may be worth considering, though I think the two above are the best…

http://ohgo.sh/archive/apricot-brandy-cocktails/

Here is my link for Raiders
http://lancejmayhew.blogspot.com/2008/02/raiders-of-lost-cocktail-2-dolly-odare.html

My entry comes from Charles Baker as well, but from his later tome The South American Gentleman’s Companion, Being an Exotic Drinking Book Or, Up & Down the Andes with Jigger, Beaker & Flask. We tried a couple of different ones, tasted them last night and decided that this one came out on top.

The Pisco-Apricot Tropicál

2 ounces pisco.
1/2 ounce apricot brandy.
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice.
1 dash Angostura bitters.

Combine in a shaker with ice and shake for 10-12 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a lime wheel.

Or, in Charles’ words (with an additional version):

“The PISCO-APRICOT TROPICÁLS, an Exotic Pair of Cocktails which May be Served Frozen, or Shaken as a Standard Cocktail, from Lima Country Club, Lima Peru.

If you have been able to rat-out a crock of this charming and fragrant Peruvian Grape Brandy, see Shopping Index, try these 2 to vary the Pisco Sour listed on Page 143.

2 oz Pisco Brandy
1/4 to 1/2 pony Garnier’s Apricot liqueur.
Juice 1/2 small lime.
Small dash Angostura.

Eitiher put in pre-chilled electric mixer with fine ice and serve in big champagne cocktail glass in frozen form, or shake with big ice and strain into chilled stemmed cocktail glass.

Or use same ingredients and routine, only adding 1 pony of ripe pineapple juice to the mix — whether frozen or shaken and strained. GArnish this last with thin stick of ripe pineapple.

These also may be further varied by using some other cordial than Apricot liqueur, such as: White Curaçao, Cointreau, Maraschino, peach liqueur or either type of Chartreuse. Miguel was the head bar-boy’s name. These were 2 of his specialties. Hope he’s still there if you should stay, as we did, at this lovely Club.”

Well, chances are that by now Miguel is mixing at that Great Bar in the Sky, where all the liquor is premium, there’s cold running fresh fruit juices on tap and no such thing as bottled industrial sour mix or Pucker schnapps.

I wanted to throw in another apricot brandy cocktail out of competition — it’s been published but it’s new, not vintage or lost. Even though it doesn’t fit into the rules I still want y’all to try it if you haven’t already, as it’s one of our favorites. It was concocted by my friend Daniel Reichert and is fabulously tasty, especially if you don’t omit the ingredient that was omitted in the Chronicle version due to its general lack of availability, which won’t be a problem for most of us cocktail geeks.

Jamaica Farewell
(Created by Daniel Reichert)