COCKTAIL PICK OF THE WEEK: TUXEDO COCKTAIL

Posted on August 5, 2008
Filed Under The Brick Vine, Food and Wine |

1 oz Old Tom gin
1 shot / 30 ml / 1 oz dry vermouth
½ bar-spoon Maraschino
¼ bar-spoon Absinthe
3 dashes orange bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry and a lemon zest twist. cOCKTAIL aDVENTURES

The Tuxedo Cocktail comes from Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual of 1882. Interestingly it also turns up in the Savoy Cocktail Book, though in the fifty years that separates the two the Old Tom has been swapped out for dry gin - no doubt a reflection of the changing tastes as people clamoured for drier and drier cocktails as the twentieth century progressed.

The Tuxedo features a strong gin presence upfront, with a nice lemon zest tang. A sweet funk from the Maraschino swirls in background with the orange bitters, and a long finish of Maraschino gradually reveals more and more anise from the Absinthe. The flavours are all very understated, but they work really well together to produce a subtle but interesting cocktail.