The cocktail menu is a far from static and continually evolving phenomenon. And like all icons, while some fade with their final chord others are timeless paragons waiting to reclaim their spotlight – and that’s showbiz baby! Beyond mere refreshments, these cocktails serve as liquid time capsules. From a surfer’s wall-banging frustration to a sophisticated solution for aged social constraints, they tell narratives, whispering the nuanced experiences of a wider story.
Harvey Wallbanger
Harvey Wallbanger originates from humble yet witty beginnings. Supposedly, Tom Harvey was a seasoned surfer in the 50s. After a disappointing loss in a California surfing competition, a dejected Tom Harvey made a stop at a usual bar spot and placed an order of his go-to drink: OJ, vodka, and a dash of Galliano. Still bitter about his loss, he downed the drink before banging his head against the wall in frustration. It was thereafter known as the Harvey Wallbanger.
Ingredients:
- 45 ml vodka
- 90 ml fresh orange juice
- 15 ml Galliano liqueur
- To garnish: orange slice and cherry
Instructions:
Add the vodka and orange juice to a glass filled with ice, and stir to combine. Float the Galliano on top by slowly pouring it over the back of a spoon. Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry.
Tom Collins
The origins of the Tom Collins are somewhat less certain. John Collins was a cocktail created by headwaiter at Limmer’s Old House in Mayfair, John Collins, circa the 1860s. The drink then comprised of lemon juice, sugar syrup, carbonated water but used London dry instead of Old Tom gin. A recipe emerged featuring the sweeter Old Tom gin and was first published in The Steward And Barkeep’s Manual in 1869, but under its new name – Tom Collins, reflecting the change in gin.
However popular speculation also points to the New York Hoax in 1874, in which people in New York would go up to a stranger and ask if they had seen Tom Collins and insist that this Tom Collins was talking about them at a local bar. This would then cause the receiver to go to that bar and ask for Tom Collins. Bartenders got in on the joke and named a gin-based drink ‘Tom Collins’, so that when people came in asking for him, they received the drink in response.
Ingredients:
- 60 ml Old Tom gin
- 30 ml fresh lemon juice
- 15 ml simple syrup
- 90 ml club soda
- To garnish: lemon wheel and cherry
Instructions:
Shake gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup with ice until chilled. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice and top with club soda. Stir gently, before garnishing with a lemon wheel and cherry.
Singapore Sling
Powered by grenadine and cherry liqueur, this drinks very deliberate pink hue evokes its original design as a as a sophisticated solution to a strict social constraint. When first created by Raffles Singapore bartender, Ngiam Tong Boon in 1915, the drink materialised in a society where women’s public alcohol consumption represented a profound breach of social etiquette. Ngiam created a social loophole, allowing women to enjoy alcohol protected by the drinks its seemingly elegant, feminine, and therefore acceptable appearance.
Ingredients:
- 30 ml gin
- 15 ml cherry liqueur
- 7 ml Cointreau
- 7 ml Benedictine
- 10 ml grenadine
- 15 ml lime juice
- 60 ml pineapple juice
- Dash of bitters
- To garnish: pineapple slice and cherry
Instructions:
Add all ingredients apart from the bitters to a shaker with ice and shake to combine. Strain into a tall glass filled with ice and top with a dash of bitters, a pineapple slice and cherry.
White Lady
Two contentious Harrys vie for the creation rights to this popular Gatsby era cocktail. Famous bartender Harry MacElhone first conceived his version while working at London’s Ciro Club in 1919. However, his initial iteration called for equal parts crème de menthe instead of gin, alongside triple sec and lemon juice. By the end of the 1920s, he had refined the drink at his iconic Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, utilising gin to reflect the version we recognise today. The Savoy, however, has submitted their say on this, asserting that it was in their infamous American bar that Harry Craddock first crafted the recipe using gin, predating MacElhone’s updated recipe. Craddock later immortalized the recipe in his seminal Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, with his manager reportedly suggesting the transformative addition of egg white—a stroke of genius that would bestow the cocktail with its signature creamy, silken texture. This drink’s complicated and muddy history serves as a fascinating counterpoint to the refined and elegant cocktail it would ultimately become.
Ingredients:
- 45 ml gin
- 20 ml triple sec
- 20 ml fresh lemon juice
- 1 egg white
- To garnish: lemon twist
Instructions:
Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake well, until the outside of the shaker becomes cool. Strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass and garnish with a twist of lemon.
Godfather
Erupting across cocktail menus in the 1970s the drink rode the Oscar winning wave of ‘The Godfather’ trilogy, becoming inexorably linked with Marlon Brando’s portrayal of Vito Corleone or, ‘The Don’. Both Brando and the makers of Disaronno Amaretto, claim the rise of The Godfather was a reflection of the movie star’s favourite drink. Originally an equal parts duet between Scotch and amaretto, contemporary renditions flirt with Scotch dominant interpretations, favouring stronger ratios of Scotch to Amaretto though, as always, personal preference writes the final chapter!
Ingredients:
- 60ml Scotch whiskey
- 60ml amaretto
Instructions:
Mix Scotch and Amaretto in a mixing glass filled with ice and gently stir. Strain into a chilled rocks glass over a large ice cube.
