Everyone loves recipes with big, long introductions, right? That’s what we all come to the internet for! But seriously, if you’re just interested in cocktail recipes, there are better web sites for that. What we’ve been doing is taking a step back to 1963, drinking the cocktails of our midcentury forebears, and commenting on them with our modernish palates and sensibilities.
We have a baby and we’re remote teaching during a pandemic, so we’ve been MIA, but we’re certainly drinking, so we might as well write about it. However, if you prefer brevity take heart: we’re on a much tighter schedule, so we’ll be paring down our commentary.
This week, we drank two varieties of the Rose Cocktail, via Mr. B. Here are the recipes. Our pontifications follow.
Rose Cocktail (English)
- 1/2 oz. Old Mr. Boston Apricot Flavored Brandy (we used an Eau-de-vie)
- 1/2 oz. Dry Vermouth (we can only get Vya at our local spot right now, and it’s fine)
- 1 oz. Old Mr. Boston Dry Gin (we used Dorothy Parker)
- 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. grenadine (no, we don’t make our own. Rose’s is FINE)
Shake well with cracked ice and strain into 3 oz. cocktail glass. Frost edge of glass by rubbing with lemon and dipping in powdered sugar.
Rose Cocktail (French)
- 1/2 oz. Old Mr. Boston Wild Cherry Flavored Brandy (we used schladerer kirschwasser)
- 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
- 1 1/2 oz. Old Mr. Boston Dry Gin
Stir well with cracked ice and strain into 3 oz. cocktail glass.
Our Take: There are lots of historical Rose Cocktail recipes to be found and, like these, they are basically all tarted up gin martinis. The English Rose cocktail had a bunch more stuff in it, and was a really absurdly girly shade of pink. Chris said it was a refreshing, summery dessert cocktail, and that’s about right. The lemon cuts some of the sweetness, and our apricot eau de vie is pretty fiery, but the grenadine and sugar definitely come through. The French Rose cocktail, on the other hand, was kind of awesome. With a decent cherry brandy (we wouldn’t recommend this with an old Llord’s or something), this is fairly dry, strong, and slightly sweet in a complex way. The kirschwasser has a little bit of a bitter almond edge that kills any of that cough syrupy-ness that seems to be the hallmark of cherry boozes. It’s a really interesting note to add to a martini, and it’s something we might do again.
Final Verdict: We’re both fans of France: the cuisine, the countryside, the wine. England is pretty and has some charms, but it’s just kind of fussy. That’s like these cocktails. We prefer the French variant.
Midcentury Mixology 