Category: Aromatic bitters

The key aspect of my cocktail hobby is permanent broadening of my imbibing horizons (and, unfortunately, of my liquor cabinet). Naturally, I couldn’t help uncovering a curious world of cocktails with fortified wines like, just now, sherry.

One of the classical cocktail constructions with а sherry base is a combination of wine and vermouth with a dash of bitters. Actually there were many such cocktails in old books [for example, the twins The Anticipation and The Invitation in ‘The Flowing Bowl’ by Schmidt, Willian (1892, USA), the Brazil Cocktail in ‘New and Improved Bartender’s Manual’ by Jonson, Harry (1888, USA), the Cuban Cocktail in ‘Louis’ Mixed Drinks’ by Muckensturn, Louis (1906, Boston, USA; also East Indian Cocktail, Reform, Duke of Malborough etc.]. However only two have become real classics – Adonis (with sweet vermouth) and Bamboo (with a dry one). I would love to start with the Adonis.

Albert Stevens Crockett in his ‘The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book’ (1935, USA) mentions that this drink was “Named in honor of a theatrical offering which first made Henry E. Dixey and Fanny Ward famous”, and this remark allows somebody to create an amusing story 8) or even make a speculation that this drink was invented by the legendary Jerry ‘Professor’ Thomas (curiously he was the founder of the Broadway Bijou Theatre, where musical ’The Adonis’ was performed more than 600 times in 1880s). Personally I found the earliest citation of the Adonis Cocktail in ‘Drinks’ by Straub, Jacques (1914, USA) even though a lot of similar concoctions had been printed in older books (see below).

There are at least two common proportions for the Adonis Cocktail now – 1:1 like ‘The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book’ by Crockett, Albert Stevens (1935, USA) or 1:2 like ‘The Savoy Cocktail Book’ by Craddock, Harry (1930, UK).

Adonis Cocktail

45 ml dry sherry
45 ml sweet vermouth
1-2 dash orange bitters
Stir the ingredients with a lot of ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

I use my habitual Martini&Rossi Rosso Vermouth and an inexpensive Elegante Medium Dry Sherry by Gonzales Byass Bodegas. Also I mixed the cocktails with a generous dash (or even two!) of Fee Brothers West Indians Orange Bitters or Angostura Orange Bitters. Both were perfect!

A word about sherry. As a matter of fact, since 2012 blended sherry (like the one I used) couldn’t be labelled as Amontillado or Oloroso. These names are reserved for the dry Vinos Generosos from Palomino grapes only (the Elegante sherry contains a blend of Palomino and Pedro Ximenez, now that kind of sherry is known as Medium… just Medium). But, retrospectively, throughout all of cocktail history such wines had been named as Amontillado and, respectively, Oloroso. I’m not so positive that bartenders of bygone days paid so much attention to the grapes variety for producing sherry but I’m totally positive that they recommended using rich and flavorful Amontillado and Oloroso sherries in mixing.

The Adonis Cocktail is a very friendly light aperitif drink. The main charm of it is that it is pretty light on booze but not in flavor. On one side this cocktail won’t be able to intoxicate you so much, but on another side it will be able give you true herbaceous richness.

As for me, the key point of the perfect Adonis Cocktail is appropriate diluting. As we know, water is an important ingredient of most cocktails (that are prepared with ice), and an optimal balance between diluting and cooling is half the battle. Since the cocktail contains no strong liquor, it, in my opinion, needs minimal dilution. In my home bar, I always use very cold and «dry» ice from the freezer (about -20°C), consequently I am often able to neglect chilling my equipment. But in this case I froze the mixing glass and also I kept ingredients in the fridge (excellent place of storage, by the way, for vermouths as well as for sherries) to minimize ice melting. So, my cocktails were diluted extremely precisely 8)

If you succeed in diluting your Adonis you could get a drink with quite pleasant sweet palate full of botanical, spicy and citrusy-fruity notes with nutty tang from sherry. Both fortified wines work perfectly together and are very interestingly improved by bitters and the twist.

Further, I tasted the Craddock 2:1 version. In actuality, the difference was not so remarkable as I had supposed. All the main characteristics were the same – quite a sweet palate with a ton of herbs, spices and oranges, and a piquant nutty sherry note. Both Adonises delight me equally – although I would prefer the first, you know, vermouth being my long-time passion while sherry rather a new one :)

Certainly I could have refrained from tasting the most famous sherry+vermouth cocktail – the Bamboo – particularly because I had picked up a seemingly absolutly inappropriate sherry for it (most recipes prescribe fino sherry, not Amontillado especially Medium Dry). But I didn’t 8)

The thing is that some time ago I bookmarked one interesting article about the Bamboo Cocktails in PUNCH Magazine. It was devoted to an interesting ‘sweet tooth’ riff on the classic bone dry Bamboo by Joaquín Simó.

Actually I had been dreaming about tasting the Bamboo Cocktail for a very long time. As William ‘Cocktail’ Boothby wrote in his ‘The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them’ (1908, USA), it was invented by Louis Eppinger – а german bartender, who had been managing the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan since late 1880s. Boothby prescribed mixing together 1 part of French vermouth, 1 part sherry, 2 dashes of Orange bitters and 2 drops of Angostura. As you might have noticed Boothby doesn’t specify the type of sherry (but some information from the book implies that he might have used a sort of amontillado or oloroso sherry, but who cares, this wasn’t the original recipe). Nowadays, the driest fino sherry is widely recommended to mix the Bamboo. The common formula is 1 part of fino sherry, 1 part of French dry vermouth and a few dashes of bitters – both orange and aromatic. The Joaquín Simó’s version also includes a teaspoon of a strong sugar (cane) syrup to help balance the drink and give it а bit more texture. As I used Medium Sherry I decided to decrease the amount of syrup.

Bamboo Cocktail (‘sweet tooth’ ver.)

45 ml vermouth dry
45 ml sherry dry
1 dash (or 2 drops) Angostura bitters
1-2 [generous] dashes orange bitters
1 bsp. simple syrup
Stir the ingredients with a lot of ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

I used Martini&Rossi Extra Dry vermouth as French vermouth and Elegante Medium Dry Sherry. I followed Bill Boothby on the bitters question to drop Angostura and add orange bitters by bar spoon 8) It worked here perfectly.

To all intents and purposes this version of Bamboo is practically the same as Adonis Cocktail. The difference is a sort of using of а different vermouth. The specifics are so similar – well-balanced sweet palate with a lot of herbal, spicy and citrusy notes. An excellent drink!

Eventually after close aquaintance with these cocktails I understood clearly their place in my own barlist. I think they are, first of all, perfect brunch drinks – not the booze for a Sunday morning but rich flavorful potions that are able to create an appropriate mood and feeling of well-being for the whole day off.

Continue reading “Adonis Cocktail and Bamboo (‘sweet tooth’ var.)”