Do Be Careful.

I was caught and slightly inspired by a story recently about variations on classics and I will admit that finding old recipes and making the basic recipe work for what we can get on hand is always a fun challenge. I found this recipe in Boothby's 1934 World Drinks and How to Mix Them.



Tho original recipe states:
Gin.... 1/3 jigger
Cointreau ... 1/3 Jigger
Grenadine.... 1 spoon
Lemon......... 1 spoon

So I haven't done the research to know what a jigger was in 1934 and I'm not sure what kind of spoon Mr. Bill was using but the recipe calls for equal parts gin and cointreau and equal parts grenadine and lemon. I've tinkered a bit and want to report the following:

Using shitty ingredients like well gin, triple sec, sweet/sour mix, and rose;s grenadine makes this a bad drink.
Using a higher proof gin like Junipero or Bellringer to offset the sweetness of the Cointreau works amazingly.
If using a london dry change the ratio to 2 to 1 and go a touch heavier on the lemon and aslo the grenadine.
Using Lime instead of using Lemon makes for another nice variation on this old school spring time classic.



I've also been a fan of garnishing by taking a lemon (or lime) wheel and cutting like 10% out and spearing with a cherry.