What Does a Blood & Sand Taste Like And Why Is It Called That?
What a gross name for such a tasty drink. It’s named after the 1922 silent film Blood and Sand. The movie is about a young matador who gets caught up in the glitz and glamour of bullfighting, has an affair, and dies while trying to redeem himself. I never saw it, that’s what IMDB says, but it sounds like a typical 1920s movie. I shouldn’t make fun of its period; one of my favorite movies, Metropolis, is from 1927. The taste is hard to describe because a lot is going on in this drink. It’s half Rob Roy/Manhattan, and the other half is tequila sunrise-like. I guess that’s the best way to describe it. It’s like a Manhattan, and a tequila sunrise had a baby.
A Short History Of The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel In London.
In 1893, The American Bar at the Savoy hotel started serving American-style cocktails in London to the British upper class. The American Bar has always been a high-end bar but what set it on the map was when Harry Craddock became its head bartender in the 1920s. Harry Craddock was a British-born bartender who immigrated to the United States, eventually becoming a US citizen and head bartender of several high-end hotel bars. Still, Harry found himself out of work with the start of prohibition in 1920. He then immigrated back to England and became head bartender of the Savoy Hotel’s Bar. Harry transformed The American Bar from a high-end bar to one of the seminal cocktail bars of the 20th century. As the American prohibition was ending, the hotel realized it should record all of its most famous recipes and the innovations Harry brought to the bar. A year later, they published the Savoy Cocktail Book. Printed in 1934, the Savoy Cocktail Book documents the bar’s best recipes from the 1890s to the 1930s and stands as the pillar of prohibition-era European cocktail innovation. If Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide is the best cocktail book the 1800s gave us, then The Savoy Cocktail Book is the best cocktail book of the first half of the 1900s. I don’t think I will ever be able to drink there, though. A cocktail cost around $250 there, and they have one that’s almost $1000, and I’m not the Amazon guy, so good thing we have their recipe book.
Recipe Resources
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Blood and Sand
Course: DrinksCuisine: British1
servings158
kcal20%
3
minutesLearn how to make the amazing Blood and Sand cocktail from the 1934 Savoy Cocktail book.
Ingredients
2/3 oz
- Orange Juice
2/3 oz
- Cherry Liqueur
2/3 oz
- Sweet Vermouth
2/3 oz
- Scotch
Directions
- Combine all ingredients in the shaker and add ice to the shaker.
- Vigorously shake till the shaker is ice cold and frosted.
- Strain into glass to remove ice shards.
Notes
- Tools Used: Jigger, Bar Spoon, Cocktail Shaker
- Serving Glass: Coupe Glass
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