The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel In London
Opened in 1893 The American Bar at the Savoy hotel started serving American style cocktails in London to the British upperclass. The American Bar has always been a high end bar but what really set it on the map was when Harry Craddock became it’s 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, but 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 coming to an end the hotel realized it should record all of its most famous recipes and the innovations Harry brought to the bar and a year later they published the Savoy Cocktail Book. Printed in 1934 The Savoy Cocktail Book documents all of the bars 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.
What Does a Blood & Sand Taste Like And Why Is It Called That
What a gross name for such a tasty drink. It’s actually 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 bull fighting, has an affair, and dies while trying to redeem himself. I never saw it, that’s just what IMDB says but it sounds like a typical 1920s movie. I shouldn’t make fun of its time period though, one of my favorite movies Metropolis is from 1927. The taste is kinda hard to describe because there is a lot 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. Its like a Manhattan and a tequila sunrise had a baby.
Blood and Sand Cocktail – Original 1934 Savoy Recipe
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.