Ideal Cocktail – Classic Savoy Recipe

Ideal Cocktail Savoy
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Ideal Cocktail

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

214

kcal
ABV

27%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the a classic Ideal Cocktail.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Grapefruit Juice

  • 1 oz 1 Sweet Vermouth

  • 3 dashes 3 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Grapefruit peel

Notes

Featured Video

The Variations Of The Ideal Cocktail.

First printed in the 1917 Hugo Ensslin book Recipes For Mixed Drinks, there are three main variations of the ideal cocktail. 1). The original 1917 Hugo Ensslin Recipe. 2). The 1933 Sloppy Joe’s recipe. 3). The 1934 Savoy Cocktail Book recipe. This is the Savoy recipe, but the Sloppy Joe’s recipe from Cuba is delicious. The ideal strikes a perfect mix of gin, dry vermouth, and grapefruit juice, and both the savoy and Sloppy Joes recipes are very similar. The odd one out is the Hugo Ensslin one, as it omits grapefruit juice and instead uses a slice of actual grapefruit in the cocktail.

What Does The Ideal Cocktail Taste Like?

I don’t know how to describe this one. It’s perfect; just hard to compare it to others. It’s like a daiquiri that’s not sweet and more tart and herbal than citrus. Even that is a poor description, but those are the primary flavors. Even though it’s mostly gin, the sweet vermouth and grapefruit are what shine.

Keep This In Mind For The Ingredients.

The essential ingredient in this cocktail is the sweet vermouth and the grapefruit juice. This cocktail’s good vermouth goes a long way and adds a nice flavor than a nicer gin will. Also, only use pink or ruby red grapefruit juice in this cocktail (any cocktail, really). White grapefruit is just way too tart, but the pink and red ones are a nice balance of tartness and sweetness. Also, the pink and red grapefruits have a better flavor. Between the pink and red kind, you can use either one. Both have a similar taste, but the red is sweeter than the pink ones. So if you want to make the drink a little bit sweeter, use ruby red grapefruit juice, and if you want the glass to be a little more tart, use pink grapefruit juice.

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 ended, 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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Aviation – Original Recipe & History

Aviation Cocktail
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Aviation

5 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

246

kcal
ABV

28%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a classic Aviation.

Ingredients

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Lemon Juice

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Creme de Violette

  • 2 oz 2 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Maraschino cherry

Recipe Video

Notes

Featured Video

The History Of The Aviation.

The Aviation was created in New York by Hugo Ensslin and is from his 1917 cocktail book, Recipes For Mixed Drinks. This was one of the last cocktail books to be written before prohibition, making this book a fascinating profile of the height of mixing drinks in pre-prohibition America. This delicious drink didn’t last long because once prohibition went into effect, Creme de Violette stopped being produced, and people started mixing this with either Creme Yvette or just leaving the Creme de Violette out entirely.

Creme de Violette started being imported into the United States in 2007 again, and it became possible to make real aviation again. It’s incredible to think that for almost 90 years, this drink was never made in the United States, which explains why this drink was not very popular till recently.

What Does The Aviation Taste Like?

The Aviation is a fantastic cocktail and deceptively potent. It’s slightly sour and not too sweet and has a beautiful floral lavender cherry flavor unique to any other sour. The Aviation is as delicious as it looks. This is the cocktail I make for people who say they hate gin. Everyone loves this drink.

The Most Important Ingredient.

The essential ingredient in this drink is the Creme De Violette. For the most part, this is a pretty easy drink to make, and the ingredients are straightforward. The issue I have found is not all Creme De Violette are good quality. You may only see 1 or 2 different bottles of Creme De Violette at a large liquor store, and the cheaper ones (about $15 or less) lack flavor. They have the right color, but I need to use a whole oz to make the flavor right. The higher quality ones have much more flavor and only need the required 1/2 oz to taste right; even with limited options, it’s better to buy the higher quality Creme De Violette.

Recipe Resources

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Martinez – Classic Recipe & History

Martinez
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Martinez

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: British
Servings

1

servings
Calories

203

kcal
ABV

24%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a Martinez

Ingredients

  • 1 dash 1 Cardamom Bitters

  • 2 dashes 2 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 2 oz 2 Sweet Vermouth

  • 1 oz 1 Old Tom Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Maraschino cherry.

Notes

Featured Video

The Origins And History Of The Martinez Cocktail.

So I might be wrong on this one. Still, from all the various pre-prohibition cocktail books I have, I feel that the Martinez is the British carry-over of Harry Johnson’s original 1888 martini recipe. The recipes are almost identical, even down to the optional ingredients, and I only see the Martinez in my British books. None of the American ones have it. Again I could be wrong, and maybe there are a few puzzle pieces I’m missing, but if it is not the same cocktail, then whoever first made a Martinez was reading Harry Johnson when they first made it.

The Martini was first published in Harry Johnson’s 1888 New and Improved Bartender’s Manual. His first recipe was 2 or 3 dashes of gum syrup, 2 or 3 dashes of Boker’s bitters, one dash of Curaçao, 1/2 wine glass of Old Tom Gin, and 1/2 wine glass of Italian Vermouth. Very different from what you think of a martini. Over the next decade, the Martini changes to what is now considered the sweet martini, and overall the field seems to settle on that recipe. Even Harry Johnson changes his Martini recipe to match the newer ones. But that older version seems to have lived on or changed its name in Europe. The British book by Farrow and Jackson, “Recipes of American and Other Iced Drinks,” has an almost spot-on recipe to match the first martini. Even a Spanish book “El Arte del cocktelero Europeo,” also from 1912, has a Martinez cocktail but no martini. The London Savoy has one but not the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Again I may be wrong and missing information, but what I have seen and the current evidence leads me to at least believe this may be the case.

Recipe Resources

1902 Recipes of American and Other Iced Drinks – Farrow

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Last Word – Original Recipe & History

Last Word
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Quick Step-by-Step Last Word Recipe Video

Last Word

5 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

184

kcal
ABV

31%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a classic Last Word.

Ingredients

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Lime Juice

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Green Chartreuse

  • 2/3 oz 2/3 Dry Gin

Directions

  • Technique: Saxe Soda Shake
  • Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
  • Add one medium or two small ice cubes to the cocktail shaker and shake until the ice fully melts.
  • Without a strainer, pour the chilled and aerated drink into a glass.

Recipe Video

Notes

The History Of The Last Word.

Invented at the Detroit Athletic Club (DAC) sometime before 1916, the last word survived thanks to a New York stage actor. The last word is often credited with having been invented by Frank Fogarty, but after research done by the DAC itself, the last word was invented sometime before Frank Fogarty brought it to New York. Frank Fogarty was a vaudeville actor in New York during the earlier part of the 20th century and is credited in Ted Saucier’s 1951 book “Bottom’s Up!” for having “introduced [The Last Word] around here [New York] about thirty years ago.” (Ted Saucier took over historical records and publications for The Waldorf-Astoria after Albert Stevens Crockett. A.S. Crockett is the person who compiled the original Waldorf-Astoria bars cocktail recipes into the famous Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book.) Due to the drink’s present-day popularity, the DAC researched and found an old 1916 decorative souvenir menu with the last word listed for 35 cents. The menu was most likely printed to celebrate the club’s much larger and more impressive new building on Madison Avenue in 1915. It is unknown if the last word predates the 1916 souvenir menu and, if so, by how much. The club first opened in 1887, so the drink was invented somewhere between those two years. The Detroit Metro Times has an excellent article about the Last Word it reprinted with the DAC permission that was first published in a 2015 edition of The Detroit Athletic Club Magainze.

The cocktail wasn’t commonly made again until 2003 when Seattle bartender Murray Stenson found a “Bottoms Up!” copy. He added this forgotten cocktail to his Seattle bar’s drink menu, and it was a hit. The Last Word became popular in the Pacific Northwest, eventually was made on television as the hot new Seattle cocktail, and soon spread to the rest of the country.

What Does The Last Word Taste Like?

I love the taste of this cocktail. The Last Word has a clean, bright herbal, cherry, citrus flavor that is wonderful but not for everyone. If you have ever had Green Chartreuse before and are not a fan, this cocktail will not change your mind. the Green Chartreuse flavor is not too strong, but it’s still the most forward flavor.

Most Important Ingredient.

The most essential ingredient in the Last Word cocktail is the gin. The dryness of the gin is what saves this cocktail from being way too flavorful and herbaceous. The drier and cleaner the gin is, the better. Don’t use a fancy flavorful sipping gin in this cocktail because the Green Chartreuse is already such a unique herbal flavor that any more strong herbal flavor is too much. The lime juice and Maraschino Liqueur help cut that flavor and add more complexity, but the clean dryness of the gin mellows the drink. I feel using vodka instead of gin makes for a more balanced cocktail, but the classic recipe calls for dry gin. Something like a Bombay dry gin (normal Bombay, not Sapphire) and Beefeater work very well in this.

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Improved Whiskey Cocktail – Original Recipe & History

Improved Whiskey Cocktail
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Improved Whiskey Cocktail

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

164

kcal
ABV

39%

Total time

3

minutes

The precursor to the old fashioned, the improved whiskey cocktail by Jerry Thomas is a true classic.

Ingredients

  • 2 dashes 2 Cardamom Bitters

  • 1 dash 1 Absinthe

  • 2 dashes 2 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 3 dashes 3 Gum Syrup

  • 2 oz 2 Bourbon

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass with ice.
  • Garnish:
  • Orange peel.

Notes

Featured Video

If the name isn’t descriptive enough, then think of a Whiskey Cocktail but better. I’m just kidding; this is very different than the average Whiskey Cocktail. While the normal one is cardamom-y and has a spice to it, this one is orangey and licorice-flavored.

This first appeared in Jerry Thomas’s 1880 edition of his bartender’s guide. His improved cocktail versions never really enjoyed the fame the normal ones enjoyed, but they are delicious and worthy of being remembered.

Recipe Resources

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Improved Holland Cocktail – Original Recipe

Improved Holland Cocktail
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Improved Holland Cocktail

0 from 0 votes Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

269

kcal
ABV

33%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the Improved Holland Cocktail Recipe by Jerry Thomas

Ingredients

  • 2 dashes 2 Absinthe

  • 2 dashes 2 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 2 dashes 2 Cardamom Bitters

  • 1 tsp 1 Gum Syrup

  • 2 oz 2 Genever

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Lemon peel.

Notes

Featured Video

First printed two years after Jerry Thomas’s death, the Improved Holland Cocktail was a variation of his original Holland Cocktail. This cocktail gets its name because Genever was thought of like a Dutch liquor back then, similar to how rum is so closely associated with the Caribbean. Not too many Genever cocktails would be made during this period because Old Tom Style Gin and London Dry Gin would soon become the preferred gin for mixing.

Download Vintage American Cocktail on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Discover hundreds of the best classic cocktail recipes all from an easy-to-use app.

Recipe Resources

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East India Cocktail – Classic Recipe & History

East India Cocktail
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East India Cocktail

4 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

232

kcal
ABV

33%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the classic 1882 East India Cocktail

Ingredients

  • 3 dashes 3 Angostura Bitters

  • 2 dashes 2 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Orange Liqueur

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Raspberry Syrup

  • 2 oz 2 Brandy

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Maraschino cherry

Notes

Featured Video

This is cocktail #175 in Harry Johnson’s 1882 print of the Bartenders Manual. Harry Johnson was a German-born (Specifically Prussian-born, A unified Germany didn’t exist yet) bartender and peered at Jerry Thomas. Jerry Thomas does steal a lot of Harry Johnson’s thunder since he was the first one to be published, but both created amazing recipes. Since Harry Johnson was german-born, his books are written in English and German.

Recipe Resources

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Corpse Reviver No.1 – Oldest Known Recipe

Corpse Reviver No.1 Cocktail
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Corpse Reviver #1

3 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

163

kcal
ABV

28%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the oldest known Corpse Reviver No.1 recipe from the 1934 Savoy Cocktail Book.

Ingredients

  • 1 dash 1 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 2 dashes 2 Orange Bitters

  • 1.5 oz 1.5 Sweet Vermouth

  • 1.5 oz 1.5 Apple Brandy

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.

Notes

Featured Video

The History Of The Corpse Reviver #1.

While the corpse reviver dates back to the mid-1800s, there was no authentic solid recipe until the 1930s. It is casually mentioned in publications during the 1800s, but Harry Craddock from the American Bar at the Savoy is the first to write down a solid recipe. Even though the Savoy Cocktail Book was published in 1934, it is a collection of the bars recipes dating from the 1890s to the 1930s so the recipe could be from the 1800s. Also, there is no similarity to this, and the corpse reviver no.2 other than the name. The Corpse Reviver is said to revive a dead body because of its strength, but it’s a perfect and balanced cocktail.

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.

What Does The Corpse Reviver #1 Taste Like?

This is an incredible cocktail. It tastes like a fruit-flavored Manhattan instead of a typical Manhattan’s standard wood and spice flavors. The pairing of equal parts apple brandy with sweet vermouth is spot on. It replaces the spicy woody flavors of the Angostura bitters with cherry and orange liqueurs that mix well with its apple brandy base. If you like manhattans, then this is a definite must. You may end up liking it more.

Recipe Resources

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Hemingway Daiquiri – Classic Recipe & History

Hemingway Daiquiri
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How to make a Hemingway Daiquiri and Papa Doble

Hemingway Daiquiri

5 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: Cuban
Servings

1

servings
Calories

228

kcal
ABV

26%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make a classic Hemingway Daiquiri.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Lime Juice

  • 1 tsp 1 Grapefruit Juice

  • 1 tsp 1 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 2 oz 2 White Rum

Directions

  • Technique: Tiki Dirty Pour
  • Combine all ingredients into a shaker with crushed ice.Hemingway Daiquiri
  • Vigorously shake for 10 seconds.Hemingway Daiquiri
  • Dirty pour the whole shaker into a glass. Crushed ice and all.Hemingway Daiquiri
  • Garnish:
  • Grapefruit sliceHemingway Daiquiri

Recipe Video

Notes

History Of The Hemingway Daiquiri

The Hemingway Daiquiri is not the Papa Doble. The two are often considered the same, and the Hemingway daiquiri is also called a Papa Doble. The Papa Doble was a very different cocktail that most people would not like. The Hemingway Daiquiri as we know it today started to appear around the 1960s. One of its earliest references is from the publication ” Cuba, Paloma de Vuelo Popular” by Nestor Teran. Teran refers to the cocktail as the Hemingway Special at Bar Floridita. If Hemingway had this cocktail, it was probably much later in his life (he passed in 1961), and residents knew this was not the Papa Doble but a different cocktail entirely. The 1972 Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide calls this drink the Floridita Daiquiri. Victor Bergeron’s cocktail information is often very much on point. He didn’t just know tiki but traditional cocktails and Caribbean cocktails too. As a bartender from the 1930s to 1970s, his knowledge of cocktails is trustworthy. The earliest Hemingway Daiquiri recipes are shaken with crushed ice and dirty poured into a glass like the Papa Doble, but the Trader Vic recipe is blended into a slushy cocktail. Thus taking on its current form.

By the 1990s, every publication I found simultaneously calls the Papa Doble the Hemingway Daiquiri. The list is too numerous to cite, so the example I will mention is the 1998 book “The Hemingway Cookbook” by Craig Boreth. Boreth implies that the Hemingway Daiquiri is also called the Papa Doble, Wild Daiquiri, and Daiquiri Special. A lot of names for one drink.

Recipe Resources

Papa Doble References

Hemingway Daiquiri References

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Brooklyn Cocktail – Classic Recipe

Brooklyn Cocktail
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Brooklyn Cocktail

3 from 1 vote Only logged in users can rate recipes
Course: DrinksCuisine: American
Servings

1

servings
Calories

181

kcal
ABV

35%

Total time

3

minutes

Learn how to make the Brooklyn Cocktail. An amazing pre-prohibition cocktail that is all but forgotten since the loss of Amer Picon in the United States.

Ingredients

  • 3 dashes 3 Amer Picon

  • 1 tsp 1 Maraschino Liqueur

  • 1/2 oz 1/2 Dry Vermouth

  • 2 oz 2 Brandy

Directions

  • Technique: Simple Stir
  • Combine all ingredients in the mixing glass.
  • Add ice to the mixing glass.
  • Stir the ingredients for 10 – 15 seconds. Try to avoid over-diluting the drink.
  • Strain into a glass.
  • Garnish:
  • Maraschino cherry

Notes

Featured Video

As Biggie-Smalls said, “Where Brooklyn At?! Where Brooklyn At?!” If you’re looking for the Brooklyn cocktail, it’s right here, but this drink could easily have been lost and forgotten. Unfortunately, this drink was never as popular as its’ other New York cocktail buddies, the Manhattan or Bronx, and once prohibition came along, history mostly forgot about the Brooklyn.

The main reason people probably stopped making it is one of the main ingredients, Amer Picon, stopped being imported into the United States a long time ago. It is still manufactured but can only be purchased in Europe. Amer Picon is a kind of an herbaly, orangy, bitter/sweetish digestive bitter. I really wanted to include this cocktail so in place of Amer Picon you can try using Amaro Nonino. At about 50 clams a bottle so it’s pretty pricy but at least it can be purchased.

As a side note, if you live outside the USA, then none of this substitution stuff matters, but I think around 80-85% of my users live in the US, so that’s the audience I try to write a bit more to.

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