#13. Orange Blossom Cocktail

I don't know about some of these 1916 proportions. Ensslin calls for a "drink" of gin and the juice of half an orange. A "drink" is a vague measure that is more than a jigger, but I'm not exactly clear how much more. A note from Wondrich's introduction says that a whiskey glass was four ounces for Ensslin, so that's likely how much a "drink" ought to be.

I like drinking gin, but if you can handle four ounces of gin, with nothing but a splash of orange juice, in a glass desperate to warm up to room temperature, then you like gin quite a bit more than I.

Knowing my limits, I went with two ounces of gin rather than four. This is not a bad cocktail. The orange flavor is strong, but the fresh orange juice is lighter and blends better than I expect an equivalent amount of supermarket OJ would. I don't know about you, but I don't love orange juice as a mixer. It always tastes like breakfast to me, no matter when I drink it, so, for instance, vodka and orange juice makes me feel a bit like a hardened alcoholic waking up for a drink, which is a feeling I don't particularly enjoy.

But, I would still rather take my gin with a little tonic and lime. The lime, even though usually in a much smaller dose than the orange juice in this cocktail, takes more of the edge of the gin. This is a good pairing, but not quite good enough to make it into my regular rotation.

Difford's recipe is more complicated. It seems that over time, the orange blossom collected some grenadine and lime juice. I think I'd prefer the modern version.