#39. The Dutchess Cocktail

Question: Is this an intentional misspelling, to suggest that the duchess is Dutch? or is it just a mistake? I suppose we'll never know.

1:1:1 sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, absinthe. The absinthe makes it palatable, but neither the Bammer nor I enjoyed it much. Strong vermouth aftertaste, and although the absinthe is nice, it's not a drink with much complexity. There are a lot of things in this book that are basically flat and sweet, which is uninspiring but not so bad. Flat and dry seems kind of pointless.

#35. Oppenheim Cocktail

2:1:1 Bourbon, grenadine, Italian vermouth.

Yeah, this one is pretty much cough syrup. I know we've said that before, about other drinks, but this one really is the winner in the contest to taste the most possible like cough syrup. Congratulations, Oppenheim! Next time I get a cold, I'm just going to drink a couple of you and not worry about big cough syrup getting any more of my hard earned money. You hear that, big cough syrup? I'm onto your game.

Seriously, this wasn't very good, but anything that measures grenadine in units larger than dashes is going to be pretty suspect. This was pretty suspect. Skip it.

#27. Golden Bronx Cocktail

Ah, yes. Some more egg, please.

We drank this one purely in the name of efficiency. The Bronx, you may remember, was 2:1:1 gin, sweet vermouth, and dry vermouth, with orange juice. The Golden Bronx is the same, plus an EGG YOLK. I can only assume that this was someone's idea of breakfast, or a health tonic, or a masochistic trick. It certainly couldn't have been because someone had a Bronx, which is a pretty reasonable drink, and then decided that it needed an egg yolk for that extra something special.

We only made it because we had an egg yolk left over from the Beauty Spot. And so that we could cross it off the list.

I don't remember enjoying this all that much. Mostly, I just remember thinking over and over again about how I was drinking an egg yolk. I see no reason to try this again.