The Age Of Vermouth

There’s a drink in the 1927 book Barflies and Cocktails called “Warday’s Cocktail” (page 75), which is 1 teaspoon of yellow Chartreuse (I used green because I only have green), “1/3 Italian Vermouth” — i.e., one ounce sweet vermouth, 1/3 gin (read: one ounce gin) and 1/3 calvados or Apple Jack (we used one ounce of Apple Jack).

I was intrigued by it because a gin/Apple Jack-based drink sounds really weird. That, and the chartreuse has been burning a hole in my pocket (perhaps it literally could . . .). It’s a pretty OK cocktail — sort of like the Ur or Platonic cocktail in that it just tastes like generalized “cocktail.”

(Barflies and Cocktails is really weird, by the way; very “23 Skiddoo” or whatnot. Lots of mixers and vermouthiness.)