First published in the Irish Whiskey Magazine Issue 12 Winter 21/22
“a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters”
13th May 1806 in The Balance and Columbian Repository
Globally accepted as the first time the world seen the term “cock-tail” written down and defined - the date now celebrates World Cocktail Day every year.
The only problem I have with this statement is, they didn’t even fecking mention Irish Whiskey, cause’ I will tell you this for free good readers, Irish Whiskey has been stirring and a shaking the cocktail world for a wee while now and thankfully isn’t about to stop!
In the cycle of the social western world we are in a drinks golden age with cocktails available in local boozers and fast paced food chains no longer just left to the velvet and mahogany bars of elite big city hotels, meaning more venues are using the good Irish stuff and pushing it to its limited in terms of flavour profile, texture and compatibility with just about anything you can think of.
Irish Whiskey cocktails bounced from the elegant classics to exciting innovations and had a little dance with coffee in between (but I am over that one). So let’s go back to where I believe Irish Whiskey cocktails really began. Some of my favourite cocktails books contained the foundations for how I went & go about making mixed drinks behind a bar and at home and contain an insight into Irish Whiskey’s cocktail heritage. Through the next few pages we will go on that journey through the written word of Irish Cocktails that roadmapped the flavours & styles for bartenders generations over to carry on the torch. If you want to make a cocktail before you continue to read (much like I did before I began writing) flick over to find the ‘Tipperary Cocktail’ recipe. Go on and make it quick I’ll hold the page for you.
1862, Bartenders Guide: How to Mix Drinks, or, The Bon Vivant's Companion by Jerry Thomas
Jerry “The Professor” Thomas was the first ‘startender’. Behind the bar he was flairing drinks, firing up Blue Blazers all the time bedazzled with diamonds shaking a custom bar kit costing around $5,000. He also created a book that would define cocktails for over a century.
Reading from this encyclopaedia of cocktails is a right of passage for any bartender, it’s not really a page turner and the plot is a bit ropey at times but for seeing how classifications of drinks and styles of cocktails came to the modern world it is nothing but a joy every time I flick through it. Only 3 direct mentions of ‘Irish’ whiskey being used but plenty of room for unnamed ‘whiskey’ cocktails to come over to our side with 16 checking that box.
The ‘277 - Irish Whiskey Skin’ really hooks deep for me, simple (perhaps maybe too simple) with just; ‘one lump of sugar, one piece of lemon peel and one wineglass of Irish Whiskey’ with one half a tumbler filled with boiling water served in a small bar glass. To get away with a simple drink like this would have required high quality ingredients, if not it would have failed the end drinker however it turns up in many more cocktail books throughout history suggesting it was indeed of the highest quality. You may ask, “Is this not just a Hot Toddy?” Well Jerry’s ‘262- Whiskey Toddy’ did share a very similar format but without any citrus and it was served cold with ‘one small lump of ice’. So a hot winter warmer back in 1860’s would have left the customer calling for a ‘skin’ rather than a ‘toddy
You may have noted the measurements stated for the ingredients. Please don’t follow these exactly as I am sure you have some pretty big wineglasses in your gaff - or if you do, don’t say I told you about it.
Also I ask you to help me, in an 1862 New York bar room- what would have been an Irish Whiskey to hold up in a drink like this?
1900, Bartenders Manual (Second Edition) by Harry Johnson
Harry knew the craic - He didn’t just give a book on cocktails but wrote about steps of service and how to properly stock and operate a bar showing the full scope of a bartender. Harry ‘The Dean’ Johnson must have lead some life, begin born in Prussia and immigrating to San Francisco starting out as a kitchen boy in a hotel working his way up through the bar world and even getting to meet legendary bartender Jerry Thomas (who bartended & prospected for gold in The Golden City at a time). Johnson moved from Chicago to New Orleans upgrading and honing his talent while gaining experience before his big move to The Big Apple buying an old bar that Jerry Thomas used to own. Apparently the two did not get on well by the time Harry got to New York around 1877 as Johnson publicly called him an amateur and renounced any association with his old bar that Harry now owned. Never meet your hero’s eh?
It is said when Harry Johnson retired he became the first bar consultant in history… well if it was good enough for Harry. Any way back to his book.
What I find inspiring is that between his first (1888) and second edition he added two Irish Whiskey cocktails and named 3 Irish Whiskey brands on his bar (Burke’s Irish Whiskey, Kinahan L.L. Irish Whiskey & Mitchell’s Irish Whiskey) highlighting an increased consumer demand. The drink ‘Irish Cocktail’ made up with dashes of absinthe, curaçao, Boker’s bitters and a wineglassful of Irish Whiskey interestingly mirrors the style of modern mixology: layering of multiple complimentary flavours and ingredients with exact ratios - this drink would definitely been ahead of its time.
Harry would have been someone I would have liked to work with on the bar- for many reasons but mainly for how he garnished this drink; a ’medium-sized olive’ and ‘lemon peel’ what a combination to put in a drink!
This cocktail shows up in multiple cocktail books after this however as time goes on the lemon peel gets ditched for an orange peel which honestly sounds much better, but truth be told I don’t care that much about this substitution - the win here is that Irish Whiskey as the core ingredient stays true in them all.
1916, Recipes for Mixed Drinks by Hugo R Ensslin
For 50 US cents in 1916 you could have gotten this cocktail bible packed with delightful drinks. Such a success, that its second edition went into print less than 12 months later. I am going to take a huge stab in the dark and say its popularity was driven by the earth shattering Irish Whiskey cocktail the ‘Tipperary Cocktail’ or maybe its due to measurements in jigger size not just wineglassful or everything clearly laid out in alphabetical order not under unusual heading like ‘daisy’ or ‘flip’
Of all of the early Irish Whiskey cocktails I have researched this is by far the most prominent in todays bar scene, be it still a rare sight, it is on menus and drank around the world. It was also written in cocktail text by more famed bartenders than Hugo.
This original drink was made with equal parts ‘1/3 Bushmills Irish Whiskey 1/3 Chartreuse 1/3 Italian Vermouth’ and shaken! This version has been changed somewhat with Scotsman Harry MacElhone adding more Irish Whiskey and deducting the other ingredients in his cocktail book ‘Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails’ published in 1922. This take tends to be the drink that cocktail bars today will edge towards. Harry MacElhone was one of the best at making mixed drinks in fact he worked in a Parisian bar named the ‘New York Bar’ that eventually got changed to ‘Harry’s Bar’.
Should you ever find yourself roaming the cobbles in Paris I highly recommend you to seek out Harry’s Bar (5 Rue Daunou - it has a big red neon sign to greet you) and order yourself a Tipperary or even one of the many cocktails said to be invented there; (the) Bloody Mary, Sidecar and French 75.
Seeped in history this bar was frequented by Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein, Coco Chanel and the list goes on and on, even getting into Ian Fleming’s “From a View to Kill” - when in Paris if 007 “wanted a solid drink he had it at Harry’s Bar’. More suiting to this article however was an employee around the late 1940’s - the ever charming Brendan Behan which he mentioned in Confessions of an Irish Rebel.
Even with the celebrity clientele of Harry’s Bar the Tipperary recipe changed in print in 1930 when the famous Harry Craddock reversed it back to equal parts in The Savoy Cocktail Book and renamed it ‘Tipperary Cocktail (No.1) and stirred, it is now universally stirred.
Tipperary
This recipe is closer to Harry’s than Hugo’s but the spirit of its legacy lives true. I like to use an oily heavy Pot Still style Irish Whiskey for this to stand up to the other ingredients although there is no need to go cask strength. This cocktail is booze heavy and you wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself in front of Coco, now would you?
55ml Irish Whiskey
20ml Italian Sweet Vermouth
10ml Green Chartreuse
3 Dashes Orange Bitters
Add all of the ingredients into a mixing glass or tin and fill it two thirds with cubed ice. Stir altogether for 10-15 seconds to get the perfect level of chill & dilution. Using a julep strainer strain all of the ingredients into a chilled Nick & Nora or your preferred martini style glass.
Garnish with a delicately cut orange coin; express the orange oils on top of the drink and place on top.
Such a drink can be very personal to each persons taste so do play around and try again- it is a fantastic drink.
1930, The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock
A pilgrimage for any bartender and drink enthusiast, this art deco bar is one of the longest standing drinking establishments in the UK boasting the best service for generations as well as home to the creation of some of the worlds most loved cocktails. To experience entering The Savoy and walking up (then a wee bit down) to The American Bar, being slowly dragged into its ambience by a pianist like a river of molasses, could be one of the most luxurious experiences in the cocktail world. If you are lucky enough (& that way inclined) grabbing one of the four rare bar seats is a joy allowing you to experience the bartenders in their five star cockpit producing five star service and cocktails, while upholding the The Savoy and the legacy of those bartenders gone before yet still carving a modern story for themselves. Sure go and experience it yourself!
With all of that being said its world renowned cocktail book published at the height of high society has eight Irish Whiskey cocktails (that deserves a round of applause).
In London, England this book got published showcasing the best cocktails of the time and decades gone by with classics that will be made long after and a huge moment for Irish Whiskey in cocktails! Not all were created by Harry Craddock and some even appeared in the booked written about above, none the less it contained (in listed order): Blackthorne Cocktail, Cameron’s Kick, ‘Everybody’s Irish’ Cocktail, Irish Cocktail, John Wood Cocktail, Paddy Cocktail, Shamrock Cocktail and Tipperary Cocktail (No. 1) with mentions of Irish Whiskey twits of juleps and toddies also.
It is difficult to pull out any of these drinks to write about as Cameron’s Kick is a brilliant combination of Irish & Scotch whisk(e)y shaken with orgeat and lemon to create a moorish yet incredibly refreshing cocktail and the ‘Everybody Irish’ Cocktail which is a bright disco green spiced mint masterpiece, okay masterpiece is a bit far but it’s good and green (not all cocktails have to be serious). If you wanted serious go for the Blackthorn Cocktail which popped up in many cocktail books before this and is slowly making a return to more and more bar menus today. Maybe you want something different and you start to make the ‘Shamrock Cocktail’. Oh wait, it’s green too, however maybe you want to go rogue and shake lemon, vermouth, kummel, bitters and Irish Whisky for a ‘John Wood Cocktail’. Whichever cocktail you decide from this drink will be a different high-class experience.
I have made and drank each of the drinks written about in this article with a rebalance here and there (I decided against the wineglassful measure) and believe them all to be fantastic and urge you all to re-create them at home or in your bar.
The Irish Whiskey cocktail scene globally is so innovative and fast moving that sometimes having a look to the past for a chalk board classic is just what the doctor ordered - except that wineglassful measurement, no doctor would ever. If you are thinking the age of Irish cocktails of yore are more golden than now don’t fret as across the globe world class and code breaking bars are showcasing Irish Whiskey and spirits from the Island of Ireland in the most exciting ways such as The Dead Rabbit in New York, Homeboy Bars in London and 1661 in Dublin and many many more.
Remember cocktails can be made by anyone, one bad cocktail at home doesn’t make you bad at making cocktails. Try and try again.
‘The first draft of anything is shit”
Earnest Hemmingway
Comentários