The Mysterious Cocktail 1934
I was looking through my grandma’s recipe box and found loads of interesting things: Three versions of Swedish Glog, Kitty’s friend from Bombay’s Salad, and this intriguing recipe for a long-lost cocktail. I give you: Cocktail 1934. I guess it was some kinda winning cocktail in some kinda cocktail competition in 1934. No surprise there. It’s damn good, and it’s almost 100% booze.
It has possibly been renamed a Hoar Frost, but I only found one source that confirms that title. Hoar Frost is also a scientific term that has to do with dew points and freezing temperatures and the North Pole and some other concepts I don’t understand with my tiny, shriveled, drunken brain.
This drink tastes pretty badass anyway. Kind of like a grapefruit and gin. Kind of like pink lemonade. And after you’ve had several, you may be tempted to say, “Fuck that sugar rim. I just wanna drink.” but DON’T DO IT. The sugar rim adds a great textural quality and the drink is really not the same without it. AND… chill the glass, too since you don’t serve this drink over ice.
Also, FYI, a “jigger” equals 1.5 ounces so half a jigger is 3/4 ounce in case you’re bad at fractions. And 1/4 jigger is less than that; clearly I am bad at fractions.
PrintThe Mysterious Cocktail 1934
- Yield: 1 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 Jigger Gin
- 1/2 Jigger Orange Curacao
- 1/2 Jigger Lemon Juice
- 1/4 Jigger Jamaican Rum
- 1/4 Jigger Grenadine
Instructions
- Run a lemon or orange slice around the rim of a cocktail glass and dip in sugar. Set aside in the refrigerator.
- Shake all ingredients together with ice.
- Pour into cocktail glass and serve.
Another classic cocktail you might enjoy if you like this one is the classic Champagne cocktail. They’re both old-timey is how come I thought you’d like it.
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Not that I even care, because this episode is totally NOT about curry (it's about betrayal!)… but the bartenders down at Apple Annie's would probably have the answers to your questions. Those guys are super old school, and make the type of cocktails that take like 6 minutes to make and involve egg whites and lots of bitters!
Do you think those old school bartenders would even talk to a big, fat liar like me, though? Typically, old school bartenders do not like lying women. Maybe if you wrote me a note of forgiveness…
I thought of that while I was drankin' it! Like maybe mix sugar and salt together for the rim job? Mmmm…rim job.
Hilah….I featured your video and Mysterious 1934 cocktail recipe on the Charlotte Cocktails Examiner page.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-9829-Charlotte-Cocktails-Examiner~y2010m5d26-Hilah-Johnson-cooks-and-she-drinks-too
Great job and keep the recipes coming!
Bad-ass!
Hilah! My cocktail queen! Can you please teach me how to make hot buttered rum? xoxo š
That is a great idea, Kathryn!
Curacao: [ku-rock-oh]
It’s ku-ra-sao according to Webster’s but I like the way you say it better. ROCK!
This sounds excellent, and all I need is some rum and pomegrantate syrup. The colour alone looks delicious.
I have a forgotten recipe for you in return, called a Sourball (I see there are now other concoctions with this name). It was invented by the Bols company to promote their apricot brandy and it first appeared in magazine ads in 1979. I tried it and thought it was tasty and refreshing. Then I forgot all about it for 34 years.
I’ve schlepped that bottle of apricot brandy around with me since 1979, never really paying attention to it. When I saw this recipe the other day I remembered the Sourball and decided to try it again.
Shake well (about 15 seconds) the juice of one orange and one lemon, 1.5 oz. of Bols apricot brandy, and a generous handful of crushed ice. Serve without straining. It’s every bit as delicious as I remember.
Since both oranges and lemons vary in size and acidity, I experimented a bit and came up with standard quantities: 90ml orange juice, 60 ml lemon juice, 45 ml apricot brandy, and three 30ml (measured before freezing) ice cubes — my trays make cubes of that size.
I would NEVER use anything but fresh juice — no orange concentrate or that ghastly bottled alien piss that pretends to be lemon-like. Too much apricot brandy makes the drink insipid, so if the citrus is still too acidic take the edge off with a pinch of sugar.
If you’re cheap, like me, buy lots of oranges and lemons when they’re a good price, juice them, and freeze in ice cube trays. It’s easy to pop out three orange cubes, two lemons cubes, and three ice cubes. I add the liqueur to the orange and lemon to speed thawing, then crush the ice and shake.
You could also put all the cubes and the booze in a blender then pureƩ (or is it frappƩ?) the whole works.
THANK YOU!!! Thanks for adding another “must buy” to my liquor-store list! I don’t think I’ve had apricot brandy, but it has always sounded like something I would like, and your ice cubes –> frappĆ© thing sounds like one of the best things ever to come out of a blender. Thanks so much for sharing the correct measured proportions. I can’t wait to try this one!
Warning! Danger!!
I made a mistake in my first post: in my “standard” quantities I said 45 ml of apricot brandy, but that should be 30 ml. I repeat: 30 ml.
The larger measurement is from my experimenting, in which I found too much AB made the drink insipid, and I don’t know why that quantity stuck in my memory. Middle age? Too many refreshing adult beverages consumed over a lifetime?
Gawd, where are my manners?
Thank you for responding, and keep up the good work. I’ve sent links to your YouTube cooking show to like-minded friends, who love you as well.
Thank you so much! And the recipe correction is duly noted, sir. *tips hat*
Heyy Hilah! First I want to thank you for your awesome recipes; I always enjoy watching and making them.
I am from the place that manufactures Blue, Orange, (etc.) CuraƧao. It is actually a small island in the Caribbean and a former Dutch colony (You pronounced It perfectly as “ku-ra-sau” by the way). Looking forward to trying this cocktail!
Hi Sara!
That is really cool! The internet is an amazing thing for bringing people together. I hope you like this cocktail. We really do. Thanks for writing!