Episode 68: Americano

  • 1 1/2 ounces Campari

  • 1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth

  • Soda water, chilled, to top

  • Garnish: orange twist

Fill a highball glass with ice, then add the Campari and sweet vermouth. Top with the soda water and stir gently to combine.
Garnish with an orange twist.

The Americano was created by Gaspare Campari, the actual creator of Campari. He opened his own bar in Milan in the 1860s and started selling cocktails made with his namesake aperitif. One of the most popular was called a Milano-Torino. It was literally just equal parts Campari, which was made in Milan, and Italian sweet vermouth, which was made in Torino. The cocktail became especially popular with American tourists, and eventually he added some soda water to give it some effervescence, and he named it an Americano.

Some say that this was especially popular during prohibition when Americans on vacation outside of the US were drinking everything in sight while they had the chance.

The Americano also happened to be the first cocktail ever mentioned in any of the James Bond novels, so after “Casino Royale’s” release in 1953, the Americano blew up here too.

Another fun fact about the Americano, it was actually the precursor to the Negroni. Legend has it that in Florence in the early 1900s an Italian Count named Camillo Negroni asked a bartender to tweak his Americano by swapping out the soda water with gin, and he liked it so much that he named the cocktail after himself.

Episode 59: Rob Roy

  • 1 1/2 ounce blended scotch whiskey

  • 1 ounce sweet vermouth

  • 2 dashes aromatic bitters (angostura)

  • Orange twist

  • Brandied or Luxardo cherry

Combine scotch, vermouth, and bitters in a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir until well chilled and strain into a cocktail glass. Twist a piece of orange peel over the glass to express the oils, and serve neat with a cocktail cherry.

Rob Roy

A Rob Roy cocktail is basically just a Manhattan made with Scotch whiskey in place of bourbon or rye. It was named after an operetta that told the story of a great Scottish folk hero who supported the poor. Robert Roy MacGregor was a 17th century outlaw often cited as a sort of Scottish Robin Hood who led battles against noblemen in the Highlands. The operetta, titled Rob Roy, debuted in New York City in 1894, and a bartender at the nearby former Waldorf Astoria Hotel, on the site where the empire state building stands today, created the cocktail for opening night and to publicize the play.

Some cocktail historians however claim that the Rob Roy was actually invented at another luxury hotel, the Fifth Avenue Hotel, down by Madison Square.

In recent years however, cocktail historian David Wondrich has found evidence that a bartender named Henry A. Orphal actually created the Rob Roy while working in Hoboken, N.J, around 1895. A blended Scotch whisky salesman came in wanting a Manhattan, but according to his own company’s policy, he wasn’t allowed to drink anything not containing his own whisky. Orphal’s solution was to swap in 2 ounces of Scotch alongside the sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters.

Episode 55: Hanky Panky

  • 1½ ounces dry gin

  • 1½ ounces vermouth

  • ¼ oz Fernet-Branca

  • Orange twist, for garnish

Fill a mixing glass with ice, and pour in all of your ingredients.
Stir until well chilled and strain into Martini or coupe glass.
Garnish with an orange twist.

The Hanky Panky was invented sometime in the early 1900s by Ada “Coley” Coleman at the world famous American Bar in the Savoy Hotel in London. It was really rare to see women behind the bar back then, but that didn’t stop Coley, who was the head bartender there for over 20 years. She loved creating new recipes, but the Hanky Panky is her most famous creation ever, and it’s still on the menu at the American Bar to this day.

According to Coley, she created the drink for a famous London stage actor Sir Charles Hawtrey. When she retired in 1925, Coley told a newspaper,
“The late Charles Hawtrey… was one of the best judges of cocktails that I knew. Some years ago, when he was overworking, he used to come into the bar and say, ‘Coley, I am tired. Give me something with a bit of punch in it.’ It was for him that I spent hours experimenting until I had invented a new cocktail. The next time he came in, I told him I had a new drink for him. He sipped it, and, draining the glass, he said, ‘By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!’ And Hanky-Panky it has been called ever since.”

The Hanky Panky is made with gin, sweet vermouth, and a bit of Fernet, which is a bittersweet herbal Italian Amaro. Fernet is very strong and a bit overwhelming on its own, but used sparingly in this cocktail it adds a wonderful complexity.

Episode 12: The Dirty Martini

  • 2 1/2 ounces​ gin

  • 1/2 ounce ​dry vermouth

  • 1/4 ounce olive juice (to taste)

  • Garnish: 1 or 3 good quality green olives (I used a Sicilian variety called Castelvetrano)

Combine gin, vermouth, and olive juice in a mixing glass or shaker with plenty of ice. Stir (never shake - sorry James Bond!) until well chilled and strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass. Garnish with a skewer or pick with either one or three good quality green olives, but don’t serve just two! An even number of olives in a cocktail is considered bad luck!

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There had been a few similar cocktails in print a few years earlier, but the first person believed to put a dirty martini together in basically the same way you see them here was the one and only Franklin Delano Roosevelt, sometime in the 1930s or 40s.  

He loved to mix his own cocktails during his afternoon “Children’s Hours”, and he absolutely loved martinis. It’s said that he never mixed them the same way twice, always tinkering with ratios of gin to vermouth, or adding fruit juice or other things just to experiment with different flavors. It’s also said that most of the drinks he served were famously terrible.

Episode 8 - Classic Manhattan

  • 2 ounces rye whiskey (or bourbon if preferred)

  • 1 ounce sweet vermouth

  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters

  • Luxardo maraschino cherries, for garnish

Combine whiskey, vermouth, & bitters with plenty of ice in a mixing glass. Stir well until frosty cold and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with maraschino cherries.

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Interesting fact: History suggests that the Manhattan cocktail was created at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s, specifically for a banquet in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet is said to have made the drink fashionable.

However, there are prior references to similar cocktail recipes called "Manhattan" and served in the New York City area. One account says it may have been invented in the 1860s at a bar on Broadway near Houston Street.