White Ladies

The Drink

…Francis Brett Young feels it would be a sacrilege to invent a new White Lady Cocktail, since “it is already the best cocktail ever made.”

– From So Red the Nose

Yup. She sure is white.

I don’t know about the best cocktail ever made, but the White Lady drink has certainly persisted longer than its book, probably because it had been created by a different mixologist some 15 years before, allegedly (very allegedly) in honor of a different retro literary figure, who was, indeed, a white lady.

The Sleeping Child

The Drink

Here’s a knockout dose known as The Sleeping Child and stirred up by Alice Grant Rossman…She says her eccentricities are liking cats and Americans.

Half Gin, Half French Vermouth, Dash of Cointreau, Dash of Maraschino, Squeeze of Lemon, Grapefruit, and Peach Juice

– From So Red the Nose

The Sleeping Child is a very girly drink to accompany a very girly book. Unlike last post’s debacle, I found all the ingredients easily enough, with the exception of peaches (you know they’re not in season as the same time as grapefruits, right Ms. Grant Rossman?). I ran all over town trying to find bottled peach juice (no peach nectar is not good enough, thank you very much Whole Foods) until I had the brilliant idea of using the side juice from a can of peaches. Yum.

The Lively Lady

The Drink

TO MAKE TWO LADIES LIVELY —

Take a Small Pitcher with Well-Rounded Interior
Put in It Nine Cubes of Ice
Add Four Cocktail Glasses of Gin
Add Two Cocktail Glasses of Noilly Prat Vermouth
Stir Briskly Sixty Revolutions with a Long-Handled Spoon– (The Only Method Which Doesn’t Bruise the Gin)
Pour into Cocktail Glasses
Add Twist of Lemon Peel so Lemon Oil Is Sprayed into the Liquid
Repeat until Pitcher is Empty

-From So Red the Nose

After a month of searching, I have come to the conclusion that the original Noilly Prat, as one would drink in 1931, cannot be bought in the United States of America. Any liquor stores who stock it are keeping that little secret to themselves.

The Man without Nerves (UK: The Bank Manager)

The Drink

…there may be other cocktails in the world but “they are mostly useful for furniture polish.”

2/3 DRY GIN (must be Gordon’s or Booth’s High and Dry)
1/3 NOILLY PRAT VERMOUTH (from a freshly opened bottle)

“Use plenty of ice, shake like hell and serve foaming in a fair sized glass. A small strip of lemon rind cut very thin might be allowed, but nothing else. No dividends.”

-from So Red the Nose

Oppenheim. Honey. That drink you’re calling The Man without Nerves? I hate to break it to you, but it’s a martini. Not even an original “twist” on the martini concept, like we’ve seen a twist on the Singapore gin sling or the whisky sour. It’s just a straight up martini, right down to the ice in the shaker and the lemon rind garnish. You may have been a great genre writer in your time, but I don’t know where you got off submitting the world’s most famous cocktail to So Red the Nose as your own creation.