Bronx Cocktail
The Juice of 1/4 Orange (Juice 1 Page Mandarin)
1/4 French Vermouth (1 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth)
1/4 Italian Vermouth (1 oz Carpano Punt e Mes)
1/2 Dry Gin (1 oz Beefeater’s Gin, 1 oz Tanqueray Gin)
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
Ahem, this did end up a bit on the extra-large size. But, really, the Bronx is one of my favorite cocktails and I was thirsty.
I hardly ever get to use Punt e Mes for anything, so its bitter kick seemed like a good idea. Finished off the nearly empty Beefeater’s and Tanqueray bottles. The orange we had in the fridge was in worse shape than I had remembered, so the mandarin had to stand in.
I’ve read a number of sources that say the Bronx was something of a cocktail non grata in the 40s and 50s. I don’t really understand why. Especially, if you squeeze the quarter of a juice orange right over the mixing shaker, the light fresh orange juice flavor and the smell of the slightly sharp orange oils are quite pleasant, combining with the gin and vermouths. I’ll admit I am slightly more partial to the “Income Tax” or “Bronx with Bitters” so using Punt e Mes gets me closer to that drink.
Is the derision heaped on the Bronx because of too much orange juice? Bad syrupy orange juice from concentrate? Bathtub Gin hangovers? Something we can blame on Anita Bryant?
Probably not; but, ditch the Minute Maid from concentrate, and rediscover this classic the way it’s meant to be.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
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