Cablegram Cocktail

Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1/2 Tablespoon Powdered Sugar (1/2 teaspoon caster sugar)
1 Glass Canadian Club Whisky (2 oz Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey)

Shake well, strain into long tumbler (1/3 filled with ice) and fill with Ginger Ale (Reed’s Ginger Brew).

Along with the Bull-Dog, another very good long drink featuring ginger ale. This one is a whisk(e)y sour plus ginger ale.

I felt like the ginger and lemon would need a whisk(e)y with a bit more spirit than Canadian, so I went with the younger Sazerac. Worked quite well.

The recipe in the Savoy doesn’t mention ice in the serving glass at all. However, every other recipe I read suggested building it over ice or straining it over fresh ice.

I dunno if the ginger ale in England was less sweet or if they just liked sweeter drinks; but, I’m not entirely convinced this needed any extra sugar at all. With the Reed’s, I think you could just build it in the glass with ice and leave out the extra sugar.

Googling this recently, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they have re-vived the Cablegram at Vessel in Seattle. It was even referenced in some reviews of the venue as one of their more outstanding cocktails. Of course it involves house made ginger ale and such. Still, nice to see a bar bringing back obscure classic cocktails!

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.