“The Savoy Cocktail Book” is one of the most important tomes in the world of cocktail literature. Published in 1930, the book was compiled by bartender Harry Craddock, who served as the head bartender at the Savoy Hotel’s American Bar in London for over a decade. There, he created a handful of classic cocktails that are still common bar orders to this day.
When the Savoy Hotel tasked Craddock with writing the book, he managed to economically explore numerous sections about European wine regions and over 750 cocktail recipes in just 283 pages. Many of these drinks would have otherwise been lost to time had Craddock not chronicled them, even though most of the specs bear antiquated, often vague measurements. There’s no ounces or milliliters to go by here. Instead, we get ratios, “wineglasses,” and “nookers” — which are anywhere between 1 and a half and 2 and a half ounces, according to the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission.
Not all of the drinks included lived to see the 21st century, let alone the following decades. Some of them had names that simply didn’t stick, and many of the specs were just plain weird. With almost 800 recipes, there’s bound to be a few duds in the bunch.
To fulfill our morbid curiosity, we flipped through the many pages of “The Savoy Cocktail Book” and picked out 10 of the most bizarre recipes in the book. Read ‘em and weep.
Angel’s Wings Cocktail
Ingredients
- ⅓ raspberry syrup
- ⅓ Maraschino
- ⅓ crème de violette
Directions
- Use liqueur glass and pour ingredients carefully so that they do not mix. If the girl does not like it, do not drink it, but pour it quickly into the nearest flower vase.
The Savoy’s inclusion and description of the cloyingly sweet Angel’s Wings Cocktail — a layered drink composed of raspberry syrup, Maraschino liqueur, and crème de violette — speaks volumes of a bygone era. We’ve come a long way to moving past gender stereotypes, and if that’s not bad enough, the cocktail is just a combination of three sweet elements. The fact that Craddock suggests dumping it into a flower vase if “the girl does not like it” suggests that he probably didn’t think it was a good drink to begin with.
Choker Cocktail (serves 6)
Ingredients
- 4 glasses whisky
- 2 glasses absinthe
- 1 dash absinthe bitters
Directions
- This cocktail is to be very thoroughly shaken and no sweetening in any form should be added. [Note] Drink this and you can drink anything: new-laid eggs put into it immediately become hard-boiled.
Perhaps the polar opposite of the Angel’s Wings Cocktail, the Choker Cocktail’s spec reads like Rogaine for the chest. Even with dilution, the finished drink likely clocks in around 50 percent ABV due to its all-booze build. Also, Craddock’s note implies that the Choker Cocktail was created as more of a dare than something created to taste good.
The Earth-Quake Cocktail
Ingredients
- ⅓ gin
- ⅓ whisky
- ⅓ absinthe
Directions
- Shake well and serve in a cocktail glass. So-called because if there should be an earthquake on when you are drinking it, it won’t matter. This is a Cocktail whose potency is not to be taken too lightly, or, for that matter, too frequently!
Some incredible cocktails owe their balance to the equal parts builds. Consider the Last Word, Corpse Reviver No. 2, or Naked and Famous. However, when the only elements at work are three relatively high-ABV spirits, everything we know about balance gets called into question.
The Golden Gate Cocktail
Ingredients
- ¾ orange juice
- ¼ gin
Directions
- Place in a shaker and shake — no ice.
Craddock was hip to the idea of Gin & Juice long before Snoop Dogg was born. Sure, there’s nothing inherently vulgar about this drink’s build, but we can’t get past the lack of ice in the shake. Ice-cold gin and orange juice is decent at best. Lukewarm? Not so much.
“L.G.” Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 glass Scotch whisky
- 1 glass beer as a chaser
Most of us are familiar with boilermakers, a cold beer served alongside a shot of whiskey. The term actually predates “The Savoy’s” publication by over 100 years. So why did Craddock include it as a “cocktail,” let alone one with a different moniker? We’ll never know. It’s not necessarily a weird pairing, but its appearance in a cocktail book and mysterious title inspired us to include it here.
The Nose-Dive Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 nooker gin
- 1 olive
- water, ginger ale, or “what have you,” to top
Directions
- Take one nooker of gin, place in it an olive, then deposit the glass carefully in the bottom of an ordinary tumbler. Fill the said tumbler with Water, Ginger Ale, or What Have You, until almost the top of the small glass, then down the whole thing quickly. That is, everything but the small glass. This cocktail is very well known among pilots on American Flying Fields.
The Nose-Dive Cocktail is not only impractical to build, but the fact that “What Have You” is listed as a potential ingredient makes us wonder what liberties people took back in the day. And given the drink’s name and its alleged popularity among pilots, we’re glad that this one has remained consigned to the past.
Prairie Hen Cocktail
Ingredients
- 2 dashes vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 egg
- 2 dashes Tabasco sauce
- A little pepper and salt
Directions
- Do not break the egg.
The original 1806 definition of a cocktail prescribes “a stimulating liquor composed of any kind of sugar, water and bitters.” The Prairie Hen Cocktail, however, contains none of those components. Instead, it’s just a sketchy breakfast dish.
Sherry and Egg Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 glass sherry
- 1 whole egg
Directions
- Place an egg in large Port wine glass, being careful not to break the yolk. Fill glass with sherry.
At least Craddock didn’t leave anything up to the imagination when naming this cocktail. It is indeed a mixture of sherry and egg — no strings attached. Regardless, dropping an entire egg in a glass and topping it off with sherry sans shaking sounds more like a 1930’s bartender’s handshake than anything someone would actually ever order.
Soyer-au-Champagne Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 liqueur glass ice cream
- 2 dashes Maraschino
- 2 dashes Curaçao
- 2 dashes brandy
- Champagne, to top
- Garnish: pineapple or orange slice and a cherry or strawberry
Directions
- Stir well together in medium size glass and fill with Champagne. Add slice of pineapple or orange, 1 cherry or strawberry.
If Craddock had just left out the Champagne, this cocktail doesn’t sound too terrible. At least it would then just read as a riff on a Brandy Milk Punch. Plus, Craddock never specifies what flavor of ice cream to use. Vanilla? Chocolate? Butter pecan? While we can appreciate a “choose-your-own-adventure” cocktail, this is a trip we’d rather not take.
The White Cargo Cocktail
Ingredients
- ½ vanilla ice cream
- ½ gin
Directions
- No ice is necessary: just shake until thoroughly mixed, and add water or white wine if the concoction is too thick.
The combination of gin and milk was fairly common in Victorian-era Great Britain. Nowadays, even with clarified milk punches popping up on bar menus everywhere, the equal parts mixture of gin and milk — or in this case, vanilla ice cream — has become a bona fide thing of the past. And given that Craddock’s White Cargo recipe calls for white wine if extra dilution is needed, the potential for curdled milk in the mix makes this one a hard pass.
*Image retrieved from Jacob Lund via stock.adobe.com
