Cable Car

Sidecar

A Sidecar is a cognac sour: 50ml cognac, 20ml Cointreau or another triple sec and 20ml fresh lemon juice, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe under an expressed strip of lemon peel. The IBA gives these measures, which put the cognac at two and a half parts to one each of orange and lemon. The Oxford Companion dates the first printed recipes to 1922, in Robert Vermeire’s Cocktails: How to Mix Them in May and Harry MacElhone’s Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails at the end of the year, both at equal parts by Difford’s Guide. Both named Pat MacGarry of Buck’s Club in London; Difford’s says later editions of MacElhone’s book appear to take the credit for himself. The sugared rim came later: the earliest mention we have read is a 1932 American book, and the Oxford Companion says the drink has often been served with one since the 1930s. Ours has no rim. Each Sidecar carries about 2.8 UK units.

White Lady

A White Lady is 40ml of London Dry gin, 30ml of Cointreau and 20ml of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with lemon peel expressed over the top. About 2.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and there is no egg white in them. The name is older than the recipe. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says Harry MacElhone gave it in 1919, at Ciro’s Club in London, to a drink of brandy, crème de menthe and Cointreau. The gin, Cointreau and lemon version is credited to his rebuild at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in 1929, though Difford’s says most dispute that, and The Savoy Cocktail Book printed it in 1930, also without egg. Egg white came later: Difford’s Guide finds the earliest recipe with it in The Sacramento Bee of 1936. It makes a softer, foamed drink, given here as a variation. The plain version is sharp and dry, the gin in front and the orange behind it.

Mai Tai

A Mai Tai is aged rum, lime, orange curaçao and orgeat: 30ml amber Jamaican rum, 30ml Martinique molasses rum, 30ml fresh lime juice, 15ml orange curaçao, 15ml orgeat and 7.5ml sugar syrup, shaken hard and strained over crushed ice in a double rocks glass, with a spent lime shell and a sprig of mint. This is the IBA specification. There is no pineapple or orange juice in it. Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron said he created it in 1944 and gave the first two to friends from Tahiti, one of whom said “Mai tai roa ae”, which gave it the name, as Famous Hotels quotes him. The Oxford Companion places his restaurant in Oakland and adds that Donn Beach’s widow, Phoebe, wrote in 2002 that he made a Mai Tai in 1933, though the Companion finds good reason to doubt that Vic copied it. Orgeat is almond syrup, so the drink contains nuts. A glass holds about 3.0 UK units.

Jamaican Mule

A Jamaican Mule is 50ml of spiced rum, 12.5ml of fresh lime juice and 7.5ml of rich sugar syrup stirred briefly in a copper mug, filled two thirds with cubed ice, topped with 75ml of ginger beer and capped with a crown of crushed ice, with a lime slice and a bouquet of mint. About 2.0 UK units from a rum at 40% ABV. The name says Jamaica. The recipe does not. Difford’s Guide’s recipe calls for spiced rum, not a Jamaican pot-still rum, and we have found no source that names who created or named it. In our view it is the drink most people mean when they ask for a spiced rum mule: a Moscow Mule with the vodka swapped for a rum that already carries vanilla, cinnamon and clove, so the ginger beer meets the spice instead of covering it. It is shorter than it looks. At 75ml the ginger beer is half the glass rather than two thirds, and the lime and rich syrup sit under it as a small sour. Taste the ginger beer first: a dry, hot one wants the full syrup, a sweet one wants none.