Charlie Chaplin
A Charlie Chaplin is 30ml each of sloe gin, apricot brandy and fresh lime juice, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe with a lime wheel. About 1.5 UK units, because both of its spirits are liqueurs at around a quarter alcohol. It comes from the bar of the old Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Albert Stevens Crockett, who wrote down the hotel’s pre-Prohibition drinks, says it was named for Chaplin “when he began to make the screen public laugh”. Chaplin’s first films came out in 1914, so the drink most likely belongs to the years just after. Sloe and apricot are both stone fruit with a faint bitter kernel note, so the two liqueurs agree with each other. The lime, a full third of the glass, keeps them from reading as cordial. In equal parts there is nowhere to hide a poor bottle, so buy liqueurs made from real fruit.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lime wheel
Ingredients
30ml
Sloe gin made from real sloes, around 26% ABV. Despite the name it is a liqueur, carrying plum, tartness and an almond note from the stones.
30ml
Apricot liqueur made from real fruit, around 25% ABV. Not an unsweetened apricot eau-de-vie, which is dry and far stronger.
30ml
Squeezed the same day. The only acid in the glass, and at a full third it holds two sweet liqueurs in check.
Instructions
Squeeze the lime juice the same day.
Chill a coupe.
Add the sloe gin, apricot brandy and lime juice to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe.
Garnish with a lime wheel.
Source: The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book (Equal parts sloe gin, apricot brandy and lime, as Crockett records it; measures in ml, method and garnish ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Buy sloe gin made from real sloes, around 26% ABV. Cheaper bottles are sweetened spirit with flavouring, and at a third of the glass they turn the drink into squash. A good one is tart, with an almond edge from the stones. Apricot brandy on an old menu means apricot liqueur. An unsweetened apricot eau-de-vie is a different bottle, dry and much stronger, and it leaves the drink sharp and hollow. Giffard and Rothman & Winter both make a liqueur from real fruit. Squeeze the lime the same day and do not trim the measure. Thirty millilitres against two sweet liqueurs looks heavy on paper; cut it and the drink turns syrupy within a few sips.
Behind the Charlie Chaplin
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The old Waldorf-Astoria stood on Fifth Avenue until 1929, when it was pulled down to make room for the Empire State Building. Albert Stevens Crockett, a journalist who had known its bar, wrote it up in Old Waldorf Bar Days in 1931 and collected its recipes in The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book in 1935.
The Charlie Chaplin is there as equal parts sloe gin, apricot brandy and lime. Crockett says it was named for Chaplin when he began to make the screen public laugh. His first films came out in 1914 and Prohibition closed the bar in 1920, which places the drink in the six years between.
Two Liqueurs and No Spirit
Almost every sour is a full-strength spirit with citrus and sugar. Here there is no full-strength spirit and no syrup: two fruit liqueurs supply both the alcohol and the sweetness, and the lime supplies the rest.
That is why the lime runs to a full third. A sour built on whiskey sets its lemon against a smaller measure of syrup. Here the lime faces twice its own volume of sweet liqueur, and any less acid would leave the glass tasting of cordial.
Why Sloe and Apricot Suit Each Other
Both are stone fruit, and both liqueurs can carry a faint bitter kernel note: sloe gin from the stones left in while the berries steep, apricot liqueur from its own fruit. Together they come close to marzipan, which neither bottle gives alone.
Sloe brings plum, tannin and sharpness; apricot brings a softer, rounder sweetness. The lime cuts across both and keeps the fruit tasting fresh rather than cooked.
Against Two Relations
The Charlie Chaplin beside a drink of the same shape and one of the same bottle
Charlie Chaplin
- Base
- 30ml sloe gin, 30ml apricot brandy
- Sweetener
- The liqueurs themselves
- Citrus or modifier
- 30ml lime
- UK units
- About 1.5
Last Word
- Base
- 22.5ml gin, 22.5ml green Chartreuse
- Sweetener
- 22.5ml maraschino
- Citrus or modifier
- 22.5ml lime
- UK units
- About 2.9
Blackthorn
- Base
- 50ml sloe gin
- Sweetener
- The sloe gin itself
- Citrus or modifier
- 25ml sweet vermouth, stirred
- UK units
- About 1.7
| Drink | Base | Sweetener | Citrus or modifier | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlie Chaplin | 30ml sloe gin, 30ml apricot brandy | The liqueurs themselves | 30ml lime | About 1.5 |
| Last Word | 22.5ml gin, 22.5ml green Chartreuse | 22.5ml maraschino | 22.5ml lime | About 2.9 |
| Blackthorn | 50ml sloe gin | The sloe gin itself | 25ml sweet vermouth, stirred | About 1.7 |
The Last Word shares the equal-parts shape at far greater strength; the Blackthorn puts sloe gin at the centre of a stirred drink.
How to Serve It
Shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds, double strained into a coupe from the freezer, with a lime wheel on the rim.
Drink it soon after it is poured. With no full-strength spirit and no ice in the glass it warms fast, and the sweetness rises as it does.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Sloe GinDespite its name, sloe gin is a fruit liqueur: sloes, the small sour fruit of the blackthorn tree, macerated in gin and sweetened, then bottled at 25% ABV or more, usually 25 to 30%. The spirit drink rules define it in its own right and allow only natural flavourings in it. It brings plum, tartness and a deep red colour to the Sloe Gin Fizz and to long drinks with tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Charlie Chaplin cocktail?
Why is it named after Charlie Chaplin?
What kind of apricot brandy should I use?
Is sloe gin actually gin?
How strong is a Charlie Chaplin?
Why shake it rather than stir it?
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026