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, which Difford’s Guide dates to before 1920. Albert Stevens Crockett’s Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) says Chaplin “had a cocktail named in his honor when he began to make the screen public laugh”. TCM dates the start of Chaplin’s film career at Keystone Studios to 1914. 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, at our working figure of 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, at our working figure of 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 (Albert Stevens Crockett, Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931): one-third each of lime juice, sloe gin and apricot brandy; measures in ml, method and garnish ours). Last checked 19 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 Oxford Companion says the Waldorf hotel opened on Fifth Avenue in 1893 and that, once the Waldorf-Astoria moved to Park Avenue during Prohibition, the old building was replaced by the Empire State Building. Boothby describes Albert Stevens Crockett as a journalist and writer whose Old Waldorf Bar Days of 1931 was a love letter to its bar, and Difford’s Guide adapts its recipe from his 1935 The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book.
Difford’s Guide gives Crockett’s recipe as one third each of lime juice, sloe gin and apricot brandy and dates the drink to before 1920. Boothby quotes Crockett in Old Waldorf Bar Days: “And Charlie Chaplin had a cocktail named in his honor when he began to make the screen public laugh.” TCM dates the start of Chaplin’s film career at Keystone Studios to 1914.
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: the Last Word at the IBA’s measures, with green Chartreuse at the 55% on Chartreuse’s own page, and the Blackthorn as we make it; the units are our calculation
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%. Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 defines it in its own right and allows 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?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Charlie Chaplin” (secondary source: named after Sir Charles Spencer Charlie Chaplin, at the height of his career when the cocktail was created at New York’s old Waldorf-Astoria prior to 1920; recipe adapted from Albert Stevens Crockett’s 1935 The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book: one-third lime juice, one-third sloe gin, one-third apricot brandy).
- Boothby, “Charlie Chaplin cocktail” (secondary source: Crockett wrote Old Waldorf Bar Days in 1931 as a love letter to the bar at the old Waldorf Astoria; quotes him: “And Charlie Chaplin had a cocktail named in his honor when he began to make the screen public laugh.” Crockett’s book is not on the Internet Archive).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (David Wondrich), “The Waldorf-Astoria” (secondary source: the Waldorf opened at Fifth Avenue and Thirty-Third Street in 1893, the Astoria in 1897; the old edifice replaced by the Empire State Building).
- Turner Classic Movies (Stephanie Thames, 27 February 2004), “Chaplin at Keystone Studios” (named-author trade page: Chaplin kicked off his movie career at Keystone Studios in 1914; Making a Living, the first time he appeared on film).
- legislation.gov.uk, “Regulation (EC) No 110/2008, Annex II (retained)” (point 37: sloe gin is a liqueur produced by maceration of sloes in gin, with a minimum alcoholic strength of 25%; point 20: gin 37.5%).
- IBA, “Last Word” (official specification: 22.5 ml each of gin, Green Chartreuse, Maraschino Luxardo and fresh lime juice).
- Chartreuse, “Green Chartreuse” (producer’s product page: 55 % vol.).
- Albert Stevens Crockett (1931), Internet Archive, “Old Waldorf Bar Days” (primary source, read 19 Oct in the Vintage Cocktail Books collection: “And Charlie Chaplin had a cocktail named in his honor when he began to make the screen public laugh.”; the book’s recipe list: CHARLIE CHAPLIN, One-third Lime Juice, One-third Sloe Gin, One-third Apricot Brandy).
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Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026