San Francisco
A San Francisco is 25ml each of sloe gin, dry vermouth and sweet vermouth, with a dash of orange bitters and a dash of Angostura, stirred for 20 to 30 seconds and poured into a chilled Nick & Nora glass with a maraschino cherry. About 1.5 UK units, the figure Difford’s Guide prints. This is the Café Royal recipe, not the tall fruity drink that shares the name. Difford’s dates it to William Tarling’s 1937 Café Royal Bar Book, where it is given in equal thirds. It is a short, light stirred drink: plum and almond from the sloe gin, with two vermouths in the middle.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry dropped in the glass
Ingredients
Instructions
Chill a Nick & Nora glass.
Add the sloe gin, both vermouths and both bitters to a mixing glass with ice.
Stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Fine strain into the chilled glass.
Drop in a maraschino cherry.
Source: Difford's Guide (recipe 4727, measures, method and garnish as printed (25ml sloe gin, 25ml dry vermouth, 25ml sweet vermouth, 1 dash orange bitters, 1 dash Angostura, stirred, fine strained into a chilled Nick & Nora glass, maraschino cherry); Difford’s gives William Tarling, Café Royal Bar Book (1937) as the first publication, in equal thirds, mixed and served with a cherry. Difford’s calls the book the Café Royal Bar Book). Last checked 1 November 2026.
Expert Tip
Measure the two vermouths with the same jigger so they match. The balance rests on equal parts. Keep the bitters to one dash each. A heavy hand makes the drink read as Angostura. Sloe gins differ in sweetness. Taste yours, and if it is syrupy, nudge the dry vermouth up by a few drops.
Behind the San Francisco
Flavour Profile
Equal thirds from a 1937 bar book
Difford’s Guide says the drink was first published in William James “Billy” Tarling’s 1937 Café Royal Bar Book. Tarling lists a dash each of orange bitters and Angostura, then one third each of sloe gin, sweet vermouth and French vermouth, to be mixed and served with a cherry. That is the whole method. Difford’s turns the thirds into 25ml and adds the stirring and the fine strain.
We name no author beyond Tarling, and we cannot say where the drink began. Difford’s does not claim he invented it.
Close to the Blackthorn, with a second vermouth
Difford’s says this San Francisco is virtually the same as the older Blackthorn No. 1, which has the same ingredients in slightly larger measures. Our Blackthorn is a different build: 50ml of sloe gin and 25ml of sweet vermouth, with no dry vermouth and no Angostura. Here the sloe gin drops to a third of the glass and the dry vermouth joins in.
Sloe gin is a liqueur, sweet and fruity at 26% ABV on our page, so a dry vermouth and a sweet vermouth in equal measure pull it in two directions at once. In our view that is why the drink tastes drier than the ingredients suggest. Two sets of bitters, orange and Angostura, add a dash apiece and no more.
A different drink with the same name
Difford’s points out a modern, tall, fruity San Francisco that has nothing in common with the Café Royal recipe. If you were after a long drink, that is a separate listing. The measures here are Tarling’s only.
The San Francisco beside three sloe gin drinks
San Francisco
- Sloe gin
- 25ml
- Vermouth
- 25ml dry, 25ml sweet
- Other
- A dash each of orange bitters and Angostura
Blackthorn
- Sloe gin
- 50ml
- Vermouth
- 25ml sweet
- Other
- 2 dashes orange bitters
Sloe Gin Fizz
- Sloe gin
- 45ml, plus 15ml London Dry gin
- Vermouth
- None
- Other
- 30ml lemon juice, 10ml syrup, 60ml soda
Bamboo
- Sloe gin
- None
- Vermouth
- Dry vermouth and sherry
- Other
- Bitters
| Drink | Sloe gin | Vermouth | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 25ml | 25ml dry, 25ml sweet | A dash each of orange bitters and Angostura |
| Blackthorn | 50ml | 25ml sweet | 2 dashes orange bitters |
| Sloe Gin Fizz | 45ml, plus 15ml London Dry gin | None | 30ml lemon juice, 10ml syrup, 60ml soda |
| Bamboo | None | Dry vermouth and sherry | Bitters |
The Bamboo is the nearest in weight. For a longer sloe gin drink, try the Sloe Gin Fizz.
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.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a San Francisco cocktail?
Where does the San Francisco come from?
Is it the same as a Blackthorn?
How strong is a San Francisco?
Is this the tall San Francisco?
What glass does it go in?
Can I make it ahead?
Sources.
Correct as of 1 November 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “San Francisco (Café Royal)” (recipe 4727: sloe gin, dry and sweet vermouth, orange and Angostura bitters, stirred, Nick & Nora glass, cherry; 1.5 units; Tarling 1937 original in thirds; note on Blackthorn No. 1 and the modern tall San Francisco).
- NHS, “Calculating alcohol units” (the 14-units-a-week guidance and the units calculation).
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This Blackthorn is the sloe gin version: 50ml of sloe gin, 25ml of sweet vermouth and two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick & Nora glass, with a lemon twist. About 1.8 UK units. Two different drinks carry the name, one built on Irish whiskey and the other on sloe gin, and the blackthorn is the bush that bears sloes. The Oxford Companion quotes Robert Vermeire in 1922 calling the Blackthorn a very old cocktail made in two different ways, and the books disagree on the vermouth and the bitters. Sloe gin is a liqueur rather than a gin: sloes steeped in gin and sweetened, at about 26% ABV. That makes this a Manhattan-shaped drink at well under a Manhattan’s strength, with plum and almond where rye would bring spice.
Sloe Gin Fizz
A Sloe Gin Fizz is 45ml of sloe gin, 15ml of London Dry gin, 30ml of fresh lemon juice and 10ml of sugar syrup, shaken hard, strained into a chilled small highball with no ice and topped with 60ml of cold soda water, with a lemon wheel. About 1.8 UK units. Add 15ml of egg white for a foam; it is raw egg. Sloe gin is a liqueur, not a gin: sloes steeped in gin with sugar, at 25% ABV or more under Regulation (EC) No 110/2008, and sweet. That is why the drink carries 15ml of dry gin as well, for backbone, and why the syrup should be tasted against the bottle you have. It is built the same way as our Gin Fizz: shaken, served short with no ice and drunk while the soda is lively. PUNCH puts sloe gin’s close link with this drink at the start of the twentieth century.
Bamboo
A Bamboo is 45ml fino sherry and 45ml dry vermouth with two dashes of orange bitters and one of Angostura, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with lemon peel expressed over the top. It is built like a Martini with no spirit in it: two fortified wines, about 1.5 UK units, and around 13% ABV in the glass. William Boothby’s 1908 book credits Louis Eppinger of the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, a German bartender brought to Japan in 1889, as Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, reports. Difford’s finds the drink in newspapers from 1886, three years before Eppinger reached Japan, and an early printed recipe, Thomas Stuart’s of 1904, uses Italian sweet vermouth, which makes the drink now called the Adonis. The sherry decides it. Fino or manzanilla, served cold from a bottle opened in the last few days, gives a dry, saline drink with a nutty edge. The Consejo Regulador gives an open bottle up to a week in the fridge, and one left open longer gives a flat drink, which is usually why a Bamboo disappoints.
Bobby Burns
A Bobby Burns is 45ml of Scotch, 45ml of sweet vermouth and 7.5ml of Bénédictine, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with a lemon twist expressed and dropped in. About 2.8 UK units. In our view it is a Rob Roy with Bénédictine in place of the bitters, which makes it rounder and more honeyed; Difford’s Guide calls it a Scotch-based riff on the Manhattan with a splash of liqueur, usually Bénédictine. Difford’s Guide gives the earliest known Bobby Burns Cocktail as one in the National Police Gazette of September 1899, made with Scotch, gum, orange bitters and ginger cordial. The Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 prints the Scotch, Italian vermouth and Bénédictine version and calls it one of the very best whisky cocktails. The name may honour the poet, though Difford’s Guide notes it was perhaps not originally named after him. Albert Stevens Crockett’s Old Waldorf Bar Days of 1931 prints a Robert Burns Cocktail, a different recipe, and says it was more likely christened for a cigar salesman who drank in the bar. Difford’s Guide says the Bobby Burns is drunk on Burns Night, 25 January.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 1 November 2026