Fourth Regiment

Serve in a

How to make:

1. Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
2. Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
5. EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

• Strucchi Rosso Vermouth – Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites
• Fee Brothers Celery bitters – Celery

Review:

My previous recipe for this vintage riff on a Manhattan followed the classic two-part whiskey (split 3:1 between bourbon and rye) to one-part vermouth Manhattan spec. However, one of the elements that distinguishes the Fourth Regiment is vintage recipes specifying equal parts. The most referenced, Jacques Straub (1914) and Charles H. Baker Jr. (1939), also call for a trio of bitters: orange, aromatic and celery, but the earliest known recipe (dated 1889) suggests the Fourth Regiment was originally made with Creole-style bitters in place of aromatic bitters.

I used to favour aromatic bitters with an orange zest twist in place of orange bitters, but since being influenced by Chris Lemperle of New York's Crane Club in January 2025, I have conformed to the original three bitters with a lemon zest twist as the resulting cocktail is delicious.

Variant:

Matejcek 3-2-1 Manhattan

History:

Thanks to Robert Hess (see DrinkBoy.com), it's known that the Fourth Regiment dates back to the 1890s as it was published in an 1889 book titled 282 Mixed Drinks from the Private Records of a Bartender of the Olden Days. The recipe calls for whiskey, rosso vermouth, orange bitters, Peychaud's Bitters and celery bitters, with a lemon zest twist.

The Fourth Regiment then appears in Jacques Straub's 1914 book Drinks and Charles H. Baker, Jr.'s 1939 The Gentleman's Companion volume II – An Exotic Drinking Book.

Fourth Regiment Cocktail.
1 dash orange bitters.
1 dash Angostura bitters.
1 dash celery bitters.
½ jigger whiskey.
½ jigger Italian vermouth.
Piece of lemon peel. Shake

Jacques Straub, Drinks, 1914

THE FOURTH REGIMENT COCKTAIL, BROUGHT TO OUR AMAZED ATTENTION by ONE COMMANDER LIVESEY, in COMMAND of ONE of HIS MAJESTY'S DAPPER LITTLE SLOOPS of WAR, out in BOMBAY, A.D. 1931
This, we discovered finally, was merely a Manhattan Cocktail made in 4oz size, spiced with 1 dash each of celery, Angostura and orange bitters – but why the last was included we never have understood as the Angostura dominates. Chill very cold and garnish with a twist of green lime peel squeezed so as to deposit oil upon the waters after the drink is poured.

Charles H. Baker, 1939

More cocktails by Charles H Baker

Nutrition:

One serving of Fourth Regiment contains 166 calories.

Alcohol content:

• 1.7 standard drinks
• 25.97% alc./vol. (51.94° proof)
• 23.7 grams of pure alcohol