Name: Mayfair
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 1 dried Clove; 50 ml Gin; 25 ml Apricot liqueur; 25 ml Orange juice; 5 ml Sugar syrup 'rich' (2:1)

Ingredients

1 dried

Clove

1 ²⁄₃ fl oz

Hayman's London Dry Gin

⁵⁄₆ fl oz

Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur

⁵⁄₆ fl oz

Orange juice (freshly squeezed)

¹⁄₆ fl oz

Sugar syrup 'rich' (2 sugar to 1 water) 65.0°Brix

How to make

Glassware

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.

Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.

Method

MUDDLE clove in base of shaker.

Add other ingredients and SHAKE with ice.

FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Alcohol content:

We don't have enough information to calculate the alc./vol., but based on known ingredients, this recipe contains at least:

22.2 grams of pure alcohol

History

In his 1922 How To Mix Them Robert Vermeire includes the following recipe for the Mayfair Cocktail and crucially also claims that this cocktail is his own creation.

Mayfair Cocktail
Fill the shaker half full of broken ice and add:
¼ gill of Dry Gin.
¼ gill of plain Orange Juice.
3 or 4 dashes of Apricot Syrup flavoured with a little Cloves Syrup.
Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. This cocktail possesses a delicious flavour. I invented it at the Embassy Club in London, 1921. Mayfair is the aristocratic quarter of London, called so because during the reign of Charles II (seventeenth century) they used to hold a yearly fair during the months of May.

This cocktail also appears in Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book:

"Mayfair Cocktail
1 Dash Clove Syrup.
¼ Apricot brandy.
¼ Orange juice.
½ Gin.
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Comments & Discussion

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Lindley Trueblood 1y

Found this slightly disappointing- perfectly pleasant but found it very difficult to taste any clove at all through the orange and apricot.

Ran Van Ongevalle 5y

..I invented it at the Embassy Club in London, 1921. Mayfair is the aristocratic quarter of London, called so because of the reign of Charles II (seventeenth century) they used to hold a yearly fair there during the months of may.

Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member 5y

Many thanks for the very insightful feedback. I've dusted off my copy of How To Mix Them and added the copy you kindly shared.

Ran Van Ongevalle 5y

In fact this drink was created by a fellow Belgian Bartender called Robert Vermeire in 1921 when he was working in the "Embassy Club" in London.

Following is from his 1922 "Cocktails : how to mix them"

Mayfair Cocktail
Fill the shaker half full of broken ice and add :
1/4 gill of Dry Gin
1/4 gill plain Orange Juice
3 or 4 dashes of Apricot Syrup flavoured with a little Cloves syrup
Shake well and strain into a cocktail-glass. This cocktail possesses a delicious flavour ...