Name: Mayfair Cocktail
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 (2:1)

Mayfair Cocktail
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 dried	Clove
1 ²⁄₃ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
⁵⁄₆ oz	Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur
⁵⁄₆ oz	Orange juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₆ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Garnish: Orange zest twist

How to make:

MUDDLE clove in base of shaker. Add other ingredients, SHAKE with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Clove adds enlivening spice to this orange and apricot, gin-laced cocktail.

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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.

More cocktails by Robert Vermeire

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 3 comments for Mayfair Cocktail.
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Lindley Trueblood

13th September 2024 at 18:07

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

30th December 2020 at 13:28

..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

30th December 2020 at 15:39

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

30th December 2020 at 13:28

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 ...

See discussion in the Forum