Name: Monkey Gland
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Gin; 20 ml Orange juice; 5 ml Grenadine syrup; 2.5 ml Sugar syrup 'rich' (2:1); 3 dash Absinthe

Ingredients

2 fl oz

Hayman's London Dry Gin

2/3 fl oz

Orange juice (freshly squeezed)

1/6 fl oz

Monin Grenadine Syrup

1/12 fl oz

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

3 dash

La Fée Parisienne absinthe (omit for Cocktails Made Easy)

How to make

Glassware

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.

Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.

Method

SHAKE all ingredients 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

Nutrition:

One serving of Monkey Gland contains 169 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
21.09% alc./vol. (42.18° proof)
20 grams of pure alcohol

History

Created in the late 1920s by Harry MacElhone at his Harry's New York Bar in Paris, France. The Monkey Gland takes its name from the work of Dr Serge Voronoff who, convinced that testosterone was vital to a long and healthy life, transplanted monkey testicles onto elderly Frenchmen.

The "Monkey's Gland Cocktail" first appears in MacElhone's 1922 Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails (which, sadly, I don't have access to). In his 1923 edition, he specifies the recipe as "1 dash Absinthe, 1 teaspoonful of Grenadine, ½ Orange Juice, ½ Gordon Gin. Shake well, and strain into a cocktail glass. (Invented by the Author and deriving its name from Voronoff's experiments in rejuvenation.)."

Comments & Discussion

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Florian Ruf 10 months ago

Did not sorrily not convince us.

Robert Spain 1 year ago

Quite nice. The fruit is there, but the interesting part is the play between gin and absinthe.

Max Langer 1 year ago

Acid adjusted orange juice really breathless new life into all the classic orange based cocktails. Very convincing!

Susie Bright 2 years ago

I am very proud of making this drink a “thing” at Louie’s bar in Santa Cruz, which at the moment is Gilda’s. He and his wife fell in love with it and everyone who tried it fell in love. We’re so lucky to live here, where oranges have 3 seasons!

Avery Garnett 2 years ago

It's very dry, it's quite absinthe forward. It doesn't have that muddy flavour that many orange juice cocktails have but it doesn't pop sadly. Just quite a dry absinthe orange thing.

ian roberts 2 years ago

I left the sugar syrup out a used a little more absinthe really tasty

Maho Lomez 2 years ago

I usually like my drinks on the dry side, but for this one I think a sweeter formulation would work better. Will have to experiment.

Louise Allen 3 years ago

Dashes are so annoyingly imprecise so, using my Diffords patented jigger, I added 1.25ml of absinthe and that worked out just lovely. I used Engine Oil gin which is my current favourite.

Chris Brislawn 3 years ago

Didn't have Rutte so used Hulme's London Dry Gin (Albuquerque's finest), which has a strong botanical nose. (Good luck finding it across the pond.) Grenadine is boring and no pomegranate syrup so used pomegranate molasses, which is probably heavier and more complex (and darker) than the syrup, as well as a bit acidic. Very good! Better than Death & Co.'s tequila-based variant, "Glandula Del Mono."

Miguel Perales 3 years ago

I made this two ways. The first one as posted with the rich syrup and the second one without it. I will have to say I prefer the one without the syrup, but the one with is not bad (just a personal preference). The orange juice is very prevalent on the nose but the Gin ( I used The Botanist gin for it's floral notes) and Absinthe are definitely present on the palate. Quite nice