Name: Opal
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 50 ml Gin; 15 ml Triple sec; 37.5 ml Orange juice; 7.5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 1.25 ml Orange flower water

Opal
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Photographed in an UB Retro Coupe Gold 7.75oz

Ingredients:
1 ²⁄₃ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₂ oz	Cointreau triple sec liqueur
1 ¹⁄₄ oz	Orange juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₄ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
¹⁄₂₄ oz	Orange blossom water / Orange flower water

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Fresh, fragrant flavours of zesty orange and gin with a subtle floral note.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Red Opal

History:

Thought to have originated in the 1920s, the Opal notably appears in in Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book.

OPAL COCKTAIL.
(6 people)
3 Glasses Gin.
2 Glasses Orange juice.
1 Glass of Cointreau.
A little sugar.
Add a little Orange-flower water.
Shake and serve.
Harry Craddock, 1930

Nutrition:

One serving of Opal contains 188 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
17.58% alc./vol. (17.58° proof)
19.6 grams of pure alcohol

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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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Peter McCarthy

9th June 2024 at 20:08

Gin + orange + a light perfume-y floral note. A little sweet, but not too much, imo. Well-balanced, but might need to adjust sugar when using fresh oranges, depending on your oranges. @Simon, this seems like one that could be added to the Breakfast/Brunch category?

Simon Difford

10th June 2024 at 13:52

Thanks, Peter. I've added it to the breakfast/brunch category.

ian roberts

25th February 2024 at 07:05

This one is really nice and refreshing, took the sugar out as originally a little sweet for my taste

John Hinojos

13th September 2023 at 00:13

Perfect afternoon cocktail. Orange Flower Water adds a nice hint of floral, but not overpowering Used organic, tree ripened oranges as it makes a huge difference in the sweetness of the cocktail. Did dial back the sugar syrup by half to compensate for the orange juice.

Chris Dimal

19th May 2023 at 09:56

Made it more carefully with better oranges, now I get the point of this drink. Botanical and hard (alcoholic) orange juice with a beautiful, floral finish. Definitely deserving the 4.5 rating.

Chris Dimal

20th March 2023 at 19:04

Hmm, it's extremely orangey, and not in such a good way. Super floral. I tried my best to measure my orange blossom water to 1.25ml, maybe it still went too far.

Michael Mayday

1st August 2022 at 01:29

Supremely sweet in taste and appreciation. Added about 4-5 drops of orange blossom water as a rough guesstimate of what 1/24th of an oz is.

As G.M. Genovese notes, strong creamsicle taste to it. Would recommend you stick with Beefeater or a similar gin so you don't overwhelm flavors. Very good drink overall and will be making it again.

G. M. Genovese

8th June 2022 at 17:21

Interesting drink. Orange creamsicle tones with the herbal backbite of gin. Well-balanced overall, but I'd try it again dialing back the orange blossom water (1.25 ml = 16 drops for me) to a dash (8 drops). But that's just my taste. I feel like this recipe as is would be appealing to folks who are wary of gin and/or obsessed with orangey flavors. (8 Jun 2022, 1:21p)