Name: Pendennis Club Special
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Gin; 30 ml Apricot liqueur; 15 ml Lime juice; 2 dash Creole bitters; 2 drop Saline solution 4:1

Pendennis Club Special
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
2 oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
1 oz	Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur
¹⁄₂ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
2 dash	Peychaud's or other Creole-style bitters
2 drop	Saline solution 4:1 (20g sea salt to 80g water) optional

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of skewered Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
Garnish with skewered cherry.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Tangy, subtle, sweet, and sour. Depending on your palate and apricot liqueur you may want to add 2.5ml sugar syrup.

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AKA: Pendennis Club Cocktail

Variant:

Cocktail Bill's 1908 Pendennis Club Cocktail
Improved Pendennis Club Special
Improved Improved Pendennis Club Cocktail
Pendennis Club Revisited

History:

Eponymously named after the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky, the first known reference to this cocktail appears as the Pendennis Club Cocktail in the "Seductive American Cocktails" appendix in William "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's 1908 The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them book with just three ingredients: gin, apricot brandy, and dry vermouth.

By the time it resurfaces in Charles H. Baker Jr.'s 1939 The Gentleman's Companion as "The Pendennis Club's Famous Special" it morphed into a four-ingredient cocktail served over a split fresh kumquat. Modern-day recipes, such as the above, are nearer to Baker's 1939 Pendennis Club Cocktail than Cocktail Bill's 1908 Pendennis Club.

THE PENDENNIS CLUB'S FAMOUS SPECIAL
To 1 jigger of dry gin add ½ jigger of the best dry apricot brandy procurable. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lime or ½ a small lemon, strained of course, and trim with 2 dashes of Peychaud's bitters which has been made for generations in New Orleans. . . . Split a ripe kumquat, now available during the winter in most big grocery or fruit stores; take out the seeds and put the two halves in a Manhattan glass. Stir the drink like a Martini with lots of cracked ice and strain onto the golden fruit.
Charles H. Baker Jr., 1939

Nutrition:

One serving of Pendennis Club Special contains 200 calories

Alcohol content:

1.8 standard drinks
23.61% alc./vol. (23.61° proof)
25 grams of pure alcohol

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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Elliot Cottrelle

14th October 2023 at 02:02

Yeah a few drops of simple make a huge difference

Beverly Stanton

6th March 2022 at 01:04

Very tart. Wish I had added the sugar syrup. Will try again with sugar syrup.

John Hinojos

10th June 2021 at 23:49

I really like this. We had the Resolute (with lemon) yesterday. This is a lot smoother. Could be the added flavours from the Peychaud's Bitters. Added it to may favorites for a great aperitif.