What The Hell

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (13 ratings)

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 12 oz Hayman's London Dry Gin
34 oz Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur
23 oz Strucchi Dry Vermouth
16 oz Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of lime wedge .
  3. SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 6/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 6/10

Review:

Gin and dry apricot. On the 4th of September 2022, I reduced the volume of my previous recipe by 25% and while doing so I omitted sugar syrup from the recipe to be more in keeping with classic versions of this cocktail which call for lemon juice. (I prefer lime.) My previous recipe: 60ml (2oz) gin, 30 (1oz) apricot brandy, 22.5ml (¾oz) dry vermouth, 7.5ml (¼oz) lime juice, 5ml (1 spoon) sugar syrup.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Webster Cocktail

History:

Adapted from a recipe in Stanley M. Jones' 1977 Jones' Complete Barguide.

WHAT THE HELL
Cocktail Glass
Stir
3/4 oz gin
3/4 oz dry vermouth
3/4 oz apricot flavoured brandy
1/4 oz lemon juice

Stanley M. Jones, 1977

Nutrition:

One serving of What The Hell contains 172 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.5 standard drinks
  • 22.97% alc./vol. (22.97° proof)
  • 21.2 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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Peter McCarthy’s Avatar Peter McCarthy
28th April 2024 at 18:52
I'm curious about the reason behind the name of this one.
Paul Holdsworth’s Avatar Paul Holdsworth
4th September 2022 at 16:24
Like a superstrength Webster Cocktail. Wallop!
But I'm gonna try a Webster and see if the bigger citrus component improves things - I'm finding this just a bit too toothsome.
Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
4th September 2022 at 20:41
Thanks, Paul. I've just revisited and re-jigged this recipe to reduce its volume by 25% and while doing so I have removed the sugar syrup to make it drier. I've also added a link to the Webster Cocktail.
Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
8th April 2020 at 19:15
What The Hell. Thought I’d give it a re-try after all these years. It’s an old-school recipe so is generous in its proportions. Dust of those large Martini glasses and fill them with What The Hell.
Kjell Eriksson’s Avatar Kjell Eriksson
8th April 2020 at 17:54
I bought my first cocktail recipe book in the early nineties, and this drink was in it. I think the book was called something like 1001 Cocktails. A coffee-table kind of tome. The What the Hell in the book differed in proportions, as I recall, but it was so long ago that, having had the Difford variant for pre-dinner cocktail today I am not able to perform a comparative analysis. But then again, what the hell...