Name: East India House
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Cognac (brandy); 10 ml Aged rum (6-10yr); 10 ml Orange Curaçao; 7.5 ml Pineapple juice; 2.5 ml Pineapple syrup; 1 dash Orange bitters

East India House
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Serve in a Nick & Nora glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Rémy Martin V.S.O.P. cognac
¹⁄₃ oz	Caribbean blended rum aged 6-10 years
¹⁄₃ oz	Orange Curaçao liqueur
¹⁄₄ oz	Pineapple juice
¹⁄₁₂ oz	Monin Pineapple Syrup
1 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
Prepare garnish of lime (or lemon) zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
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:

Dry and challenging - rewarding for some.

View readers' comments

Variant:

East India No. 2

History:

A variation of Harry Johnson's East India Cocktail, Johnson could have also created this in the 19th century. However (as far as I'm aware), a recipe titled East India House doesn't appear in print until Charles H. Baker Jr.'s 1939 The Gentleman's Companion, and this is close to what other vintage books call an East India No. 2 (without the rum in the recipe above).

THE EAST INDIA HOUSE COCKTAIL, being one for any man's book, & garnered in the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, India, 1932, while the-then-fiancée sight-saw across India to Delhi, Agra, Benares & Fatehpur Sikri, & Calcutta.

Take 1½ jiggers of cognac, 1 tsp pineapple syrup – the soda fountain kind – and put in a shaker. Add 2/3 tsp maraschino, 1 tsp orange Curaçao, 3 dashes of orange or Angostura bitters, according to preference. Shake with lots of fine ice and strain into a Manhattan glass, twisting a bit of lime peel on at the last.
Charles H. Baker Jr., The Gentleman's Companion, 1939

Charles H. Baker Jr.'s East India House recipe translates as:
45ml (1½oz) Cognac
5ml (1/6oz) Orange Curaçao
5ml (1/6oz) Pineapple syrup
3.75ml (1/8oz) Maraschino liqueur
3 dashes Orange bitters

More cocktails by Harry Johnson

Nutrition:

One serving of East India House contains 173 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
25.47% alc./vol. (25.47° proof)
19.2 grams of pure alcohol

More Classic/vintage cocktails

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 8 comments for East India House.
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Joshua Perez

27th June at 13:27

Do you know when rum was introduced to this cocktail? I see in Stan Jones' Complete Bar Guide, under "East India Cocktail" (page 274), that Jamaican rum is listed as an optional ingredient. More recently, PDT's Cocktail Books also adds aged rum to their East India, but I haven't found anything before 1977.

Joseph Murray

5th January at 22:00

I’m not usually partial to mixing rum with whiskeys or cognac, and unfortunately this did not prove to be one of the exceptions. Made it to use up homemade pineapple syrup after having the excellent East India No. 2.
However I found the Baker version of the East India House to be very good - thank you for the translation!

Nathalie O'Flynn

3rd February 2024 at 08:08

I made this yesterday, it was an absolute delight. My husband and I both voted 5 as we were trying to bring it up to 4 but to no avail. I rely on some other discerning drinks to bring it up a bit :)

Simon Difford

9th February 2024 at 18:12

I've maintained the ratios while reducing all ingredients by 1/3 and moving to a Nick & Nora glass. Still punchy and very tasty, but now 65ml (a little over 1oz) of 40% booze.

Michael Z

13th January 2024 at 03:33

I'd put the boozy scale at a 9. One of the stronger drinks I've tried here.

Simon Difford

13th January 2024 at 07:42

Agreed! I've increased to 9 and will look at changing the recipe. Perhaps moving to a Nick & Nora as presently 3oz / 90ml of 40% alc./vol. booze.

Edwin Aviles

19th August 2022 at 00:22

I'm not a huge fan for cognac but I nonetheless appreciate the layers of flavor in this drink and will be adding it to my home bar's regular rotation of cocktails.

John Hinojos

8th May 2021 at 02:06

I gave this a 5+ star rating. I really like rum and cognac drinks and this is superb. It has the faint taste of a tiki drink, but much dryer. There is also an aftertaste of toffee which makes it perfect for after dinner.

Morten Hansen

13th August 2020 at 08:17

Thanks a bunch for the quick remedial action on my hasty vote! Now I at least know to consider matters a bit more carefully before submitting my future cocktail votes.

However, I still have to work out how to account for, say, not being a cognac cocktail fan when deciding on a fair vote. After all, it’s no fault of the recipe if you happen not to like some particular ingredient in general.

Simon Difford

13th August 2020 at 12:25

That’s a quandary! Ultimately, this rating is dependent on personal taste but with enough votes hopefully ratings on each drink end up as being a fair representation of how successful a recipe is.

Morten Hansen

12th August 2020 at 18:30

I rated this 3, then changed my mind and attempted to rerate it to 3.5, but was unable to. I’m not a big fan of cognac cocktails so far, but if you are, this recipe probably rates at least a 4 or possibly even 4.5.

Simon Difford

13th August 2020 at 06:29

I've just rated it 5+ to balance your 3.5 to display a safe 4/5. It's frustrating that you can't amend ratings and perhaps something we should change. Thanks for sharing your views on this cocktail.

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