Chanticleer Cocktail

How to make:

DRY SHAKE all ingredients (without ice). SHAKE again with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.

Garnish:

Orange zest twist

Comment:

Wonderfully aromatic orange with a complex balance of gin and vermouth.

About:

Recipe adapted from A.S. Crockett's 1935 The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book which originally calls for "orange gin" rather than using an orange liqueur. Crockett handily says of this drink, "Add a Cock's Comb if desired." He also explains that the drink "celebrated the local opening of Edmond Rostand's Chanticler".



Edmond Rostand was a French poet and dramatist, best-known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. First released in 1910, Chantecler (correct spelling) is a story where the characters are based on barnyard animals, and whose eponymous protagonist is a rooster who believes that his song makes the sun rise.



By all accounts the cocktail is rather better than the play. Incidentally, the 'Chantecler' is actually a breed of chicken developed in the early 20th century by Brother Wilfred Chantelain, a Trappist monk at the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Lac in Canada.