Artist's Special Cocktail

Serve in a

Garnish:

Redcurrant bunch laid across rim

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.

Review:

Irish whiskey is often matured in oloroso sherry seasoned casks so it's no surprise that whiskey and sherry blend harmoniously in this cocktail, with lemon tartness balanced by rich red currant syrup, the key ingredient that makes this cocktail "Special".

History:

A voraciously pink Parisian special from the 1920s, this cocktail first appears in print in Harry MacElhone's 1927 Barflies and Cocktails.

Artist's Special.
1/3 Scotch Whisky,
1/3 Sherry,
1/6 Lemon juice,
1/6 Groseille syrup,
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
(Recipe from the Artists' Club, Rue Pigalle, Paris.)

Harry McElhone, 1927

Exactly the same recipe appears three years later in Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book.

ARTIST'S (SPECIAL) COCKTAIL.
1/3 Whisky.
1/3 Sherry.
1/6 Lemon Juice.
1/6 Groseille Syrup.
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
This is the genuine 'Ink of Inspiration' imbibed at the Bal Bullier, Paris. The recipe is from the Artists' Club, Rue Pigalle, Paris.

Harry Craddock, 1930

The "Bal Bullier, Paris" Craddock refers to was a famous ballroom opened by François Bullier in the mid-nineteenth century at 39 Avenue Georges Bernanos, Paris. It closed in 1940.

Nutrition:

One serving of Artist's Special Cocktail contains 189 calories.

Alcohol content:

• 1.6 standard drinks
• 18.15% alc./vol. (36.3° proof)
• 21.8 grams of pure alcohol