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Astor Painless Anaesthetic

Name: Astor Painless Anaesthetic
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Gin; 15 ml Cognac (brandy); 15 ml Dry vermouth; 15 ml Rosso/sweet vermouth; 2.5 ml Sugar syrup 'rich' (2:1); 1 dash Orange bitters

Difford’s Guide

Discerning Drinkers (30)

Measurements in:

Serves:

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Ingredients
1 ¹⁄₂ fl oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₂ fl oz	Cognac (brandy)
¹⁄₂ fl oz	Strucchi Dry Vermouth
¹⁄₂ fl oz	Strucchi Rosso Vermouth
¹⁄₁₂ fl oz	Sugar syrup 'rich' (2 sugar to 1 water) 65.0°Brix
1 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura

How to make

Glass

Photographed in an Urban Bar Verdot Small Martini Glass 12.5cl

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a MARTINI GLASS.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

Method

STIR all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Astor Painless Anaesthetic contains 183 calories

Alcohol content:

1.7 standard drinks
25.22% alc./vol. (50.45° proof)
23.5 grams of pure alcohol

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Dry vermouth, Rosso/rouge/sweet vermouth (di Torino) — Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

History

Adapted from a recipe in Lucius Beebe's 1946 The Stork Club Bar Book.

Monty Woolley improves on the usual proportions of the dry Martini simply by increasing the conventional proportions of gin and vermouth to four to one, admonishes barkeeps to use ice and no lemon whatsoever, and, when asked what this will do for the consumer, remarks with a worldly leer: "Consult Lillian Russell!"

Still another variation on the theme of gin and vermouth, which Cole Porter in The Two Little Babes in the Woods discovered was the fountain of youth come from Mary Astor:

Astor Painless Anesthetic:
3 oz. gin
1 oz. French vermouth
1 oz. Italian vermouth
1 oz. cognac
Shake well with ice cubes and dash of orange bitters, twist of lemon peel and just a touch of sugar
Lucius Beebe, The Stork Club Bar Book, 1946

Review

Beebe's 1946 recipe calls for "just a touch of sugar" and I ended up preferring a quarter barspoon of rich sugar syrup, but only after trying twice that and also experimenting with bianco vermouth.

Hayman's London Dry Gin 750ml - makes 16.5 cocktails
$33.99 $2.06 per cocktail Hayman's London Dry Gin image

Monin Pure Cane Syrup (US) 750ml - makes 301 cocktails
$14.99 $0.05 per cocktail Monin Pure Cane Syrup (US) image

Angostura Orange Bitters 120ml - makes 384 cocktails
$13.99 $0.04 per cocktail Angostura Orange Bitters image

$2.15 per cocktail*

Makes a minimum of 16.5 cocktails.
Shipping and applicable tax calculated at checkout.

Orders are processed by a licensed Fulproof retailer. The buy now button is added simply for convenience.

Checkout

* May not include all ingredients. Price per cocktail is an estimate based on cost of one cocktail with ingredients shown above and does not include shipping.

Gallery

Astor Painless Anaesthetic lifestyle image

Comments & Discussion

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Andy Parnell-Hopkinson 1y

Third attempt, I skipped the syrup and it's better but still a little sweet to my palate. Still very good but next time I'm going to slim down the brandy.

Rick Rosemont 1y

This is tasty. A bit on the sweet side of course but very drinkable. Not very 4th of July-ish though. Maybe it can commemorate some thing else?

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