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 (2:1); 1 dash Orange bitters

Astor Painless Anaesthetic
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Photographed in an Urban Bar Verdot Small Martini Glass 12.5cl

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₂ oz	Rémy Martin V.S.O.P. cognac
¹⁄₂ oz	Strucchi Dry Vermouth
¹⁄₂ oz	Strucchi Rosso Vermouth
¹⁄₁₂ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
1 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Martini glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
STIR all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

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

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

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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.

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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

Nutrition:

One serving of Astor Painless Anaesthetic contains 183 calories

Alcohol content:

1.7 standard drinks
25.22% alc./vol. (25.22° proof)
23.4 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.