Name: Asylum Cocktail
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Gin; 30 ml Aniseed liqueur; 5 ml Grenadine syrup; 10 ml Chilled water

Asylum Cocktail
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Photographed in an UB Koto Old Fashioned 30cl

Ingredients:
1 oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
1 oz	Aniseed (anise) liqueur
¹⁄₆ oz	Monin Grenadine Syrup
¹⁄₃ oz	Chilled water

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill an Old-fashioned glass.
Prepare garnish of star anise.
STIR all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice).

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Seabrook said of this drink, "look like rosy dawn, taste like the milk of Paradise, and make you plenty crazy." He must have been a Pernod lover.

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History:

Created by William Seabrook, famous for his account of eating human flesh, and first published in Sterling North and Carl Kroch's 1935 So Red the Nose or Breath in the Afternoon.

William Seabrook's ASYLUM cocktail
1 PART GIN
1 PART PERNOD
DASH OF GRENADINE
Pour Over Large Lumps of Ice
Do Not Shake
WILLIAM SEABROOK writes that if you follow instructions this cocktail will, "look like rosy dawn, taste like the milk of Paradise, and make you plenty crazy."
The famous explorer who has sipped his way around the world, tippled in Port-au-Prince, and lifted a toast to the midnight stars with the White Monk of Timbuktu, admits sadly that– "since I have become sober and God-fearing and can no longer get my pleasure kicking the gong around, my happiest diversions are tennis, the harmonica, the King James version of the Old Testament, talking to Negroes, and looking at beautiful women."
Members of So Red the Nose Club should read Asylum to discover what lies in store for incautious imbibers of Gin and Pernod.
Sterling North and Carl Kroch, 1935

Nutrition:

One serving of Asylum Cocktail contains 175 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
25.58% alc./vol. (25.58° proof)
19.2 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.

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Showing 4 comments for Asylum Cocktail.
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Olga María Gómez Henderson

5th August 2024 at 18:39

It didn't look like rosy dawn to me, but it tastes like the milk of paradise. I used dry spanish anise "La violetera" and It was amazing.

Herbert Brant

25th January 2023 at 20:00

Pernod is a difficult liqueur for me, and although the historical recipe is fascinating, the equal ratio with the gin seems off-balance. The problem isn't the flavour of the Pernod; rather the anesthetizing sensation. Unless, of course, the loss of feeling in the mouth is part of the magic of this cocktail... ;-)

Christopher Nicholls

1st April 2022 at 00:56

Thanks Simon - I love this site dearly, and I am sorry to be a picky person, but I really meant it as help to make it even better! :-)

Christopher Nicholls

30th March 2022 at 19:05

This picture doesn't match the cocktail - grenadine syrup is, well, red!

Simon Difford

31st March 2022 at 21:22

This shot may date back to before digital photography and I believe I made it with homemade grenadine. It's well overdue a re-shoot and I've added it to my to-do list. Many thanks for bringing it to my attention.