Name: Bonnie Prince Charlie
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 40 ml Cognac (brandy); 15 ml Honey herbal liqueur; 7.5 ml Lime juice; 3 drop Saline solution 4:1

Ingredients

1 1/3 fl oz

Cognac (brandy)

1/2 fl oz

Honey herbal liqueur (e.g. Drambuie)

1/4 fl oz

Lime juice (freshly squeezed)

3 drop

Saline solution (20g sea salt to 80g water) or merest pinch of s

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a NICK & NORA GLASS.

Prepare garnish of half lime slice wheel or dehydrated lime slice.

Method

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.

FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

Garnish with half lime wheel on rim or float dehydrated lime slice.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Bonnie Prince Charlie contains 137 calories

Alcohol content:

1.2 standard drinks
25.85% alc./vol. (51.7° proof)
17.4 grams of pure alcohol

History

The Bonnie Prince Charlie Cocktail's first appearance in a recipe book is Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco's 1937 The How and When.

Bonnie Prince Charlie Cocktail
⅓ Drambuie
⅔ Cognac
Juice of ½ Lime
Shake well
Strain into Cocktail Glass

Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco, The How and When, 1937

BONNIE PRINCE CHARLES
1 ounce Cognac
½ ounce Drambuie
Juice of ½ lime
Shake with ice cubes. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Victor Bergeron, Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide (Revised Edition), 1972

Comments & Discussion

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John CARR 1 year ago

A perfect Bijou serve. Obviously you will need to watch your sweet-sour balance here - I’d verge on the low side w the lime myself to avoid overwhelming its friends.

G. M. Genovese 1 year ago

This is not a studious recipe. Lime (yuck, perish the thought) was replaced with lemon in my try... Begs for sweet contrast... 3 or 4 iterations attemptified, plus depletion of my Cognac reserves, yielded this ok thing: 20 ml Cognac, 10 ml Laphroaig, 20 ml Drambuie, 15 ml lemon juice, no saline (1-2 drops might've been mighty nice).

G. M. Genovese 1 year ago

"Might've been mighty bene"... 3 min of edits to my review, and I didn't catch that clear winner?! For shame.

Andy Rankin 1 year ago

There's an error here, the quantity for saline is 'three scoops'... I don't think that Charlie would be bonnie!

Simon Difford 1 year ago

Thanks, Andy. Now corrected.

James Brooke 1 year ago

Interestingly, as with the Amsterdam, it would appear that Victor Bergeron ‘borrowed’ this recipe from a book called “The How and When” by Hyman Gale & Gerald F. Marco, published by Harmanson in New Orleans in 1937. I don’t have a copy of the book, but the ios app "Martin's Index of Cocktails" says that the recipe for the Bonnie Prince Charlie is on page 98 and is
40ml Cognac
20ml Drambuie
15ml lime juice.
I wonder how many more recipies Trader Vic borrowed from Hyman and Gerald?

Rae Hopcroft 1 year ago

Not for me. Found the balance off and improved by a dash of maple syrup.

Sally Morgan 4 years ago

Generally I don’t think you can improve on fresh lime juice in a cocktail. But try this one with yuzu juice instead. Yu-zu going to thank me (sorry - the cocktail is much better than that weak pun)