Dempsey

Difford's Guide
Discerning Drinkers (23 ratings)

Photographed in a

Bespoke Nick & Nora
Ingredients:
1 1/2 fl oz Calvados / apple brandy / straight applejack
3/4 fl oz Hayman's London Dry Gin
1/6 fl oz Monin Grenadine Syrup
1/24 fl oz La Fée Parisienne absinthe
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Read about cocktail measures and measuring.

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of skewered Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Garnish with skewered cherry.
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The day Prohibition started

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Strength & taste guide:


Review:

Depending on your grenadine, this cocktail ranges from blush pink to barely coloured and the flavour will also vary. The colour is immaterial, but nail the balance, with absinthe tamed by grenadine but still assertive, and you've a delightful, spirituous aperitif or late-night sharpener.

History:

Recipe adapted from Robert Vermeire's 1922 Cocktails How to Mix Them. The Dempsey also appears in Harry MacElhone's's Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails published the same year and is repeated in his 1923 Harry of Ciro's ABC Of Mixing Cocktails. Both MacElhone's books attribute this cocktail's creation to "Fred. Martin, Casino, Deaville, 1922" while Vermeire says "this drink was introduced at Deauville, 1921." Built in 1912, Casino Barrière de Deauville is an elegant palace of slot machines, crystal chandeliers and marble in Normandy, France.

Vermeire, and indeed the drink's name, reference a boxing match dubbed the "Fight of the Century", which saw Jack Dempsey (world heavyweight champion) knockout Georges Carpentier (world light-heavyweight champion) in the fourth round. The bout took place on 2nd July 1921 at Boyle's Thirty Acres in Jersey City, USA, and was the first boxing fight to produce $1,000,000 dollars in revenue.

Dempsey Cocktail
Fill the shaker half full of broken ice and add:
2 dashes of Absinthe
1 teaspoon of Grenadine
1/6 gill of Gin
2/6 gill of Calvados
Shake well and strain into cocktail-glass. This drink was introduced at Deauville, 1921, after Dempsey's victory over Carpenter.

Robert Vermeire, Cocktails How to Mix Them, 1922

Dempsey Cocktail.
⅔ Calvados, ⅓ Gin, 2 dashes Grenadine, 1 dash Anis del Osa.
(Recipe by Fred. Martin, Casino, Deauville, 1922.)

Harry MacElhone, Harry of Ciro's ABC Of Mixing Cocktails, 1923.

Nutrition:

One serving of Dempsey contains 180 calories.

Alcohol content:

  • 1.6 standard drinks
  • 30.02% alc./vol. (60.04° proof)
  • 22.1 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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New Year's Day image

New Year's Day

If Auld Lang Syne left your throat dry? And dancing left your feet sore? And drinking left your head fuzzy? Then resist the temptation to curl up in bed

Hot Toddy Day image

Hot Toddy Day

In the days before ice was easily available - and in most parts of the world, you needed to be pretty much royalty to own an ice house and keep it stocked

The day Prohibition started image

The day Prohibition started

One minute after midnight on this day in 1920, the Volstead Act became law and Prohibition descended on the United States, making it illegal to possess,

Beer Can Appreciation Day image

Beer Can Appreciation Day

Here at Difford's Guide we're huge fans of beer cans – indeed we prefer cans to bottles. So we're happy to support this marketing gimmick of a day from

Burns Night image

Burns Night

The evening of January 25th is when Scots everywhere hold Burns Suppers in honour of the birth of Scotland's favourite poet and son, Robert Burns. Born

Brandy Alexander Day image

Brandy Alexander Day

For no particular reason we know of, today has been declared Brandy Alexander Day. Hoorah!

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