Name: Eclipse No. 1
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 1 unit Black olives; 5 ml Grenadine syrup; 45 ml Sloe gin liqueur; 22.5 ml Gin

Eclipse No. 1
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Glass:

Photographed in an UB Nick and Nora Gold 6oz

Ingredients:
1 unit	Black olives
¹⁄₆ oz	Monin Grenadine Syrup
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Hayman's Sloe Gin
³⁄₄ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a NICK & NORA GLASS.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.

How to make:

Drop pitted black olive into glass and cover with grenadine.
STIR gin and sloe gin with ice.
Carefully STRAIN and slowly pour down the shaft of a bar spoon to layer over grenadine.

Garnish:

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

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Be sure to wash your olive to avoid the surface of your cocktail being contaminated by an oil/brine slick. Sloe gin and dry gin obviously pair well, but you may want to stop sipping once you hit the grenadine base. But don't waste the olive.

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History:

Adapted from a recipe created in 1927 by Harry Craddock to celebrate that year's total solar eclipse across England and first published in his 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book.

ECLIPSE COCKTAIL.
1/3 Dry Gin. 2/3 Sloe Gin.
Put enough Grenadine in a cocktail glass to cover a ripe olive. Mix the spirits together and pour gently onto the grenadine so that it does not mix. Squeeze orange peel on top.
Harry Craddock, 1930

This cocktail also appears in R. de Fleury's 1934 book 1700 Cocktails for the Man Behind the Bar.

ECLIPSE No. 1
Mix ⅓ Coates Plymouth Gin with ⅔ Sloe Gin, and pour this into a glass in which you have put a ripe Olive covered with Grenadine. Be sure they do not mix. Squeeze a piece of Orange Peel on top and serve.
R. de Fleury, 1700 Cocktails for the Man Behind the Bar, 1934

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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 Eclipse No. 1.
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John CARR

5th August 2024 at 12:49

The gins float worked reasonably well, but the olive floated to the top and had to be pinned down with two (!) cocktail picks. Amusing if rather inelegant. Given the often Heath-Robinson nature of technology at the time, this does not seem inappropriate! The hidden depth charge is scrumptious. Like a Turkish coffee, I didn’t drink the last dregs of basically pure grenadine.

Sally Morgan

7th January 2024 at 20:05

Ooh - the sweet/savoury depth charge really works here. Worth using high quality / good home made sloe gin for this.

Miguel Perales

7th October 2023 at 21:51

I also prefer a 2:1 Sloe gin: Dry gin version, like the original version. Watch your Grenadine syrup amount because it can throw it into a "too sweet" version. I used less than 1/6 oz /5 mls Grenadine syrup (home made) and it was pushing the sweetness envelope. I also added 2 dashes of orange bitters since I was out of fresh oranges to squeeze an orange peel. Overall, a very nice cocktail. The Sloe gin is very prevalent with a 2:1 Sloe:Dry gin version and it was very nice evening/fall cocktail