Name: Brown Derby
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Bourbon whiskey; 30 ml Pink grapefruit juice; 10 ml Maple syrup

Brown Derby
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Bourbon whiskey
1 oz	Pink grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₃ oz	Maple syrup

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of grapefruit zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS grapefruit zest twist over 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:

This is a better cocktail than the similar but honey-sweetened De Rigueur Cocktail, as unless you have a very full-bodied honey, maple syrup's 'tang' sits better with the bourbon and grapefruit combo.

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Variant:

American Breakfast, or when based on scotch whisky and sweetened with honey this becomes a De Rigueur.

History:

Said to have been created in the 1930s by a bartender at the Vendôme Café which sat at 6666 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The Vendôme was opened in May 1933 by William "Billy" Wilkerson, a real estate developer who also owned The Hollywood Reporter, the offices of which were a block away.

Although created at the Vendôme, this cocktail is named after another fashionable Hollywood restaurant of the era, the Brown Derby at 1628 North Vine Street. Due to its proximity to the movie studios, this branch of the Brown Derby was more famous than the original, smaller branch at 3427 Wilshire Boulevard, famous for being housed in a building shaped like a man's derby hat.

A Brown Derby is a maple syrup-sweetened development on the earlier honey-sweetened De Rigueur Cocktail. The misguided belief that the Brown Derby should be sweetened with honey stems from a recipe in George Buzza Jr.'s, 1933 Hollywood Cocktails

BROWN DERBY COCKTAIL
1/2 Whisky
1/4 Grapefruit Juice
1/4 Honey
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
George Buzza Jr., 1933

However, according to Judge Jr's 1927 book Here's How! and Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book, when made with honey, this cocktail is a De Rigueur Cocktail.

When considering what the original ingredients were in a Brown Derby, it is not the sweetener that should be questioned, but the base spirit and evidence for this comes from Esquire Magazine. The cocktail is first referenced in the magazine's "Painting the Town" column in 1935, "Amen Corner of Fifth Avenue Hotel gave me my chance to imbibe a Brown Derby amid politicians and litterateurs, who also eat there." Then, in 1939, a recipe for the Brown Derby appears in the title's "Potables" column.

2 parts dark rum
1 teaspoon maple sugar
Juice of one lime
Shake well and serve
Murdock Pemberton, Esquire, 1939

Hence, for a true Brown Derby, you may wish to use a dark rum in place of whiskey in the recipe above.

Nutrition:

One serving of Brown Derby contains 162 calories

Alcohol content:

1.1 standard drinks
17.52% alc./vol. (17.52° proof)
14.9 grams of pure alcohol

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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 10 of 28 comments for Brown Derby.
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Prithvi Vallabh

22nd May at 04:13

Switched to a more neutral citrus - lemon, and used a "Peach Rock and Rye," made for an extraordinarily balanced drink. Incredible.

Annechien

6th May at 20:15

Unpopular opinion, I think, but I like this with honey. My partner prefers with maple syrup. So I make two versions whenever we choose this cocktail. According to a previous comment I should be trying the gold rush instead. It’s in my ‘must try’ list that has gotten way too long but I’ll get there. I feel like a kid in a candy store on this website.

Justine Fehley

29th March at 22:12

I made this drink twice with Resurgent Straight Bourbon (100 Proof). The second time I upped the bourbon to 60 ml because I like a spirit forward drink, but it's definitely better at the original measure. Sometimes simplicity is good.

Florian Ruf

29th March at 15:43

Had this cocktail on my list for a long time. and I am really surprised how good it is. I don't feel the necessity to alter anything, although a rum version with a wisely chosen rum (thank you for the remarks John) could be very interesting.

Frederic D.

20th February at 00:27

Revisited yet again, this time with High West Campfire and a barspoon of Nonino. Although this was good, and you have to experiment to find new favorites, this is not an improvement on the original.

Pascal Mallejac

24th September 2024 at 23:14

excellent avec un peu d amer de cerise

John Hinojos

5th August 2024 at 00:37

Love these original cocktails with a few ingredients. I lived in LA when the Brown Derby restaurant was still in business and had a few of these there. Was not a big drinker then, so I did not pay attention to what was used (Bourbon or Rum)
I am a big rum drinker, so will try again using the original recipe. I think the key to using the rum is to make sure it is not a sugar adulterated rum (which eliminates over 60% of the distillers). Although it has funk, thinking on a dark Jamaican.

Jose Cruz

9th June 2024 at 04:51

Best bourbon drink so far, best 3 ingredient cocktail in recent memory. Damn that is good ! I did use 15ML maple syrup for more tang and WoodFords Reserve Bourbon.

Frederic D.

26th April 2024 at 21:38

I was actually surprised by how good this turned out to be. I was inspired by Roi's comment below and added a (heavy) barspoon of honey vinegar, which really brought more focus and clarity to the drink, without turning it into a sour. I used Yellowstone bourbon (eh). It starts off with maple flavors, and after a brief grapefruit detour, ends with bittersweet bourbon notes. Overall I found it highly enjoyable.

Frederic D.

5th May 2024 at 22:52

Made again with the exact same specs, but subbing honey for the maple syrup, and I much prefer the maple version. I found the maple to combine with the other ingredients in a way that was both more harmonious and more interesting, while the honey was kind of just there.

Roi Balaban

27th January 2024 at 17:12

I've been enjoying a version of this that incorporates apple cider vinegar (2 ounces bourbon, 1 ounce grapefruit juice, 1/2 ounce each of honey syrup and apple cider vinegar). It's really well balanced.

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