East India No.1

History

Named after the East India Company, this recipe is adapted from the earliest known reference to an East India cocktail in Harry Johnson's 1882 Bartender's Manual, which stipulates the use of red curaçao rather than the now more commonplace orange or blue curaçao.

This recipe, including the use of red curaçao, is repeated in O.H. Byron's 1884 The Modern Bartender's Guide, and in the 1900 updated edition Johnson's Bartender's Manual, where he specifies "putting in a cherry or medium-sized olive" in addition to the lemon zest twist. Tellingly, he also adds, "This drink is a great favourite with the English living in the different parts of East India."

The East India doesn't appear in any notable cocktail books published after 1900 until Johnson's 1882 recipe appears almost verbatim in Thomas Stuart's 1904 Stuart's Fancy Drinks and How to Mix Them and then again in Tom Bullock's 1917 The Ideal Bartender.

EAST INDIA COCKTAIL
(Use a large bar glass.)
Fill the glass with shaved ice;
1 tea-spoon of raspberry syrup;
1 tea-spoon of Curacao (red);
2 of 3 dashes of bitters (Angostura);
2 dashes of Maraschino;
1 wine glass of brandy;
Stir up with a spoon, strain into a cocktail glass, and twist a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve.

Harry Johnson, New and Improved Bartenders' Manual, 1882