Name: London Calling
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 50 ml Gin; 15 ml Fino sherry; 15 ml Lemon juice; 15 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 2 dash Orange bitters

London Calling
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 ²⁄₃ oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
¹⁄₂ oz	Lustau Jarana Fino Sherry
¹⁄₂ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₂ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
2 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura

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.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Fino sherry - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

12th March 2025 is The Internet's birthday

Review:

A gin-based sour with fino sherry adding distinctive, almost salty, celery, notes. Orange bitters and a grapefruit zest twist contribute to this cocktail's delicate balance.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Barbara West
Call London
Call Mexico

History:

Adapted from a recipe created in 2002 by Chris Jepson at Milk & Honey in London, England. Originally made for a Drinks International Magazine competition, this cocktail has gone on to be a much-copied contemporary classic, inspiring riffs such as the Banana Calling.

We also discovered a quite different stirred cocktail named London Calling in 2003 at London's Oxo Tower Bar & Brasserie (50ml dry gin, 31.25ml sloe gin, 12.5ml sweet vermouth and 2 dash orange bitters).

More cocktails by Chris Jepson

Nutrition:

One serving of London Calling contains 175 calories

Alcohol content:

1.2 standard drinks
17.7% alc./vol. (17.7° proof)
16.9 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 11 comments for London Calling.
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Miguel Perales

1st April at 23:38

A light, citrusy cocktail. But, for a "sour", it is a bit on the sweet side. As recommended by Robert, I will try lowering the sugar syrup next time.

Michael Graham

12th August 2024 at 00:08

I like the sherry nuance to a standard gin sour. Really quite nice. As I like my drinks on the boozy side I also tried with a full 2 oz of gin, Sipsmith, and liked it even more.

Robert Fielding

5th February 2023 at 17:22

Superb cocktail. I used Palo Cortado instead of Fino, which gave a little more punch. I also reduced the sugar syrup slightly as I prefer a 2:1 lemon to sugar ratio. My only issue was that there wasn't enough. Will probably scale up to use 50/60ml gin next time.

Jennifer Spencer

5th January 2023 at 17:43

I made a small portion of this as written, and loved it. But I wanted something lighter than gin tonight (and to work through that open bottle of fino sherry), so I tried a "reverse" version of this and it was fab... 120ml of fino sherry, 15ml lemon, 10ml simple syrup, just a bar spoon of gin for the flavour, and a couple dashes of orange bitters. Nice if you're in the mood for something slightly less dry.

Simon Difford

20th January 2023 at 14:50

Many thanks, Jennifer. I loved your suggestion and I've adapted your recipe to create a Call London and in turn, this led me to also make a Call Mexico. Please see the links above.

Heather Jones

26th December 2022 at 16:17

Tried this with 50ml gin and 25ml fino. With and without bitters. Did not like it AT ALL.

Dan Casselman

3rd June 2022 at 20:53

The Grapefruit came through very nicely (with the Orange bitters help I'm guessing). Not too sweet, not too sour, just the way a cocktail should be. Well balanced. (1 of 8 of the "her Maj's" recommendations)

John McTague

22nd October 2021 at 20:03

I found this cocktail fairly average, surprisingly. However, the Fino I used had been open for a few days so that might explain it. Also, the colour is nothing like that in the picture here - is that the 'other' London Calling with sloe gin?

Simon Difford

24th October 2021 at 17:34

Agreed. Just remade and the cocktail is lighter than in photo. We'll reshoot ASAP.

Alberto Cea

3rd October 2021 at 01:10

I love gin and I love Fino Sherry so that it for me, cheers1

Matthew French

9th May 2021 at 14:42

I had a little tinker with this, swapped pink grapefruit juice for the lemon juice, honey syrup (3:1, using London Honey from the London Honey Company) instead of sugar syrup, upping the quantity to 1/3 shot, a couple of dashes of lemon bitters (Lem-Marrakech from Bittered Sling) and a lemon zest garnish. I call it Peckham Calling, it's where both myself and some of the honey bees live!