Name: Silent Third
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 50 ml Scotch whisky; 15 ml Triple sec; 15 ml Lemon juice; 10 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 2 drop Saline solution 4:1

Silent Third
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Serve in a Nick & Nora glass

Ingredients:
1 ²⁄₃ oz	Blended Scotch whisky
¹⁄₂ oz	Cointreau triple sec liqueur
¹⁄₂ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₃ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup) optional
2 drop	Saline solution 4:1 (20g sea salt to 80g water) optional

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS lemon 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:

Citrus sourness drowns the Scotch whisky in the original equal parts recipe of this Sidecar made with Scotch in place of cognac (although, I suspect the likes of Cointreau used to contain more sugar so with a time machine the original spec. may have been balanced, and perhaps rather tasty).

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History:

The recipe for the Silent Third appears in two 1937 books: William James "Billy" Tarling's 1937 Café Royal Bar Book and Approved Cocktails by The United Kingdom Bartenders' Guild to which Tarling was one of the contributors. The recipe in one book is expressed in fractions and the other as percentages, otherwise they are identical.

SILENT THIRD.
1/3 Cointreau.
1/3 Lemon Juice.
1/3 Scotch Whisky.
Shake and strain.
W. J. Tarling, 1937

SILENT THIRD.
33½% Cointreau.
33½% Lemon Juice.
33½% Scotch Whisky.
Shake and strain.
U.K.B.G. Approved Cocktails, 1937

Nutrition:

One serving of Silent Third contains 181 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
21.23% alc./vol. (21.23° proof)
19.1 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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Olga María Gómez Henderson

7th September 2024 at 11:45

Good cocktail. You have to use a strong whisky, otherwise the lemon would hide it's flavour.

John Hinojos

14th July 2022 at 00:19

What a very interesting cocktail. I find the smoky of the Whisky present, but not overwhelming. Found it very flavourful, and the cocktail character changes as it breathes.

Carol Bridgeman

1st July 2022 at 20:17

I have a vested interest in this as my parents bought the house I grew up in from Philby's mother around the time of his defection. They had a hotline to someone high up in case anyone tried to contact or if anything else came to light.
Loved the cocktail. Used a smoky Islay whisky which gave a wonderful smoked lemon flavour.

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