Corpse Reviver No.2 (Savoy Recipe)

History

As the name alludes, The Corpse Reviver is one of a category of 'pick-me-up' cocktails 'prescribed' by bar keeps of old to revive those souls that appeared in their bar feeling worse the wear from overindulgence the night before. Perhaps more a 'kill or cure' than 'a hangover cure', pick-me-up cocktails emerged in the mid-1800s.

One of the earliest references to the Corpse Reviver appears in the 21st December 1861 edition of the English weekly satirical magazine Punch, or The London Charivari as one of a trio of such libations, "after liquoring up a Sling, a Stone Wall, and a Corpse-Reviver."

The first known Corpse Reviver recipe appears in the 1871 The Gentleman's Table Guide, which calls for equal parts brandy and maraschino with two dashes Boker's bitters.

No. 92. – CORPSE REVIVER.
Use a wineglass. Half wineglass of brandy, half glass of Maraschino, and two dashes of Boker's bitters.

E. Ricket and C. Thomas, The Gentleman's Table Guide, 1871

However, the reason you are reading about the Corpse Reviver today is due to its appearance in Harry Craddock's revered 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book, with two recipes, Corpse Reviver No. 1 "To be taken before 11am, or whenever steam and energy are needed", and the Corpse Reviver No. 2, accompanied by the stipulation "Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again".

CORPSE REVIVER (No. 2.)
¼ Wine Glass Lemon Juice.
¼ Wine Glass Kina Lillet.
¼ Wine Glass Cointreau.
¼ Wine Glass Dry Gin.
1 Dash Absinthe.
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.
Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again.

Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book, 1930

Both the Corpse Reviver No. 1 and No. 2 also appear in Patrick Gavin Duffy's 1956 Official Mixer's Manual, but interestingly Duffy's version of the Corpse Reviver No. 2 substitutes Swedish Punsch for the Lillet. He also lists a Corpse Reviver No. 3.