I happened across this recipe while pondering what to do with a largely useless bottle of matcha liqueur that had been struggling to justify the space it consumed in my liquor cabinet. Tried swapping in said problematic liqueur for the chartreuse. I thought the result was nice: the matcha added bit of earthiness. Perhaps Sir Winston would approve of as well: that swap got the French and the Vatican out of his cocktail while slipping some tea in…
Although the History section asserts that this cocktail was not featured in Boothby’s own publications, I was actually able to find it in this 1934 (posthumous, I suppose?) edition of Boothby’s World Drinks: https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1934-Cocktail-Bill-Boothby-s-World-Drinks-and-how-to-mix-them1.
The cocktail is listed under “Manhattan, Boothby” on p. 108. The proportions are largely similar to what Simon has here, but I do note an extra dash of orange bitters.
I also enjoyed hearing about this classic California figure — he certainly fit right in with many of the loony personalities in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Looking forward to trying this once I have the need to pop open a bottle of bubbly!
I hear from the cooking blogs that rhubarb goes well with lavender. So I tried this cocktail two ways: first as directed, and then with lavender bitters. Liked the latter much better!
Has anyone ever tried this with Old Tom gin? I just did — and found that it added some nice complexity.
The amaro matters. I didn’t have any Lucano, so I subbed in Averna. That didn’t work, too syrupy. Then I went out and got myself a bottle of Baulio (Simon mentions that the original Treadway recipe actually called for Braulio, not Lucano). This made a huge difference— not too sweet, plenty of piney “alpine” notes. Definitely a keeper!