Locke-Ober, Boston, 1898.
| 2 oz · 60 ml | RYE WHISKEY | 45 % |
| ½ oz · 15 ml | LEMON JUICE | |
| ½ oz · 15 ml | ORANGE JUICE | |
| 1 barspoon | GRENADINE |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 3.17 oz mixed with ice, 0.9 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Shaken: +20 % of the pre-batch, +0.63 oz of water |
| Served | 3.17 + 0.63 = 3.8 oz in the glass |
| Strength | 0.9 ÷ 3.8 = 23.7 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.9 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 21 g · about 147 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM RYE · from oak barrel aging
Bourbon's fingerprint, extracted from the charred American oak the law requires for aging. Same molecule as the vanilla bean's signature, so a well-aged bourbon legitimately tastes like vanilla. Chemistry, not metaphor. Cognac, aged rum, tequila reposado all extract vanillin from oak too. Different barrels, same molecule.
ALSO IN Old Fashioned · Manhattan · Whiskey Sour · Paper Plane · Boulevardier · Sazerac · Espresso Martini · Mai Tai
FROM LEMON · the lemon aroma
Lemon's defining note: technically a mix of two geometric isomers (geranial and neral) that read as the same aroma to the nose. Lemon peel, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and Indian chai all carry it. In cocktails it's what a lemon twist contributes that lemon juice can't: the volatile expressed from the oil glands, not the acid from the pulp.
ALSO IN Margarita · Mojito · Daiquiri · Whiskey Sour · Gimlet · Moscow Mule · Paper Plane · Aviation
FROM ORANGE · citrus peel oil
An orange rind, squeezed, throws a spray that catches the light. That's d-limonene boiling off. It's roughly 95% of orange peel oil by mass, and the molecule that puts the "orange" in orange anything. Used industrially as a green solvent because the chemistry that dissolves citrus oils also dissolves greasy machinery. The expressed-peel garnish on a cocktail is delivering vaporized limonene to the rim of the glass.
ALSO IN Old Fashioned · Martini · Margarita · Gin & Tonic · Cosmopolitan · Mai Tai · Piña Colada · Hemingway Daiquiri
Rye, lemon, orange and grenadine. Pomegranate-derived grenadine gives the fruit-forward backbone, while citral from lemon and d-limonene from orange build the nose. Named for the Boston electoral district where it was supposedly conceived.
Said to have been created at Locke-Ober's bar to celebrate the predicted victory of Martin Lomasney for state representative of Boston's Ward 8. The drink was prepared the night before the election; the candidate won. Early recipes call for whiskey, not gin; the earliest printed description is a 1915 trademark notice, and Locke-Ober reopened its bar after Prohibition with a rye recipe.
