This Cocktail is the Cat's Pajamas

As with many cocktails from the early 1900s there is not one, but several different origin stories. The Bee’s Knees is no different. In fact, even the origin of the name is up for debate. Either it’s just a nonsense expression like “the cat’s pajamas”. Or it derives from the word business. In the 1920s saying that something was “the bee’s knees” was short for exclaiming that it was “the business”, that is to say, something outstanding.

Possibly the cocktail was created by the Austrian Frank Meier, during the 1920s when he was the first head bartender at Cafe Parisian at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. During WWII and the German occupation of Paris Mr Meier kept the bar open but being half Jewish he started working with the French resistance and handed information about the Germans staying at the Ritz to British intelligence. He also helped Jewish hotel guests escape the Vichy government’s concentration camp roundups by providing them with fake documents.

The first time the cocktail was mentioned however was in a news article from 1929 where it was attributed to the American socialite Margaret Brown. The article was about women-only bars in Paris and Margaret Brown, being a wealthy widow shared her time between Denver and Paris where she was a frequent guest in said bars. On a side note Margaret Brown also went by her nickname “the Unsinkable Molly Brown” after being one of the 712 people surviving the Titanic in 1912.

Yet another background story is that the honey used in the Bee’s Knees was added since it is a great way to hide the harsh taste of cheap bathtub gin. Putting it all together Margaret Brown might have had the cocktail in an American speakeasy and brought the recipe to Paris where Frank Meier made it his own making all three origin stories true. But that, of course, is just mere speculation.

The glass was is designed by Astrid Luglio in 2023 and is called Travasi.

A Message To The King

King Charles III was born in Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, George VI. He was only three years old when his mother, Elizabeth II, acceded to the throne in 1952, making him the heir apparent. He was made Prince of Wales in 1958.

Queen Elizabeth’s favorite drink was a Dubonnet Cocktail, most commonly prepared by stirring equal parts Dubonnet and gin. The Queen however preferred it prepared with two parts Dubonnet to one part gin.

King Charles’s preferred cocktail is said to be a Martini with equal parts gin and Vermouth but he is also known to enjoy a Laphroig whisky.

With a wink and a nod to the heritage of the late Queen Elizabeth II and to the preferred drink of King Charles III here is the King’s Cocktail. One part Laphroig, two parts gin and three parts Dubonnet. Stir with ice until cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The glass called Plum Martini was designed by Tom Dixon in 2016.

Congratulations Your Majesty!

Bramble – From Thorny Bushes to Smooth Cocktail

Working as bar manager during the mid 1980’s at Fred’s Club in Soho, London, Dick Bradsell created the Bramble in an effort to make a truly British drink. Even though you can’t grow lemons in the UK and he wasn’t able to find a good enough British blackberry liqueur. The blackberries did however take Mr Bradsell back to his berry picking on the Isle of Wight as a kid, getting pricked by the brambles, and you can’t get any more British than gin. 

Fred’s Club on Carlisle Street was created to be the ultimate members club for a younger crowd with members like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Aztec Camera, Naomi Campbell, Neneh Cherry and Boy George. But the music connection doesn’t end there. Fred’s Clubshared a kitchen with a seafood restaurant owned by one of the founders of the Ministry of Sound. The reason Dick Bradsell used crushed ice for the Bramble was that he borrowed the ice machine the restaurant used for keeping their seafood on display. 

Dick Bradsell started off by making a classic sour but serving up the drink as a martini style cocktail. This made it far too sweet so instead he tried shaking the gin, lemon and sugar syrup, straining it into a glass filled with fresh crushed ice in the shape of a vulcano. Finally drizzling the crème de mûre around it. 

The glass was designed in 2019 for IKEA by Swedish designers Pia Amsell and Barbro Berlin and is called Omtänksam. 

The Bramble
2 parts Gin
1 1/2 parts lemon juice
1/2 part sugar syrup
1 part Crème de mûre

Shake all ingredients but crème de mûre with ice. Strain into glass and fill up with crushed, shaping the ice into a volcano. Pour the crème de mûre round the edges of the glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel and a blackberry. Think of blackberry-picking on a warm summers day and enjoy.

Coming Straight From the Harbour

The magnificent Bombay landmark the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, also called “The Diamond By the Sea”, is often said to have been built by Jamshedji Tata after he was refused entry to Watson’s Hotel at the end of the 19th century. Watson’s was a luxury hotel with a whites only policy. Others claim that Mr Tata simply wanted to build this exclusive hotel as a gift to the people of Bombay to treat them to a Royal experience. What is clear however is that the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was built for everyone, not just for the upper echelons of society.

The Indo-Saracenic styled hotel opened to the public in 1902 and was the first building in Bombay to be lit by electricity. The Taj Mahal Palace featured ceiling fans from America, elevators from Germany, a Turkish bath and English butlers resulting in an experience unmatched in India at the time.

The hotel’s Harbour Bar opened in 1933 as the first licensed bar in Bombay and this is where their signature cocktail From the Harbour was created. The story goes that two American gentlemen crossed the Indian Ocean in their yacht. When arriving in Bombay in December 1933 one of the men received a radio message from his wife with the news that the American prohibition was finally repealed. They promptly docked their yacht outside the hotel and headed straight for the Harbour Bar to celebrate with a drink. They asked the bartender to make them a cocktail that would quench their 13-year thirst. The barman, known only as John, created a drink worthy of their celebration. When asked what the drink was called, the bartender replied, “Sir, it would be an honour if you would name it, as it has been made today especially for you.” One of the men raised his glass and announced: “From the Harbour.”

The liquor glass was designed by the Indian painter, photographer, sculptor and designer Dashrath Patel in 1970.

The Tastiest Malaria Treatment

Let’s start the New Year with simplicity. After a holiday season filled with Snowballs and Egg Nogs it is time for something easy to make and what is simpler than a Gin and Tonic?

In the Indian subcontinent, as well as in other tropical regions, malaria was a constant problem during the 18th century. To help his fever-ridden patients a Scottish physician called George Cleghorn became interested in quinine, a traditional cure made out of the bitter bark of the Cinchona tree, a tree native to Peru. Quinine as a malaria treatment had been used by Europeans since at least the 1630s when Jesuit missionaries brought it back to Spain from the New World. Doctor Cleghorn made a tonic from the bark but the bitter drink was too unpalatable for the officers of the Presidency armies, the military force of the East India Company. The officers took to adding water, sugar, lime and gin, to the tonic and the Gin and Tonic was born.

Originally quinine came in powder-form that was mixed with soda and sugar to make it more drinkable. The tonic became immensely popular in the British colonies, especially in India and the first known quinine-based tonics were marketed during the 1850s. Schweppes launched their first carbonated tonic in the 1870s and knowing their customers they branded it Indian Tonic Water.

As the tonic water is no longer used for treating malaria it isn’t very heavy on quinine anymore making it a lot less bitter. It is generally also much sweeter nowadays.

The glass called Relations and was designed by Konstantin Grcic in 1999.

Gin and Tonic

1 part Gin
2 parts Tonic Water
2 Lime wheels

Pour the gin over ice. Top with tonic water and add the lime wheels. Stir gently.

Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet

Dubonnet came into being in 1846 after a competition was held by the Frenchgovernment with a prize for anyone who could make a palatable quinine-rich drink. The French colonists in North Africa were suffering greatly from malaria and the only known cure was the incredibly bitter bark from the South American cinchona tree. The goal was to create a drink with enough of the quinine to help the French combat malaria but still be enjoyable enough to be used voluntarily.

Joseph Dubonnet created his Dubonnet by mixing Roussillon wines from five different grapes, blending them with herbs and spices like cocoa beans, colombo (a mild type of curry powder), orange peel, Colombian green coffee, cinnamon, camomille and elderflower. He then left it to mature in oak vats for three to four years.

One part of the success of Dubonnet is most certainly their marketing. In 1932 they hired the great designer and illustrator A. M. Cassandre who created the Dubonnet Man with a Bowler hat/Derby hat and a text reading Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet.

The Dubonnet Cocktail first appeared in print around 1914 in a book simply called Drinks by Jacques Straub but no one knows who first created it.

In Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930 the same cocktail appears under a different name, the Zaza Cocktail. The name Zaza was taken from a popular French play written by playwrights Pierre Berton and Charles Simon, and first staged at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris in 1889. The play about a married man having an affair with an actress was translated into English and went on to become a huge success on Broadway and lent its name to a cocktail.

To complicate matters even further you can also find the same cocktail by the name The Queen’s Cocktail owing to the fact that it was the late Queen Elizabeth’s favorite cocktail. She is said to have had one every day before lunch, albeit made with two parts Dubonnetto one part gin instead of the original equal parts.

The silver beaker was designed in 1938 by the Swedish Prince Sigvard Bernadotte and is called Beaker 819B.

How To Revive A Corpse

Rather than being just a cocktail the Corpse Reviver is actually a family of cocktails emerging in the mid 1800s. The only thing the family have in common being that they are strong enough to bring you back from the dead.

Back in the day bartenders served these to their customers the day after a particularly rough night. It was first mentioned in the English satirical magazine Punch in 1861 and the recipe was first published in The Gentleman’s Table Guide by E Ricket and C Thomas in 1871. This first published version called for equal parts Brandy and Maraschino with two dashes of Boker’s bitters. 

The popularity and spread of the different Corpse Reviver versions can be tributed to Harry Craddock and his Savoy Cocktail Book. In the book he lists two versions, a No 1 and a No 2. The first is made of two parts Cognac and one part each of Calvados and Italian vermouth. Craddock notes that it is “To be taken before 11AM, or whenever steam or energy is needed”. The No 2 is said to have the same effect but is made with entirely different ingredients. Equal parts of Gin, Cointreau, Kina Lillet (a product that is discontinued and usually replaced with Cocchi Americano) and lemon juice with a couple of dashes of Absinthe. About the No 2 Mr Craddock writes “Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again”. 

Interestingly Trader Vic Bergeron lists the Corpse Reviver No 2 in his Bartender’s Guide using the same recipe as Savoy but substitutes Swedish Punsch for Kina Lillet. The Swedish Punsch is an Arrack based liqueur, popular in Sweden and Finland ever since it was first imported from Java in 1733. It is a pretty bold choice by Trader Vic considering the Punsch is very far from the original bitter quinine rich Kina Lillet. Then again, the Trader wasn’t known for shying away from a sweet exotic drink. So as not to confuse the two versions of No 2, the Punsch version is sometimes called No 2A in bars. 

The glass was designed by Arley Marks and Jonathan Mosca in 2019 and is called Hour Glass. 

Corpse Reviver No 2

1 part Gin
1 part Cointreau
1 part Cocchi Americano
1 part Lemon juice
2 dashes Absinthe
1 Maraschino cherry garnish

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into chilled glass and garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

Just remember not to have more than three…

By Jove It's the Real Hanky Panky!

Ada Coleman, or just ”Coley” as she was known by her friends and customers, was a true bartender legend. As head bartender at the American Bar at the Savoy in London between 1903 and 1926 she created and served cocktails to the likes of Mark Twain and the Prince of Wales.

A comedic actor called Charles Hawtrey was a regular at the bar during the 1920s and he frequently asked Mrs Coleman for new cocktails with a bit of punch in them. After some experimentation she came up with a cocktail she wanted him to try. Draining the glass Mr Hawtrey exclaimed “By Jove! This is the real hanky-panky!” and the name stuck. At the time hanky-panky meant ‘magic’ or ‘witchcraft’.

The Hanky Panky is quite similar to its predecessor the Martinez but instead of Maraschino and bitters Coleman used Fernet Branca.

In 1926 the Savoy decided to install an American as head bartender at the American Barand picked Harry Craddock, a legend in the making, who was already working the bar, while Ada Coleman retired to the hotel’s flower shop. Craddock was actually an englishman who emigrated to New York in 1897 but returned to England with an American accent as soon as Prohibition hit the US.

Mr Craddock went on to make the influential Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930 and creating classics such as the White Lady and the Corpse Reviver No 2.

The cocktail coupe is called Bon Bon and was designed by Helle Mardahl in 2020.

Hanky Panky

1 part Sweet Vermouth
1 part Gin
1 barspoon Fernet Branca
1 Orange twist

Stir the ingredients in a mixing glass filled with ice. Strain into chilled glass and garnish with an orange twist.

Enjoy the magic of Ada Coleman.

A Car Exec and the Last Word of a Vaudeville Performer

In the early 1900s the president of the Packard Motor Car Company, Henry Bourne Joy, thought that his likes in the booming automobile industry ought to have a proper club instead of meeting in regular bars. He took the already existing Detroit Athletic Club, founded in 1887, and together with 108 prominent Detroiters he hired an accomplished architect to create a stately building in the center of Detroit’s entertainment district. Architect Albert Kahn had recently traveled to Italy and was inspired in his design by Palazzo Borghese and Palazzo Farnese in Rome when he set out to build the six story Clubhouse, which was completed in 1915.

The club featured athletic facilities, pools, restaurants, ball rooms, guest rooms and, of course, a bar and this is where the Last Word cocktail saw the light of day around 1915. The creator is likely to be vaudeville performer Frank Fogarty, also known as the Dublin Ministrel for his Irish anecdotes. Fogarty was performing at Detroit’s Temple Theater at the time, and the name of the cocktail might be an allusion to the monologue with which he closed his act.

The recipe for the Last Word didn’t appear in print until Ted Saucier’s 1951 Bottoms Upwhere he calls Fogarty “a very fine monologue artist”. After Bottoms Up the cocktail fell out of favor until bartender Murray Stenson at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle found it in the Saucier book in 2004. Stenson made it a hit starting in Seattle and Portland and finally finding its way around the world.

The cocktail glass was designed in 1964 by Polish glass designer Wszewłod Sarnecki.

Last Word

1 part Gin
1 part Green Chartreuse
1 part Maraschino
1 part freshly squeezed lime juice
1 Maraschino cherry garnish

Shake all ingredients with plenty of ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Enjoy while looking through Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up looking for new cocktails that deserve a second chance.

Another New Orleans Original

This iconic New Orleans drink was created by a very unlikely bar owner. Mr. Henry C. Ramos was born in Indiana but started his career in a beer saloon in Baton Rouge. After some years he decided to buy a bar in New Orleans together with his brother and in 1887 they bought the Imperial Cabinet on Gravier Street. This was where Henry, or Carl to his friends, created the Ramos Fizz in 1888, originally the New Orleans Fizz.

The reason Mr. Ramos was such an unlikely bar owner was that he was a teetotaler and absolutely despised drunkenness. Everyday he walked around his bar talking to the customers to check their level of tipsiness and refusing to serve any more cocktails to intoxicated guests. To make absolutely sure that the Imperial Cabinet stayed a respectable establishment he only accepted the most well-behaved customers. For the same reason he closed the bar every evening at eight o’clock and kept the bar open for a mere two hours on Sundays afternoons and this only after he was talked into it.

Mr. Ramos also had strict rules for how his Ramos Fizz was made stating that it should be shaken for no less than 12 minutes. Since the drink was an instant success he had to keep 20 “shaker boys” making the Ramos Fizz on staff at any given time and even more during Mardi Gras. On October 27, 1919 the last Ramos Fizz was served and the doors of the Imperial Cabinet were closed due to Prohibition, something Mr. Ramos, as a teetotaler fully supported. The recipe remained a secret until he finally revealed it to a reporter from New Orleans Item-Tribune just days before his passing in 1928.

Ramos Fizz

2 parts Gin
1/2 part Lemon juice
1/2 part Lime juice
3/4 part Sugar syrup
1 part Crem
1 Egg white
2 dashes Orange flower water
1-2 parts Club soda

Shake all ingredients except soda without ice (dry shake), preferably 12 minutes. Add ice and shake again. Pour slowly into chilled glass. Add club soda to the shaker to get the remaining froth and pour slowly into glass.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 2

Count Camillo Negroni was the adventurous type. In 1892 he arrived from Italy to Ellis Island to try his fortunes in the US. There he supposedly worked as a banker, a cowboy and as a riverboat gambler before returning back to Florence.

In 1919, he stepped into his favorite bar, the Caffè Casoni in Florence, ready to try something new. His friend and bartender Fosco Scarselli substituted gin for soda from the Americano and thus created the perfect aperitivo cocktail, the Negroni.

Even though Negroni returned to Italy he was so influenced by his time in the US that when an American newsman bumped in to him on a trip to Italy in 1928, he walked around dressed in his cowboy attire.

The tumbler was designed by Massimo Vignelli in 1957 and produced by Venini on the island of Murano, just outside Venice, Italy.

The Collins Family

The history of Tom Collins might have started as a practical joke. Tom was supposed to be a load and burly man who sat in taverns in New York in the late 1800s badmouthing people. The victims were told by their friends about Mr Collins trying to slander them and were encouraged to find him. However, when going to the tavern asking the bartender for the non existent Tom Collins, they would instead receive the sour cocktail. The prank became known as The Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874.

This is probably just a good story though. More likely is that the Tom Collins started out as a John Collins, named after the head waiter at Limmer’s Hotel on Conduit Street in London where he worked during the 1870s and 80s. Limmer’s was famous from the early 1800s for being a buzzing place with great drinks. They were especially known fo their gin punch, essentially being the same thing as a Tom Collins. Originally Jenevera.k.a Holland Gin was used in the cocktail but when the customers started preferring the sweeter Old Tom Gin the theory is that they started asking for a Tom Collins rather than a John Collins.

After John and Tom there is now a whole family of Collins’s. Captain Collins (with Canadian Whisky), Colonel Collins (with Bourbon), Jack Collins (with Calvados), Sandy Collins (with Scotch), Joe Collins (with Vodka), Mike Collins (with Irish Whiskey), Pedro Collins (with Light Rum), Pepito Collins (with Tequila) and Pierre Collins (with Cognac).

The glass was designed in 1964 by the two brothers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglione and is called Splügen.

Tom Collins
2 parts Old Tom Gin
1 part Lemon juice
1/2 part Sugar syrup
1 1/2 part Club soda

Shake all but club soda and strain into ice filled glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge and a Maraschino cherry.

Enjoy!

December 9 – Martini

The Martini is likely to be a descendant of the Martinez, a cocktail first appearing in the 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco. Exactly when the Martini was invented though is impossible to say. 

The first published recipe for a cocktail named Martini was in 1888. This version was essentially the same cocktail as the then already established Marguerite, made with equal parts Old Tom Gin (sweeter than the London Dry Gin), Vermouth, sugar syrup and a hint of Orange Curaçao and orange bitters. 

Over the years the Martini became increasingly dry with the London Dry Gin taking over from the Old Tom and the bar goers starting to favor Dry Vermouth (also called French Vermouth) over the sweet one. At the turn of the 19th century Martini & Rossi started marketing a Dry Vermouth on the American market with the tag line “It’s not a Martini unless you use Martini”.

Today a Martini, or Dry Martini, can mean anything from a 1:5 ratio to a 1:32 ratio or even just a quick Vermouth spray with an atomizer on the inside of the glass before pouring ice cold gin. 

When ordering a Martini it might be good to know that James Bond’s catchphrase “Shaken, not stirred” will render the cocktail cooler than stirring it but the reason a bartender will, almost by default, stir it instead is that this way you will achieve a less cloudy Martini without shards is ice floating on the surface.

The glass is called Delta and was designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec for Alessi to be used on Delta Airlines.

December 1 – White Lady

The White Lady was invented by Harry MacElhone, twice. First in 1919 at Ciro’s Club in London when it featured crème de menthe, triple sec and lemon. This version had a 10 year run. In 1923 Harry bought his own bar, the legendary Harry’s New York Bar, in Paris and in 1929 he reinvented the cocktail and changed the crème de menthe to gin creating yet another classic cocktail.

The glass is called Marja and was designed by the Finnish designer Saara Hopea in 1956.

Shaken, Stirred Or Dirty

The Martini is likely to be a descendant of the Martinez, a cocktail first appearing in the 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco. Exactly when the Martini was invented though is impossible to say. 

The first published recipe for a cocktail named Martini was in 1888. This version was essentially the same cocktail as the then already established Marguerite, made with equal parts Old Tom Gin (sweeter than the London Dry Gin), Vermouth, sugar syrup and a hint of Orange Curaçao and orange bitters. 

Over the years the Martini became increasingly dry with the London Dry Gin taking over from the Old Tom and the bar goers starting to favor Dry Vermouth (also called French Vermouth) over the sweet one. At the turn of the 19th century Martini & Rossi started marketing a Dry Vermouth on the American market with the tag line “It’s not a Martini unless you use Martini”.

Today a Martini, or Dry Martini, can mean anything from a 1:5 ratio to a 1:32 ratio or even just a quick Vermouth spray with an atomizer on the inside of the glass before pouring ice cold gin. 

When ordering a Martini it might be good to know that James Bond’s catchphrase “Shaken, not stirred” will render the cocktail cooler than stirring it but the reason a bartender will, almost by default, stir it instead is that this way you will achieve a less cloudy Martini without shards is ice floating on the surface.

So whether you prefer it 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:7, 1:32, with a lemon twist or an olive (or three), having it dirty (with a dash of olive brine), with a pickled onion (called a Gibson) or any other way. There is basically a Martini for everyone.

Pimm's o'clock

James Pimm was a fishmonger from London and the owner of a chain of oyster houses in the 1800s. Sometime between 1823 and 1840 he invented a drink to help digestion. A mixture of gin, quinine and herbs that he named after himself and served in a cup, hence the name Pimm’s Cup. The drink became so popular it was commercialized in 1865 and sold throughout the British Empire as Pimm’s No. 1. Alongside the gin based No. 1 a number of other versions were created. No. 2 with Scotch whisky, No 3 with Brandy, No. 4 with rum, No. 5 with rye and No. 6 with vodka.

Since 1971 the Pimm’s Cup has been the signature drink at Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament in the world, where each year 300,000 Pimm’s Cups are served.

The Tank Highball glass was designed by the British designer Tom Dixon in 2014.

Pimm’s Cup

1 Pimm’s No. 1

3 Lemon soda

Pour Pimm’s No1 over ice into a highball glass. Add Lemon soda and stir gently. Garnish with a mint sprig, a cucumber slice and a strawberry.

Waiting for Bond

If you are waiting for the next Bond movie there is something you can do to make the wait a little bit shorter. Make yourself a Vesper. Named after the fictional double agent Vesper Lynd by James Bond himself the cocktail was featured in Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first book about the secret agent, published in 1953.

The instructions Bond gave to the bartender were “In a deep champagne goblet. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large slice of lemon peel.” The only problem making it today is that the bitter Kina Lillet was discontinued in 1969 so you have to substitute it either with Cocchi Americano to get the original bitterness or use Lillet Blanc and maybe add some bitters to the drink.

The glass, On the Rock, was designed by Lee Broom in 2014.

Vesper

3 parts Gordon’s gin

1 part vodka

1/2 part Lillet Blanc

1 lemon peel

Stir the ingredients with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Or if you are James Bond, shake it until ice cold and serve it in a deep champagne goblet.

The missing link

The Martinez is said to be the missing link between the Manhattan and the Martini just as Lucy is the missing link between the apes and the Homo sapiens. It first appeared 1884 in OH Byron’s Modern Bartender’s Guide. A few years later in 1887 the legendary bartender Jerry Thomas made the recipe into what it is today. The story goes that Thomas made it for a customer traveling to the city of Martinez, California. To make this classic it is preferable to use Old Tom gin, a type of gin that is something in between Dutch genever and London dry gin.

The Coupe glass was designed by Felicia Ferrone in 2018.

Martinez

3 parts Old Tom gin

3 parts red Vermouth (for instance Punt e Mes)

1/2 part Maraschino

2 dashes Angustura bitters

2 dashes orange bitters

1 orange twist for garnish

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist.

Cape Valentine Champagne Cocktail

The Cape Valentine Champagne Cocktail.

4 parts Clemengold Gin

2 parts freshly squeezed lime

1 part Lemon grass sugar syrup

Fill up with your favorite Champagne