I’m going to put the recipe right here, straight from The Savoy Cocktail Book, because every online recipe gets it way wrong. WAY wrong. C’mon internet! Classics are classics for a reason!
1.5 oz Canadian whisky
1.5 oz Dubonnet
1 dash Angostura
3 dashes Cointreau
lemon peel
orange peel
I added Dubonnet to my bar! This opens up a world of cocktails from the Savoy Cocktail book that I haven’t been able to try yet.
For a long time I thought Dubonnet was an old fashioned thing that is no longer available, like maybe Hercules or Prunelle. Things that appear in the Savoy book that I haven’t been able to find anywhere. But Dubonnet is still around! In fact, Queen Elizabeth’s favorite cocktail is rumored to be Dubonnet and gin.
There are some great old commercials for it on YouTube. One with Pia Zadora singing and being sexy about Dubonnet. And another, titled “Farrah Fawcett and Tom Selleck 1972 commercial for Dubonnet” (go watch!) suggests that Dubonnet is an “old lady” drink, but features a young, hot Farrah Fawcett in a cowboy hat drinking it straight up. A little rebranding attempt in 1971, I’m guessing.
So, Dubonnet. Much like sweet vermouth, but fewer bitter notes, more berry flavor. Sort of a less challenging version of sweet V, I could drink Dubonnet straight, no problem. But sweet V is an easy substitute if you don’t have Dubonnet in your bar.
The cocktail is lovely! Really a riff on a Manhattan, and my first drink to be shaken with fruit peels. Normally we stir boozy cocktails like this, no shaking…but I’m guessing Craddock (the author of Savoy) suggested shaking to release some of the orange and lemon peel oils right into the cocktail. The addition of Cointreau makes the orange flavor really shine, and the use of mellow Canadian whisky means the Dubonnet isn’t overwhelmed. Very smooth and friendly.
I think I’m going to enjoy my new bottle of Dubonnet. I kind of went nuts with the length of this post, but that’s what you get when you follow a cocktail nerd on Instagram. I’m really excited about this shit. ❤
