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I6
OLD WALDORF-ASTORIA BAR BOOK
Many recipes, however, call only for French Vermouth.
Gin was the base, or one of the bases, of approximately one
hundred and fifty cocktails-more if the "dry" variants
of cocktails are considered as different entities. In mak–
ing forty or so, Whiskey was the base. Rum of one sort
or another was used only in fourteen; for Bacardi and
Jamaica-though the latter was the favorite indulgence
of many of our colonial forefathers-had not attained the
wide acquaintance among Americans the latter now enjoy.
In
this book, Cuban and Jamaican drinks of today are
taken up exhaustively following the contents of the Old
Waldorf Bar Book. Sloe Gin was the base of eleven recipes.
There were forty-four whose base was either Brandy or one
of a number of cordials. Frequently two or more were
mixed. Other bases were Applejack or Apple Brandy, Cal–
isaya, Dubonnet, Sherry, Port and Swedish Punsch.
During the first two decades of the century, the com–
monly accepted American definition of a cocktail was a
mixture of Gin and Vermouth with Bitters, iced and
shaken. Of course, Whiskey cocktails had their many and
a!ident devotees; and the Manhattan, based on Whiskey,
was a popular drink. To a big majority, however, Whiskey
was something that should be taken neat, or, at most, adul–
terated with nothing more than water.
In
a highball, of
course, the latter was aerated. The average Whiskey
drinker regarded the mixture of good Bourbon or Rye
wi~p
anything as a sort of sacrilege-except after the drink
had gone down, when, as a rule, he liked to dispatch
a small quantity of water in its wake. To many persons,
Whiskey cocktails were so much medicine. To such, the
ideal combination was Gin and Vermouth. Vermouth alone,
as a drink, never won wide favor in this country, but it is