Oh Henry! Cocktail
1/3 Benedictine. (1 oz Benedictine)
1/3 Whisky. (3/4 oz Famous Grouse, 1/4 oz Jon Mark and Robbo Smokey Peaty One)
1/3 Ginger Ale. (1 oz Bundaberg Ginger Beer)
Stir well and serve.
This cocktail comes from Judge Jr.’s Prohibition era tome, “Here’s How.” In that book the recipe is given as: “1 jigger of Benedictine; 1 jigger of Scotch; 2 jiggers of ginger ale,” which seems a bit more sensible. Judge Jr. also notes this cocktail was, “Originated by Henry Oretel and believe us Henry knows his liquids!” I can dig up no information on Mr. Oretel.
While tasty, this is way too sweet for me. I think even with 2 parts ginger beer to 1 part Scotch and Benedictine. If I had to do it over, I would go with: 1/2 oz Benedictine, 1 1/2 oz Scotch. Build over ice and top up with Ginger Beer.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.
Bundaberg is pretty sweet for this one — we use Blenheim or homemade, with rye for the whiskey. It’s one of our all-time faves.
Proportions? Method?
I do find Bundaberg a bit sweet for my taste. Wish Blenheim was available locally. Recently tried the Fentiman’s Ginger Beer. Pretty funky good. I believe Fever Tree is also launching a Ginger Beer soon.
We fudge the ratios to 2:2:1 (halving the Benedictine). It’s also nice with an orange peel garnish, which adds a bitter element and cuts the sweet a little.
We blogged it way back when:
http://marriedwithdinner.com/2007/11/23/dotw-oh-henry/
As well as its boozy sibling, the Monte Carlo:
http://marriedwithdinner.com/2008/06/13/dotw-monte-carlo/
BevMo stocks Blenheim, and a boatload of other regional ginger ales/beers. I like the Fever Tree ginger ale, but it’s too delicate for mixing; I hope their ginger beer is mightier. Fentiman’s, to me, is a little too weird for cocktails.
Cocktailnerd did a review of quite a number of ginger beers. If you haven’t read this before it might be useful finding an alternative for this drink.
http://cocktailnerd.com/?cat=108