Tuesday, October 6, 2009

josephine baker

3/4 oz Cognac (Couvoisier VS)
3/4 oz Port Wine (Ramos Pinto Ruby Port)
1/2 oz Apricot Brandy (Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot)
1 tsp Sugar (Raw Sugar)
1 Lemon Peel (~2 sq inches)
1 Egg Yolk

Shake sugar, egg yolk, and port to dissolve the sugar. Add rest of ingredients and ice; shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Dust cinnamon powder on top. Recipe given as a ratio (1/2 : 1/2 : 1/3) for the Cognac, port, apricot brandy.

I recently found a link on the Chanticleer Society forums for a copy of the 1935 La Florida Cocktail Book from The Florida Bar in Havana, Cuba. In between the bounty of advertisements were a few gems including the Josephine Baker. One of the reasons that the drink got fast-tracked was that it used egg yolk (which generally get discarded when one is making egg white drinks). So after making the Morning Glory Fizz, I saved the egg yolks for this drink.
In the drink, the cinnamon provided a great nose as well as a sharp spice note on the tongue. The cinnamon taste led nicely into the fruit of the apricot-flavored brandy and the heat of the Cognac. The port pleasantly added to the drink's rich flavor and helped to shape the attractive end color underneath the froth. We were rather impressed by this cocktail, and the egg yolk along with the other flavors created a sort of cookie-like essence to the Josephine Baker.

3 comments:

barwarrior said...

Wow! This looks amazing!

Alex said...

Just made this one. I realize we're going back to 2009 here, but I have no idea how you got your's to look like that. Mine came out looking like a Mudslide! However, the taste is almost exactly as you describe.

frederic said...

What port did you use? We used a young ruby port which is redder and without particulate (mostly). Older ports are darker, browner, and more sediment-y which might give that effect.