monkey gland

2 oz Orange Juice
1 oz Gin (Beefeater)
2 drops Grenadine
Absinthe rinse (Pernod)

Shake (all but the absinthe) with ice and strain into a cocktail glass pre-rinsed with absinthe. See the Frederic-approved recipe below.

The other drink we had at the Pernod tasting room on Friday at Tales of the Cocktail was an old favorite, the Monkey Gland. Just like their variation of the In Seine, the bartenders in this tasting room mixed up a very light version of this drink. Their version was nicely balanced but not over the top with either absinthe or grenadine by a long shot. The hint of absinthe did work to cut the orange a bit. My preferred recipe is as follows:

Monkey Gland
• 2 oz Dry Gin
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• 1 tsp Absinthe/Pastis
• 1 tsp Grenadine
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The drink gets closer to the surgical allusion with this recipe when the orange juice is pulpy and the grenadine tints the drink enough to look animal more than vegetal. The recipe that Ted Haigh provides in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails is similar to my recipe but he has equal parts (1 1/2 oz) gin and orange juice. His book also provides a history of the drink which suggests the origin in American Prohibition era Paris. He also cites the song "Made a Monkey out of Me" as the reference for the phrase "monkey gland". The song captures the mid-1920's surgical fad of transplanting a monkey testicle into men as the Viagra of the day.