Friday, July 5, 2013

nullo

1/3 jigger Gin (1 oz Tanqueray)
1/3 jigger Sweet Vermouth (1 oz Cocchi)
1 spoon Grenadine (1/4 oz)
1 spoon Grapefruit Juice (1/2 oz)
1/2 Egg White (1 Egg White)

Shake once without ice and once with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. I added a grapefruit twist.

Two Mondays ago, I flipped through my 1934 reprint of Boothby's World Drinks and How to Mix Them and spotted the Nullo. The combination of gin, sweet vermouth, and grapefruit juice reminded me of the Fibber McGee we made before I started writing for the Cocktail Virgin blog. Where the Fibber McGee had Angostura, the Nullo went in the direction of pomegranate and egg white. And the grapefruit, gin, and egg white also reminded me of the Marco Antonio from the La Florida Cocktail Book.
The Nullo began with a grapefruit oil aroma. A creamy grapefruit sip led into a gin, grape, and pomegranate finish. Overall, the Nullo was pleasantly light, and I could not help but think how cinnamon syrup instead of grenadine would not be out of place in this combination.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks like a very interesting cocktail and I was thinking about mixing one up this evening. Do you have any additional background on the Nullo? I cannot find a mention of it online aside from this blog.

Cheers!

Mike

Alexander Kern said...

I'm not sure about the drink, but the name could possibly have something to do with the card game 500 that was created in 1904.

The game is kind of like bridge and "nullo" is a term used for a bid in which the bidder is claiming they can lose a certain number of tricks rather than winning them, netting them a fair amount of points in the process.

Just speculation, of course, but it's fun to wonder...

Mike Todd said...

A friend just gifted us a 1/2 gallon of fresh-from-the-tree grapefruit juice, so I thought I'd give this a go.

I used Dolin sweet vermouth, and taking a hint from your note about cinnamon syrup, I added 6 drops of Bittercube's Jamaican #2 bitters, which gave the drink a bit of a lift.

Overall, I found the drink subtle, tasty, and just boozy enough for a Tuesday night.

I'm eager to give this another shot, but perhaps with more grapefruit juice next time.