powhatan

1 drink Dubonnet (2 oz)
2 dash Benedictine (1/2 oz)
2 slice Orange

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass; I added an orange twist.

Two Sundays ago, I began flipping through a digital copy of Jere Sullivan's 1930 The Drinks of Yesteryear: A Mixology that was a retrospective of drinks made before Prohibition. The book came up when I was searching for Dubonnet and Crème Yvette recipes when developing the Zaza d'la Whore recipe earlier in the week. Instead of the Lee Cocktail of equal parts gin, Dubonnet, and Crème Yvette in those pages, I was lured in by the Powhatan that had Dubonnet shaken with Benedictine and orange slices. Shaking with orange slices is something that has surfaced recently in drinks like Sam Ross' Too Soon?, but it also appeared a century before in recipes like Ensslin's Before the Bell. The Powhatan recipe was attributed as "A Virginia Congressman's creation," and Powhatan was the Indian chief that met the English settlers at Jamestown in 1607 and was the father of Pocahontas.
The Powhatan welcomed the nose with bright orange aromas over berry notes. Next, grape and cherry on the sip led into cherry, chocolate, orange, and minty herbal flavors on the swallow with an orange peel bitterness on the finish.