laughing soup

1/2 jigger Gin (1 1/2oz Beefeater)
1/4 jigger French Vermouth (3/4 oz Noilly Prat)
2 spoon Sweet & Sour (1/2 oz Lemon Juice + 1/2 oz Simple Syrup)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass; I added a lemon twist.
For a drink two Wednesday nights ago, I turned to Bill Boothby's 1934 World Drinks and How to Mix Them and spotted the Laughing Soup. While I was intrigued by the concept of dry (or perhaps blanc) vermouth in a Gin Sour, the name lured me in for it reminded me of giggle water -- another late 1920s euphemism for an illicit cocktail. Here, the Laughing Soup toyed the nose with lemon and herbal aromas. Next, lemon and dry white wine on the sip chuckled into gin and herbal flavors on the swallow with a lemon finish.