old etonian

1/2 London Gin (1 1/2 oz Beefeater)
1/2 Kina Lillet (1 1/2 oz Cocchi Americano)
2 dash Crème de Noyau (1/4 oz Tempus Fugit)
2 dash Orange Bitters (Angostura Orange)

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.

In 2010, I became obsessed with the lost ingredient of crème de noyau and went as far as making my own (along with the cyanide risk of doing so). There were a few artificially-flavored bottom shelf examples out there, but nothing worth spending the money on. Drinks from Louis Fouquet's 1896 Bariana such as Louis' Saratoga Cocktail led me on a quest that year to ask around at Tales of the Cocktail. That search guided me to a Cognac blending seminar where I spoke to the producer of Noyau de Poissy. While I did get to attend a great talk for free, I was disappointed when I learned that their crème de noyau was not exported to our area. It was not until 2015 that I was able to get my hands on a bottle of Tempus Fugit's craft take on the liqueur.
Two weeks ago, I was flipping through the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book where I spotted the Old Etonian Cocktail. It had been easier to skip over recipes in the Savoy for there were so many that I could make that it was not such a let down by the ones I could not make given their lost or difficult to source ingredients like Caperitif and Hercules; however, Bariana called for a few ingredients in many of their drinks, and that book served as a greater motivator. Therefore, I felt it was time to give this Martini abstraction a go (although the lesser known Fairbank with its dry vermouth would fall closer to a Martini). In the glass, the Old Etonian proffered orange and nutty aromas to the nose. Next, a peach-like orchard fruit sip led into gin, nutty, and herbal flavors on the swallow.