The jewel among gin cocktails, at least according to the name, is Bijou. In the cocktail books you can find two different drinks under this name, which differ in one of the ingredients. The one who counts on Chartreuss is better known. And that's what Tipsy Banker Martina Jacošová focused on.
According to information known so far, the cocktail called Bijou first appeared in 1895 in The Mixocologist, authored by the bartender of the Cincinnati Grand Hotel, C. F. Lawlor. His recipe includes the same amount of gin, sweet vermouth and Grand Marnier liqueur. It is not without interest that Louis-Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle created his orange cognac-based liqueur only fifteen years earlier, and so it was a relative novelty at the time - at least in America. It should come as no surprise, then, that Lawlor added a recommendation to the cocktail, which he describes as excellent, that Grand Marnier can be drunk like any other liqueur on its own, ideally from a pony glass, ie from a classic liqueur glass.
In the bar world, however, there is a more well-known recipe, contained in Harry Johnson's New and Improved Bartender Manual from 1900. It consists of an equal volume of Plymouth gin, Italian vermouth and green Chartreussia, a splash of orange bitters, cocktail cherries or olives as a garnish and lemon. bark for splashing. The three main ingredients are also the main reason for naming the cocktail. Bijou means jewel in French, and while pure gin represents diamond in it, Chartreuss is green as an emerald and vermouth red as a ruby.
Bijou in this form enjoyed alternating interest for several decades, but then it was almost forgotten. It was rediscovered for the bar world in the 1980s by Dale DeGroff, who came across Bijou in Johnson's Manual. However, he modified the recipe, significantly in favor of gin, which he used in three parts for a part of vermouth and Chartreuska. You can also come across versions that count on twice the amount of gin. The most common decoration is a cocktail cherry, lemon peel is also recommended for spraying. Some feel that Chartreuska wins while maintaining the same ratio of gin, vermouth and liqueur in the taste, while others are bothered by the excessive sweetness of the cocktail. Tipsy Banker Martina Jacošová is one of them. "Bijou is one of my great favorites. Personally, however, I would gently adjust the proportions of the ingredients and take a little vermouth to make the drink less sweet, "he says.
24 авг 2024
