Commodore No. 3
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 22.4% ABV ∙
The Commodore No. 3 is a rye whiskey sour built with lemon juice, sugar syrup, and orange bitters, shaken and served up. Rye spice leads, softened by a clean sweet-tart lemon core, with orange bitters adding a dry, aromatic edge to the finish.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: Rye whiskey 50 mlLemon juice 15 mlSugar syrup 10 mlOrange bitters 2 dashes
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Garnish with a lemon wheel
Tips
- Shake rye, lemon juice, sugar syrup and bitters hard with plenty of ice for a full 12-15 seconds to properly dilute and chill the whiskey base, since under-shaking leaves it boozy and thin.
- Fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass to catch any lemon pulp or ice shards, keeping the drink's surface clean before floating the lemon wheel garnish.
- Measure the 2 dashes of orange bitters directly into the shaker before adding ice, so they blend fully rather than sitting on top after straining.
History
Commodore No. 3 is a variation on the whiskey-based branch of the early Commodore cocktail. The name Commodore actually covers two distinct pre-Prohibition drinks: a rum-and-egg-white version, recorded in Albert S. Crockett's 1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days, and a rye whiskey version built with gomme syrup, orange bitters, and citrus, which appeared earlier in Harry McElhone's 1922 Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails (credited there to Phil Gross of Cincinnati) and again in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book using Canadian Club whiskey. Writing in 1948, David A. Embury noted the split between the two lineages, calling them two Commodores commanding two different fleets. One account attributes the name to a yacht club officer, said to have been a ranking figure at either the New York Yacht Club or the Larchmont Yacht Club, though other tellings tie it more loosely to the naval rank of commodore or to New York's Commodore Hotel. Commodore No. 3 follows the McElhone/Craddock whiskey lineage, built with rye rather than the rum used in the Waldorf Astoria version.
