Corpse Reviver (Savoy recipe)

The Corpse Reviver name for a restorative morning-after drink dates to at least 1861, when it appeared in a December issue of the British magazine Punch, and the first known written recipe, calling for brandy, maraschino, and bitters, was published in 1871 in The Gentleman's Table Guide. The category became widely known through Harry Craddock, an American-born bartender at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London, who included two Corpse Reviver recipes, No. 1 and No. 2, in his 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. This card follows a later Savoy variation built on cognac and Fernet-Branca — historically finished with white crème de menthe, in place of which this build pours white crème de cacao. Accounts differ on its creator and date: Salvatore Calabrese credits Johnny Johnson of the Savoy with the drink around 1948, while others attribute it to Savoy bartender Joe Gilmore in 1954.