Million Dollar
A fruity and sweet gin cocktail ∙ Dry shake ∙ 5 min ∙ 17% ABV ∙
The Million Dollar shakes London dry gin with sweet vermouth, pineapple juice, grenadine and egg white, served up in a coupe under a silky foam.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 60 mlRosso vermouth 30 mlPineapple juice 15 mlGrenadine syrup 10 mlEgg white 15 ml
- Strain back into the shaker
- Dry shake (without ice)
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge on the rim
Tips
- Shake with ice first, then strain back into the shaker and shake again without ice; that second, ice-free shake is what whips the egg white into foam.
History
The Million Dollar Cocktail's origin is disputed among several claimants across East Asia at the turn of the 20th century. Some accounts credit bartender Louis Eppinger at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan, as early as 1894, while others say it was created around 1910 by Ngiam Tong Boon at the Long Bar of Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Charles H. Baker Jr., in his 1939 book The Gentleman's Companion, Volume II, instead traced his versions of the drink to bartenders at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the Tor Hotel in Kobe in the 1920s and 1930s.
Cocktail historian David Wondrich has argued against the Singapore, Yokohama, and Tokyo stories, tracing the drink instead to the Shanghai Club, a British men's club in Shanghai founded in 1861. The earliest known printed recipe he identifies appeared in 1922, contributed by Manila lawyer J. A. Wolfson to Elsie Gaches's cookbook Good Cooking and Health in the Tropics, published that year in Manila. By the early 1920s the drink was already circulating widely in newspapers and bars across East Asia, and its exact birthplace had become impossible to pin down with certainty.
FAQ
What is in a Million Dollar cocktail?
London dry gin, sweet (Rosso) vermouth, pineapple juice, grenadine syrup and egg white: 60, 30, 15, 10 and 15 ml. The egg white gives it a silky foam.
What is a million dollar drink?
A gin and sweet vermouth cocktail from East Asia around the turn of the 20th century, shaken with pineapple juice, grenadine and egg white for a foamy top. It comes in at about 17% ABV, and its exact birthplace is disputed.
