Turf Club (1900 recipe)
Stir ∙ 3 min ∙ 27.9% ABV ∙
The Turf Club is a pre-Prohibition stir of equal parts London dry gin and dry vermouth, sharpened with maraschino, orange bitters and a dash of absinthe. Dry and bracing, with a bright juniper edge, a faint anise whisper from the absinthe, and a lingering, wine-tinged finish.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Stir all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 45 mlDry vermouth 45 mlMaraschino liqueur 10 mlOrange bitters 1 dashAbsinthe 1 dash
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Express a lemon twist over the cocktail and discard
- Garnish with a maraschino cherry
Tips
- Pre-chill the coupe before stirring; a warm glass undoes the dilution work of the ice bath.
- Express the lemon twist directly over the surface before discarding it; the oils, not the peel, are the point.
- Measure the absinthe as a true dash — a heavier pour turns the anise note bitter and overpowers the gin and vermouth.
History
This version follows the recipe Harry Johnson recorded in 1900, when he added the drink as the final entry in the revised "New and Improved" edition of his bartenders' manual. Johnson's build called for Plymouth gin and French vermouth in equal measure with dashes of orange bitters, maraschino, and absinthe, updating the drink for turn-of-the-century tastes after omitting it entirely from his earlier 1882 and 1888 editions.
The Turf Club itself is an older drink, first printed in 1884 in George Winter's guide to mixing drinks as a simple combination of Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, and bitters, one of the earliest known pairings of gin and vermouth and a forerunner of the Martini and the Martinez. Johnson's 1900 formula kept the gin-and-vermouth base but added maraschino liqueur and absinthe, giving the drink the more complex, anise-and-cherry-accented character that distinguishes this rendition from the plainer original.
