Waldorf Cocktail No. 2
Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 25.5% ABV ∙
The Waldorf Cocktail No. 2 is a Swedish Punsch-based cocktail built on Swedish Punsch liqueur, London dry gin, and fresh lime, shaken and served up in a coupe. Arrack-spiced sweetness from the punsch leads, gin firming up a dry, juniper-lined backbone before tart lime snaps the finish clean.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: Swedish Punsch liqueur 50 mlLondon dry gin 45 mlLime juice 15 ml
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Express a lemon twist over the cocktail and use as garnish
Tips
- Pre-chill the coupe before shaking so the fine-strained pour doesn't lose its edge sitting in a warm glass.
- Express the lemon twist directly over the surface before dropping it in; the oils lift the punsch's aromatics more than the peel alone.
- Shake hard and briefly to chill and dilute fully without over-diluting the punsch's delicate arrack notes.
History
The Waldorf Cocktail No. 2 is the later of two vintage cocktails tied to New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, distinguished from the earlier Waldorf No. 1 by swapping in gin, Swedish Punsch, and citrus for that drink's whiskey-based build. This gin-and-punsch version is documented in the 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book and again in the 1955 United Kingdom Bartenders' Guild book, both of which give a choice of lemon or lime juice. Those early recipes called for a punsch-heavy ratio of two parts Swedish Punsch to one part gin, a proportion later recipes have scaled back since modern Swedish Punsch bottlings tend to be sweeter than the vintage originals.
