Waldorf Cocktail No. 2

Name: Waldorf Cocktail No. 2
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: Swedish Punsch liqueur — 50 ml (1 2/3 oz); London dry gin — 45 ml (1 1/2 oz); Lime juice (freshly squeezed) — 15 ml (1/2 oz)

A spicy and balanced cocktail ∙ Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 20.8% ABV ∙

The Waldorf Cocktail No. 2 is a shaken sour of Swedish Punsch, London dry gin, and fresh lime, served up in a coupe.

Ingredients

Servings

Garnish

Lemon twist

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

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, which gives a choice of lemon or lime juice.

That early recipe 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.