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All cocktails Blackthorn No. 3

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Blackthorn No. 3

After dinner/digestif · Classic/vintage · Hall of Fame and must know/try

4.0 55 ratings

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Irish whiskey
1 1/2 oz Dry vermouth
2 dash Absinthe
2 dash Boker's style bitters

How to make

Serve in a coupe glass

Prepare

  1. 1 Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
  2. 2 Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

Method

  1. 3 STIR all ingredients with ice.
  2. 4 FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

  1. 5 EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Flavour profile

23.1% alc./vol. · 1.5 standard drinks · 156 calories

History

As Robert Vermeire states in his 1922 book Cocktails: How to Mix Them, "The Blackthorn is a very old cocktail, which is made in two different ways." The more common method involves various combinations of sloe gin/dry gin and vermouth (refer to Blackthorn No. 1, 2, 4, 5, and Blackthorn English). This whiskey-based Blackthorn stands out as an anomaly within the long-established Blackthorn series. It is dry and aromatic, representing whiskey's equivalent to a gin Dry Martini.

The "Black Thorn," a whiskey cocktail, made its debut in Harry Johnson's 1900 Bartender's Manual. The manual provided the following recipe: BLACK THORN. (Use a large bar glass.) 3 or 4 dashes of absinthe; 3 or 4 dashes of bitters (Boker's genuine only); ½ wine glass of French Vermouth; ½ wine glass of Irish Whiskey; Stir up well with a spoon, strain into a medium-sized wine glass and serve. Another iteration, also attributed to Harry Johnson of New Orleans, appeared as: Blackthorn Cocktail. Filla bar glass half full of broken ice and add: 3 dashes of Absinthe. 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters. ¼ gill of French Vermouth. ¼ gill of Irish Whiskey. Stir up well with a spoon, strain into a cocktail glass, and squeeze lemon-peel on top. William Boothby's 1908 work, The World's Drinks And How To Mix Them, featured a version based on sloe gin. However, the whiskey-based Blackthorn did not appear in Boothby's book until the 1930 Swallows edition, where it was listed as number three of four variations: BLACKTHORN, NO. 3 Whiskey . . . . . . . . . ½ jigger Fr. Vermouth . . . . . ½ jigger Absinthe . . . . . . . . . 1 spoon Bitters . . . . . . . . . . 3 drops Stir well with ice, strain into chilled glass and serve. In 1930, Harry Craddock included the whiskey-based "Blackthorn Cocktail" in The Savoy Cocktail Book. Curiously, Craddock placed the sloe gin version, which he named "Blackthorn Cocktail (No. 2)", in the "Additional Cocktails" section at the end of the book. BLACKTHORN COCKTAIL. 3 Dashes Angostura Bitters. 3 Dashes Absinthe. ½ Irish Whisky. ½ French Vermouth. Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Also known as Blackthorn Irish · Created by Harry Johnson