Skip to content
Spirlix
Log in Sign up
All cocktails Colonial Cooler

Log in to see whether your bar can pour this

Colonial Cooler

Classic/vintage

3.8 13 ratings

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz Gin
1 1/2 oz Rosso/sweet vermouth
1/6 oz Grand Marnier
1/6 oz Amer Picon
1 dash Aromatic bitters
Top up with Soda water

How to make

Serve in a collins glass

Prepare

  1. 1 Select and pre-chill a COLLINS GLASS.
  2. 2 Prepare garnish of mint sprigs and pineapple wedge.

Method

  1. 3 STIR first 5 ingredients with ice.
  2. 4 STRAIN into ice-filled glass.
  3. 5 TOP with soda and briefly stir.

Garnish

  1. 6 Garnish with mint sprigs bouquet and pineapple wedge on rim.

22.7% alc./vol. · 1.6 standard drinks · 198 calories

History

A Gin and It lengthened with soda, spiced with Amer Picon, Angostura, and orange curaçao.

This recipe is derived from Charles H. Baker's 1939 work, The Gentlemen's Companion. In this book, Baker details his discovery of this particular drink in the mid-1920s at the Sandakan Club in North Borneo, during an outing from the SS Resolute, a steamer on a global journey. The steamer had dropped anchor some 14 miles from the coast, and Baker along with his companions disembarked in two lifeboats. Both vessels, however, were unable to reach dry land due to engine malfunctions. A Borneo prahu, described as having "with a sail like a striped butterfly and a gent in a G-string and a headdress," alerted others, and the stranded explorers were eventually brought to shore by a British North Borneo Company tug. Baker's account continues with their arrival: "We first went out to the Sandakan Club - there'd be a British Club on Mount Everest if 2 Britishers could stand the cold there! - and had these Coolers, through the courtesy of an American who was sentimental enough to fetch a mint root out with him." The precise instructions for the Cooler, as recorded by Baker, are: "To 1 jigger of dry gin add the same of Italian vermouth. To this base donate 1 dash of each. Angostura and Amer Picon, and 1 tsp of orange Curaçao. Stir with a goodly lump of ice in a small highball or sour glass, and top off with a squirt of soda garnished with 2 sprigs of mint and a stick of ripe pineapple."

Created by Charles H Baker