East India House
3.8 23 ratings
Ingredients
How to make
Serve in a nick & nora glass
Prepare
- 1 Select and pre-chill a NICK & NORA GLASS.
- 2 Prepare garnish of lime (or lemon) zest twist.
Method
- 3 SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
- 4 FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
Garnish
- 5 EXPRESS lime (or lemon) zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.
Flavour profile
25.5% alc./vol. · 1.5 standard drinks · 173 calories
History
Dry and challenging, offering reward for some.
This cocktail is a variation of Harry Johnson's East India Cocktail, and Johnson may have also created it in the 19th century. However, to the best of current knowledge, a recipe explicitly titled East India House does not appear in print until Charles H. Baker Jr.'s 1939 book, The Gentleman's Companion. This version is similar to what other vintage publications refer to as an East India No. 2, excluding the rum found in the recipe above. Charles H. Baker Jr.'s 1939 book includes the following recipe: "THE EAST INDIA HOUSE COCKTAIL, being one for any man's book, & garnered in the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, India, 1932, while the-then-fiancée sight-saw across India to Delhi, Agra, Benares & Fatehpur Sikri, & Calcutta. Take 1½ jiggers of cognac, 1 tsp pineapple syrup – the soda fountain kind – and put in a shaker. Add 2/3 tsp maraschino, 1 tsp orange Curaçao, 3 dashes of orange or Angostura bitters, according to preference. Shake with lots of fine ice and strain into a Manhattan glass, twisting a bit of lime peel on at the last." Translating Charles H. Baker Jr.'s East India House recipe yields: 45ml (1½oz) Cognac 5ml (1/6oz) Orange Curaçao 5ml (1/6oz) Pineapple syrup 3.75ml (1/8oz) Maraschino liqueur 3 dashes Orange bitters
Created by Harry Johnson