Cocktail Hour: Ward 8
Posted by Arctic Wolf on August 20, 2016
The history of the ‘Ward 8″ stretches back to 1898 when (as legend has it) the serving was created at the Locke-Ober Restaurant in Boston Massachusetts to honour the election of Martin M. Lomasney to the state’s legislature. Apparently it was the votes in Ward 8 which propelled him to victory, hence the name of the tasty libation. The cocktail disappeared during prohibition; but the restaurant revived the serving when the ‘noble experiment’ ended in 1933. Although the original recipe is subject to much speculation, the Locke-Ober Restaurant’s post-prohibition recipe for the Ward 8 Cocktail is shown below. It is essentially a Whiskey Sour which uses grenadine rather than sugar syrup as its sweetener. The libation was so popular (and so tasty) that in 1934 the serving was named one of the nation’s Ten Best Cocktails by Esquire Magazine.
For my take on the serving I made two substitutions. First I subbed out the grenadine in favour of my own Cran-Raspberry Syrup (recipe here). The tickle of raspberry works wonderfully with the star of the libation, the strongly flavoured Knob Creek Straight Rye Whisky. Then I replaced the Maraschino Cherry (which are very hard to find in my locale) with my home-made Brandied Cherry (recipe here).
The result is ridiculously good!
Ward 8
2 oz Rye or Bourbon (Knob Creek Straight Rye)
1/2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Fresh Orange Juice
1 Tsp Grenadine (sub Cran-Raspberry Syrup)
Ice
Maraschino Cherry (sub Brandied Cherry)
Add the first four ingredients into a metal shaker with ice
Shake until the outside of the shaker begins to frost
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Garnish with a Maraschino or in my case a Brandied Cherry
Enjoy Responsibly!
If you are interested in more cocktail recipes, please click this link (Cocktails and Recipes) for more of my mixed drink recipes!
(Note: My review for Knob Creek Straight Rye Whisky publishes tomorrow.)
Chimo!
2 Responses to “Cocktail Hour: Ward 8”
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Mike Ducak said
Funny you posted this now: I just picked up my first-ever bottle of Knob Creek Rye and was looking to make a Ward 8 cocktail today. Alas, the oranges I bought are rotten inside so it looks like I’ll be using store-bought juice.
Arctic Wolf said
Use Tropicana Brand if you must use store bought juice. Its pretty good.