Celebration
Today’s featured cocktail is based upon the well known Celebration Cocktail which was created by J. W. Fish, (its first appearance in print is in the W. J. Tarling’s, 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book). The Celebration is a wonderful bar drink which combines rum and gin with grapefruit juice in a daiquiri style serving.
Here is the original recipe form:
1/3 daiquiri rum
1/3 grapefruit juice
1/6 groseille syrup (red currant syrup)
1/6 Gin
Shake
Groseille (Red Currant) Syrup which is called for in the recipe is not something many people keep in their bar, and most online recipes I have found for the Celebration suggest replacing the groseille syrup with grenadine. It works quite well, although I would further suggest that if you do use grenadine that you should also use only half the suggested amount otherwise the cocktail becomes too sweet.
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The Secretary General
My Secretary General builds upon the Celebration, but incorporates two tweaks which happen to work very well when I mix the cocktail with Appleton Jamaican White Rum. First, I replace the groseille syrup not with grenadine, but with a smaller amount plain Sugar Syrup. Then I add also a dollop of Lime Juice to balance the serving with an added bite of tartness. When selecting an appropriate gin for the serving, I noted that the Appleton White Rum has a firm flavour profile and so I selected a firm piny London Dry Gin (Gilpin’s Westmorland Extra Dry) for the libation such that not only the rum, but also the gin shines through the cocktail.
Here is the final recipe:
The Secretary General
1 1/2 oz Appleton White Rum
3/4 oz Gilpin’s Westmorland Extra Dry Gin (see review here)
1 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1/4 oz Sugar Syrup (1:1 ratio)
Combine ingredients into a metal shaker with ice.
Shake until the metal shaker chills.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with lime slice
Please remember the aim is not to drink more it is to drink better!
And 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 of Appleton White Rum will be published tomorrow, Chimo!
Bulleit Small Batch 95 Rye Frontier Whiskey (bottled as Bulleit Frontier Rye Whisky in Canada) is bottled at 45% alcohol by volume and (according to the Bulleit website) the spirit is a straight whiskey produced from a heavy rye mashbill (95 % rye) which also contains a small amount of malted barley (5 %). The whiskey carries no age statement, however based upon my tastings I would estimate the age of the spirit to be in the range of 5 years old with some of the whiskey possibly older, and some of the whiskey possibly younger.
The Rum Howler Blog 