Episode 088

Featured Cocktail: Improved Hollands Gin Cocktail

Because we talk about and taste some delicious genever in this episode, our featured cocktail is the Improved Hollands Gin cocktail. This is a classic from legendary bartender Jerry Thomas (AKA “The Professor”), who published one of the first official cocktail recipes books back in the late 1800s.

Now, if we take the term “cocktail” to mean a drink comprised of a spirit, sugar, and bitters, then what the heck is an “improved” cocktail?

Well, in general, when you come across this term in the cocktail world, it usually refers to a drink that adds a little something else besides sugar and bitters to the base spirit. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of conflicting recipes out there on the internet for the Improved Hollands Gin Cocktail, so I’m going to try and synthesize them into one recipe template that you can tweak to your own personal flavor preferences.

To make this drink, you’ll need:

• 2 oz Genever (that’s the Hollands Gin)
• ¼ oz Maraschino Liqueur OR Grand Marnier
• ¼ oz simple syrup
• Several Dashes of Aromatic Bitters (we like to use our Embitterment Aromatic Bitters)
• ½ bar spoon of absinthe

Combine all these ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, stir until chilled and well integrated, and then strain into a stemmed cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

A few notes on your ingredients here. The decision between Maraschino Liqueur and Grand Marnier is a pretty simple one. If you’re looking for an end result that’s soft and nutty go with the Maraschino, but if you’d like to play up the citrus notes, opt for the Grand Marnier. Either way, it’ll come out pretty nice.

The more divisive ingredient here, though, is the absinthe. This is something you want to add in a very very small amount, so if you have an atomizer at your disposal, that’s a great way to incrementally ramp up the absinthe in very minute quantities until you’ve got the drink perfectly tuned for your palate.