Episode 143

Combine all these ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, stir until they’re well chilled and diluted, then strain into a stemmed cocktail glass and garnish with a brandied cherry and an expressed lemon twist. There is no consensus about whether to discard it or leave it in the glass.

The first thing to note is that this recipe is taken directly from David Wondrich’s book, Imbibe, which is a pretty definitive resource on 19th century drink recipes. In his passage on the Bijou, Wondrich notes that he took this particular formulation from the 1900 edition of the book, which is the second revised edition of the Bartender’s Manual, originally published in 1882. Well, I got curious, and I looked up a PDF of that original edition online, and the 1882 version still presents an equal parts rendition of this drink, but instead of 1 oz of each ingredient, Johnson uses something closer to ¾ of an ounce.

So long story short, if you want to make a faithful version of the Bijou cocktail, use equal parts, but it doesn’t really matter if you use 1 oz or ¾ oz of the main liquid ingredients. That’s up to you.

Fast forward about a century, to New York City, where Dale DeGroff is revamping the drinks menu at his famous bar, The Rainbow Room, and we get an updated model of the Bijou, featuring 1.5 oz of gin and only a half ounce each of Green Chartreuse and Sweet Vermouth.

This, clearly is a far cry from the original, and the justification he gives is that our palates have changed to prefer less sweet drinks since the recipe was first published. But it still doesn’t explain why there are all these other recipes floating around with tweaks that bear no relation to the original cocktail or its main contemporary upgrade.

In the end, let’s tip our hats to the Bijou as a wonderfully complex cocktail, where gin is supported by three of its most awesome cocktail sidekicks: vermouth, Chartreuse, and orange bitters. If you want to change the flavor profile of the drink, consider using some of the resources in this episode to find a new and interesting gin. But if you decide to change the ingredient ratios, please do us all a favor and call your creation a “riff” on the Bijou so that we don’t get our hopes up for an equal parts cocktail

So, for example, if you were a person who visited TheGinIsIN.com and wanted to locate a gin that matched your preferred flavor profile, you might score it as follows: Juniper: 2, Citrus: 3, Floral: 1, Heat: 0, Spice: 0, and Herbal: 1. This gin would have a great deal of citrus and juniper, with some light, but discernible floral and herbal notes.

The diagram screenshot below is my evaluation of the gin that Aaron and I taste on air (Copper & Kings History of Lovers Rose Gin). To the right, you’ll see a screenshot of the search results on TheGinIsIN.com for other gins that match this flavor profile. You’ll notice that they are displayed based on how closely (by percentage) they match the designated flavor profile.

Lightning Round

Favorite Cocktail

The Negroni, hands down – equal parts.

If You Were a Cocktail Ingredient, What Would You Be?

Lavender Bitters. Bitters are indispensable – you just need a little bit to elevate your drink.

Cocktail With Anyone, Past or Present

I have been really preoccupied by some of the weird cocktails in Jerry Thomas’ bartender’s manual. He has this gin and pine thing in there, and he barely describes it. So I’d love to meet The Professor, have him make me a “G&P,” and learn what it was like to mix with gin in the 1800s.

Common or Traditional Cocktail Ingredient You’ve Never Tried

Amer PIcon. I should really just pick up a bottle – it’s traditional, but maybe not common. I just need to take the plunge.

Uncommon/Controversial Opinion You Hold in the Spirits/Cocktail World

My most controversial opinion is that gin doesn’t have to be extraordinarily juniper-forward in order to be a good gin. And I wholeheartedly believe that the fact that gin is so loosely defined has made an opportunity for so much creativity.