What’s shakin’ cocktail fans? Welcome to Episode 273 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!
This time around, I’m joined by Robby Haynes, creator of Apologue Liqueurs and (now) Hoste Cocktails. In our last conversation, he walked us through the ins and outs of Old Fashioned mixology with his acclaimed luxury bottled Gold Fashioned, and in this chat, we fix our sights on another drink from the Mount Rushmore of cocktails: The Martini.
In this stirring, ice-cold conversation with bartender and cocktail batcher extraordinaire, Robby Haynes, some of the topics we discuss include:
You can learn more about the Gold Fashioned and the new bottled Martini at hostecocktails.com, and you can check out my last interview with Robby in Episode 243.
This Episode’s featured cocktail is the Kangaroo Cocktail (also known as the “Kangaroo Kicker”). To make it, you’ll need:
Combine these two ingredients in a mixing glass with ice (with bitters notably absent), stir until well chilled and properly diluted, then strain into a chilled, stemmed cocktail glass, garnish with a lemon twist (or an odd number of olives, if you’re into that), and enjoy.
Today’s vodka martini is, in reality, the artist formerly known as the Kangaroo cocktail. Depending on who you ask, references to it started cropping up in the late 1930s, and it was formally introduced in print in 1943 by Oscar Haimo in his book Cocktail Digest and by Crosby Gage in his 1944 Standard Cocktail Guide.
As most of you will know, this is at the height of US involvement in World War II, and many believe the Kangaroo Cocktail was named in honor of our Australian allies. The choice of vodka in place of gin is further attributed to an impending gin shortage, but I had a hard time tracking down any definitive sources online that would corroborate that. Suffice it to say: at the end of World War II, there were probably a lot of shortages, and vodka is pretty easy to make, so perhaps it’s not necessary to delve too deeply or greedily on this question.
Just a few short years later, in 1948, David Embury released his hugely important book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, where he called this drink the “Vodka Martini,” thus signaling the end of the Kangaroo Cocktail’s brief time in the spotlight.
Whatever your personal thoughts happen to be regarding the admixture of vodka and vermouth, I hope that, the next time you enjoy a Kangaroo cocktail, you’ll raise a glass toward Australia and run a quick stock market search on the status of juniper futures.
This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samantha Reed and gin and martini insights courtesy of Robby Haynes. This has been a production of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast, copyright 2023.
Enter your email address on the right to stay up to date with the latest cocktail recipes & podcasts.
