Gin Daisy (Jerry Thomas style)

Name: Gin Daisy (Jerry Thomas style)
Ingredients: 1 1⁄2 oz Oude genever; 1⁄2 oz Grand Marnier or other cognac orange liqueur; 3⁄4 oz Lemon juice; 1⁄4 oz Sugar syrup 'rich'; 3 drop Saline solution (20g sea salt to 80g water) or merest pinch of s optional; 1⁄2 oz Thomas Henry Soda Water chilled

Strong
Slightly tart

Ingredients

1 1⁄2 oz Oude genever
1⁄2 oz Grand Marnier or other cognac orange liqueur
3⁄4 oz Lemon juice
1⁄4 oz Sugar syrup 'rich'
3 drop Saline solution (20g sea salt to 80g water) or merest pinch of s optional
1⁄2 oz Thomas Henry Soda Water chilled

Method

Glassware:

Serve in a Coupe glass

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
Prepare garnish of skewered seasonal berries.

Method:

SHAKE first 5 ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
TOP with splash of soda.

Garnish:

Garnish with skewered berries.

Nutrition:

One serving of Gin Daisy (Jerry Thomas style) contains 137 calories

History:

The origins of the Daisy are lost in time, but the first known written reference to the cocktail is in an 1866 novel Gay Life in New York! Or, Fast Men and Grass Widows by Henry Llewellyn Williams. [ref: David Wondrich, Imbibe!, 2007]. However, the author only names the Daisy as one of several drinks one character suggests in preference to ordering a lemonade. "Wouldn't you rather have a concentrated zephyr, in a daisy, or an iced dew drop?"

No description of what a Daisy is, or recipe, has been unearthed before Jerry Thomas' 1876 The Bartenders Guide or How To Mix Drinks: The Bon-Vivants Companion. A second, quite different Daisy recipe then appears in the 2nd (1888) edition of Harry Johnson's Bartenders Manual for a Whiskey Daisy and a Brandy Daisy (no Gin Daisy). Tellingly, both bartenders omit Daisies (be that brandy, whiskey, gin or rum-based) from their first editions.