It’s Covid 2020 and I’ve been invited to my first Zoom Cocktail Party. Hard to imagine, yet here we are. But, I am fully in agreement with those who say that it’s physical, not social, distance we need. So: hair done, outside top, inside bottoms, here we go.

But, what to drink?

Famed Savoy Hotel Bartender Henry Craddock, creator of The Corpse Reviver, captured his recipes in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. In the Preface, Craddock offered the first definition of a cocktail he could find –  from May 13, 1806 in an American magazine called The Balance:

“Cocktail is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion.”

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Particularly relevant to we 2020 lockdown invitees might be Craddock’s recipes for:

Full House Cocktail
1/4 Swedish Punch
1/4 French Vermouth
1/2 Rum

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

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Gloom Chaser Cocktail
1/4 Lemon Juice
1/4 Grenadine
1/4 Grand Marnier
1/4 Curaçao

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

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1920 Pick-Me-Up Cocktail
2/3 Pernod
1/3 Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
1 Dash Orange Bitters
1 Dash Gomme Syrup

Shake well, strain into medium-size wine glass, and fill balance with soda water.

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Sanctuary Cocktail
1/4 Cointreau
1/4 Amer Picon
1/2 Dubonnet

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

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For those of us who like a little less ink in our drink ….

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https://youtu.be/jtyPxodKWQU

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www.creatorsvancouver.com

Header: Vitor Pinto

Photo 2: Jennifer Pallian