Vermouth, stirred
Adonis
Barline 1h,Q,2,co
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 1/2 oz Sherry
- 3/4 oz Sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Orange bitters
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe, orange twist.
Taste
An ounce and a half of sherry to three-quarters of sweet vermouth, two fortified wines and nothing stronger, so it pours low. Two dashes of orange bitters. Stirred, coupe, orange twist. Nutty dry wine under the vermouth's grape and sugar, light enough to drink before dinner.
History
The Adonis is named for William Gill's Adonis, a musical burlesque that opened in Chicago in the summer of 1884 and moved to the Bijou Theatre in New York that September with Henry E. Dixey in the title role. The Waldorf is usually credited with the drink. The first print record is a Pearls from Billy, the Bartender column in the New York Sun on 27 March 1887, which puts the making of it around 1885 or 1886. It is the sweet half of the pair of nineteenth-century sherry aperitifs, the Bamboo being the dry one. This menu pours an ounce and a half of sherry, three-quarters of sweet vermouth, and two dashes of orange bitters, coupe, orange twist.
Same shape, other bottles
The Vermouth family, with the bottle that changed.
- Duplexdry vermouth for sherry
- Vermouth Panachédry vermouth for sherry
- Bamboodry vermouth for sweet vermouth
- Coronation No. 1dry vermouth for sweet vermouth
- Tip Topdry vermouth for sherry and sweet vermouth
- Sherry Cobblerwithout sweet vermouth
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.