Gin, stirred
Angel Face
Barline 1,1,1,c
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 oz Gin
- 1 oz Apple brandy
- 1 oz Apricot liqueur
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe.
Taste
Equal ounces of gin, apple brandy, and apricot, three bottles at the same weight. Stirred, coupe. Juniper and orchard apple with apricot over the top, and since the apricot is a liqueur it is the sugar in the drink as well as the fruit. Three ounces of spirit and nothing to lengthen it, so it drinks warm and slow.
History
Harry Craddock prints the Angel Face in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930 as a third each of dry gin, apricot brandy, and Calvados, shaken and strained into a cocktail glass. His apricot brandy meant the drier eau-de-vie rather than the sweetened liqueur most bars reach for now, which is why the modern version reads sweeter than his did. The name gets attached to Abe Angel Face Kaminsky, who robbed Detroit speakeasies, though nothing ties him to the glass. This menu keeps the equal ounces and stirs it, since there is no juice, egg, or syrup carrying it, coupe.
Same shape, other bottles
The Fancy family, with the bottle that changed.
- Friscobourbon and Bénédictine for gin, apple brandy, and apricot liqueur
- Barbary Coastscotch, crème de cacao, and cream for apple brandy and apricot liqueur
- AlaskaChartreuse for apricot liqueur
- Brandy Milk Punchcognac and cream for gin, apple brandy, and apricot liqueur
- Casinomaraschino liqueur for apricot liqueur
- El Caminomezcal, rye, and Bénédictine for gin, apple brandy, and apricot liqueur
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.