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Apple Brandy, shaken

Honeymoon

Barline 1q,1,1b,h,1,Ro

The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.

Shake hard with ice, then strain.

Rocks, iced, orange twist.

Open in the menu

Taste

An ounce and a quarter of apple brandy against a full ounce of Benedictine: herb almost even with orchard. A barspoon of orange liqueur and a dash of orange bitters are peel. Half an ounce of lemon lifts it. Rocks, ice, orange twist: it sits and the Benedictine warms.

History

Hugo R. Ensslin first prints the Honey Moon Cocktail in Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916): equal Benedictine and apple brandy, juice of half a lemon, three dashes of curacao. Ensslin was at the Hotel Wallick in Times Square. Craddock copies it into the Savoy in 1930. It later turns up at the Brown Derby in Los Angeles, and David Embury (1948) also calls it the Farmer's Daughter, with a much drier applejack-forward ratio. This menu pours an ounce and a quarter of apple brandy, a full ounce of Benedictine, a barspoon of orange liqueur, half an ounce of lemon, and a dash of orange bitters, over ice with an orange twist.

Same shape, other bottles

The Daisy family, with the bottle that changed.

  • Fine and Dandygin for apple brandy
  • Pegu Clubgin and lime juice for apple brandy and lemon juice
  • Champs-Élyséescognac and Chartreuse for apple brandy, Bénédictine, and orange liqueur
  • Pendennis Clubgin and lime juice for apple brandy and lemon juice
  • Katinkavodka and lime juice for apple brandy and lemon juice
  • Lani-Honilight rum for apple brandy

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.