fewbottles.com

Gin, shaken

Pegu Club

Barline 1Q,Q,h,1,1,c

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

Shake hard with ice, then strain.

Coupe.

Open in the menu

Taste

One and three-quarters ounces of gin against three-quarters of orange liqueur and only a half ounce of lime, so the lime is a squeeze under the peel. One dash of Angostura and one of orange bitters sit on the orange, bark and pith over a small lime. Shaken, coupe. Gin, candied orange, and a thin lime line.

History

The Pegu Club was the house cocktail of the British officers' club of the same name, just outside Rangoon, Burma, now Yangon. Who mixed the first one is unknown. Harry MacElhone prints it in the 1920s: gin, orange curacao, lime, and a dash each of Angostura and orange bitters. Harry Craddock reprints it in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book as a drink that has travelled, and is asked for, round the world. Craddock's lime is a teaspoonful; Jimmy, late of Ciro's, equalizes the curacao and the lime that same year. This menu pours one and three-quarters gin, three-quarters orange liqueur, half an ounce of lime, and one dash of each bitters.

Same shape, other bottles

The Daisy family, with the bottle that changed.

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.