What Is An Orange Blossom Cocktail
There are two versions of the Orange Blossom according to The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, one neat and one on the rocks. In the 1935 book A.S. Crockett says that the Orange Blossom No. 1 (neat) was likely created by “some young bridegroom who wanted something novel to use at his final stag party.”
His recipe for the Orange Blossom No. 2 is built in a “bar glass,” for this you’ll want to use an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. It also calls for 1:1 gin and so you want to keep the glass small or go with a little more juice to keep the alcohol content manageable. For this drink, serving your orange blossom in a martini glass would be much more presentable.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 oz Gin
- 3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
- 2 oz OJ
Preparation:
- Chill your cocktail glass with ice, and a splash of water
- Pour all three ingredients into a cocktail shaker with 4-5 ice cubes
- Stir your ingredients, 4 to 5 rounds… just enough to chill your liquids
- Dump the ice from your cocktail glass and strain in your chilled beverage
- Enjoy
Note that you could also rim the martini glass with some crushed sugar. Take an orange slice and dampen the rim before dipping it in sugar. Although not called for, consider garnishing this cocktail with an orange wheel, or maybe even a wedge. If you have already committed to rimming with an orange… you might as well put that garnish to good use. We don’t see too many orange wedges these days, so being a little different in the presentation could increase sales. Sweet vermouth is also one of those items that doesn’t seem to move fast enough. If you happen to have a Sunday brunch shift coming up and want to clear out some of that old sweet vermouth stock… look at putting some of these orange-flavoured cocktails on special.
