A Night at the Opera
If you haven’t noticed by now I love history. The people and events that have shaped who we are today intrigue me. Classic cocktails is one of my favorite genres of cocktail creation. In order for a drink to have endured for over 100 years it needs to have long standing appeal, which generally means it’s a structurally sound cocktail. Of course, our tastes have changed a lot in the last 200 years so sometimes adaptations get made to reflect our changing palate. But even those are the markers of our history.
Thanks to people like spirits historian David Wondrich and reprinting of early cocktail recipe books like the one produced by Harry Craddock of the Savoy Hotel in London in 1930 we have access to so many classic recipes today. As well as the stories that accompany them. The lesser known classics tend to be my favorite, perhaps I’ve always liked the underdog. We’ve all had a great Manhattan, but not many people realize there are 5 boroughs in New York City and there are in fact drinks for each, my favorite actually being the Brooklyn - but that’s another story entirely.
Today’s writing is about the Opera cocktail. It’s a classic for sure, but not one that shows up on a lot of menus. The first time the recipe shows up in print is 1914 in the book Drinks by Jacques Straub (page 34). It’s a small cocktail with a half jigger each of dry gin, Dubonnet, and 2 bars spoons of crème de mandarin liqueur.
The Opera cocktail recipe is most commonly known today from the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book I mentioned earlier. The recipe is 4 parts gin, 1 part Dubonnet & 1 part Maraschino liqueur. Maraschino liqueur was extremely popular during this time period so it makes for a logical swap.
I decided to take elements from both in my version. I used the Savoy ratios but kept the mandarin liqueur (because I actually quite like it) and then added bitters which is also part of later recipes. I will include all 3 recipes here if you’d like to experiment. Leave a note about your favorite in the comments below!
OG Opera (my version)
2 oz Roku Gin by Suntory
.5 oz Dubonnet Rouge Amaro
.5 oz Mandarin Napoleon Liqueur
2 dashes spiced orange bitters
Stir over ice, pour into coupe, garnish with a dramatic orange twist (I mean, it’s the Opera!)
Opera - Jacques Straub 1914
.75 oz Dry Gin
.75 oz Dubonnet Rouge
2 bar spoons Crème De Mandarin
Shaken and garnished with an orange twist
Opera - Savory Cocktail Book 1930
2 oz Gin
.5 oz Dubonnet Rouge
.5 oz Maraschino liqueur
(later versions also add a dash or two of orange bitters
