Cognac and gin share the base, fresh lime and two dashes of Angostura sharpen and spice it, and a generous pour of ginger beer stretches the whole thing long over ice. Spicy, citrusy and deceptively easy-drinking, it pairs the cognac's roundness with the gin's lift and a lingering ginger bite, while a sprig of mint perfumes every sip.
Garnish: Mint Sprig, Orange Wheel
shaken · Collins · On the Rocks
add
Add the cognac, gin, fresh lime juice, and Angostura bitters to a shaker (everything except the ginger beer).
shake
Add ice and shake well until chilled.
strain
Pour or strain into an ice-filled Collins glass (or the original S. Bastard mug).
top
Top up with ginger beer.
garnish
Garnish with a mint sprig, and optionally an orange slice.
Joe Scialom, tending bar at Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo, mixed the first one in 1942 as a hangover remedy, reportedly to put bleary British officers from the desert fighting near El Alamein back on their feet. Bourbon was a documented wartime stand-in for the cognac, and that swap is tied to two rowdier relatives, the Dying Bastard and the Dead Bastard. Trader Vic later produced a rum version, and the drink went on to become a staple of the tiki era and an IBA official cocktail.