Gin and bright lemon make a sharp, clean sour, but orgeat takes the place of plain syrup, lacing the juniper with a soft, nutty almond sweetness and a faintly floral lift. Shaken hard and served up, it lands clean and balanced — neither cloying nor austere — with a dash of aromatic bitters adding depth and an expressed lemon twist brightening the nose.
Garnish: Lemon Peel
Shaken · Coupe · Up
add
Combine the gin, lemon juice, orgeat, and the dash of aromatic bitters in a shaker with ice.
shake
Shake hard until well chilled.
strain
Double-strain into a chilled coupe, served up.
garnish
Express a lemon twist over the surface and drop it in (a dusting of grated nutmeg is an alternative).
No bartender is on record as its creator, and where it began remains unclear: one guess, drawn from the name alone, points to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C., while another places it in an American-style bar in 1930s London. The name surfaces in print in the Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937, and a full recipe followed in David Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks in 1948, which set gin, lemon and orgeat at two to one to one with no bitters. Later bartenders have trimmed the orgeat in some specs and made a dash of Angostura customary, and the gin, lemon and almond core has gone on to anchor riffs of its own, including one built with vermouth.