Gin and dry orange curaçao are pulled taut by fresh lime, and a dash each of aromatic and orange bitters turns the whole thing tart, dry and bracingly aromatic. Shaken hard and served up, it drinks cold and bright, the curaçao's bitter-orange edge tucked in behind the gin's botanicals while a twist of lime peel sharpens the nose.
Garnish: Lime Peel
Shaken · Coupe · Up
add
Add gin, curaçao, lime juice, Angostura bitters, and orange bitters to a shaker.
shake
Fill with cubed ice and shake until well chilled, about 10–15 seconds.
strain
Double-strain into a chilled coupe.
garnish
Express a lime twist over the surface and drop it in.
The drink borrows its name from the Pegu Club, a colonial-era gentlemen's club on the edge of Rangoon in Burma, where it served as the house cocktail, though the record credits no individual with devising it. Its first printed recipe came in 1923, in Harry McElhone's ABC of Mixing Cocktails, and in that early form the lime arrived as preserved Rose's juice in only a small amount. Harry Craddock later gave it a place in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, describing it as a drink "asked for around the world." In 2005 Audrey Saunders revived it in New York.