The Polo Cocktail No. 1

Before all the madness of 2020, my wife and I loved to go to great bars wherever we were. Whether we were going someplace close to home or on vacation, there is a common thread to the places we found ourselves in, a great cocktail bar. In a great bar there is so much more than just making a good drink. It's a combination of location, personnel, interior design, lighting, music, and finally the drink that ends up in front of you. Bars that fully imprinted themselves in my memory are; The Columbia Room - Washington, D.C., The Cloakroom - Montreal, Quebec, Tongue Cut Sparrow - Houston, TX.

Of course these bars have amazingly talented bartenders that are constantly creating new and different drinks with ever more complicated recipes including shrubs and syrups that were all made in house. These drinks taste amazing but, they aren’t that easy to duplicate at home. That’s why I stick to the classics when I am making drinks for myself.

This past year for Christmas a friend of mine, Chris Trepky, gave me a copy of The Savoy Cocktail Book which was published in 1930. The book was written by Harry Craddock who was one of the world's most famous bartenders whose career spanned the globe. His book contains over 750 drinks and most of them are what we would call the “classics” today.

Due to the pandemic I, like many, have been doing almost all my drinking exclusively at home. This is great for the budget but really just doesn't have the same feeling as walking into those revered establishments of higher drinking mentioned earlier. This particular cocktail has been a pleasure to go through because, outside of a few lesser used liqueurs, even with a moderately stocked bar you can make a fair amount of the drinks.

One I have found myself going back to is the Polo Cocktail No. 1. This drink is smooth and elegant. The vermouth is balanced with the botanicals in the gin and the hint of acid brightens everything up.

⅓ Dry Gin - Bombay London Dry

⅓ Italian Vermouth Vermouth - Dolin Rouge

⅓ French Vermouth - Dolin Dry

¼ of a lemon squeezed

Shake over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Cheers,

Jake Shields