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Tipples → Mixed Drinks → Blossoms → Fancy Blossoms → Fancy by Liqueur

Harlem Blossom

Elemental Mixology's Rating:

:

• @ 7-to-1:
  • Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide. Garden City; Victor Bergeron, 1972
  • Jones' Complete Barguide. Los Angeles; Stan Jones, 1977

Proportioned here @ 3 + 7-to-1 (2+1-to-1)

Jump to: History | Short Script Instructions for One Portion | Full Recipe and Instructions for One Portion

Short Script Instructions for One Portion

• ¾ fl-oz. pineapple juice
• ⅛ jigger crème marasquin
• ⅞ jigger dry gin

Shake with ice. Finely-strain into a chilled claret goblet. Garnish with a skewered cherry.

Full Recipe and Instructions for One Portion

Have the folowwing items:

Service-ware

• 5½ fl-oz. glass claret goblet
  
• garniture skewer
    #1: stainless steel, with spiral^*
• 4-inch beverage napkin
    #1: cotton (five times washable)^*
    #2: linen-feel paper^*

Tools

• fetcher spoon
    #1: stainless steel, with hole^*
• 28 fl-oz. and 18 fl-oz. shaker and cheater set
    #1: stainless steel, fitted^*
  
• jigger-and-pony measure
   [2 fl-oz. by 1 fl-oz. / ~60 ml. by ~30 ml.]
    #1: stainless double-bell^*
    #2: twentieth century-style^*
    #3: Japanese-style^*
• 3-to-1 split pony
   [¾ fl-oz. by ¼ fl-oz. / ~22.5 ml. by ~7.5 ml.]
    #1: Liberty Ware™ Jig-1434
• ice scoop
    #1: steel with drain holes^*
• Hawthorne strainer
    #1: short-tailed steel^*
• mesh strainer (3” to 4”)
    #1: rustproof stainless^*

Ingredients

• preserved cherries
    #1: Luxardo™ Marasche^*
    #2: Penninsula™ Premium American Cherries^*
• juice of pineapple (Ananas comosus)
   (freshly-pressed is often best)
• dry gin
    #1: Broker's™ London Dry Gin
    #2: Ford's™ London Dry Gin
    #3: Seagram's™ Distiller's Reserve Gin
• crème marasquin (or Italian maraschino)
    #1: Luxardo™ Maraschino Originale
    #2: Briottet™ Crème Marasquin
• method ice (also called 'cracked ice')
   (half the size of service ice)
    #1: mold for ~half-ounce cubes^*

Instructions

1. Chill the claret goblet.
2. Use the fetcher spoon to help skewer a preserved cherry most the length through and reserve it.
3. Set the shaker in the work area. Into it goes:
• • pineapple juice — ¾ ponyfull
   [¾ fl-oz. / ~22.5 ml.]
4. Set the jigger-&-pony in the work area with the jigger side up. Into it goes (using the ¼ pony measure for the first ingredient):
   • • crème marasquin — ⅛ jiggerfull
      [¼ ponyfull / ¼ fl-oz. / ~7.5 ml.]
   • • dry gin — fill - being ⅞ jiggerfull
      [1¾ poniesfull / 1¾ fl-oz. / ~52.5 ml.]
5. Pour the above combined jiggerfull of liquor into the shaker.
6. Set the chilled, empty goblet in the work area.
7. Take the shaker to the ice. Into it is added:
• • method ice — ¾ fill
8. Set the shaker back in the work area.
9. Fit the cheater into the shaker, lift it, and butt the cheater with the palm of the hand to seal it.
10. Shake the ingredients very hard for nine seconds to mix, chill-dilute and aerate.
11. Set the shaker down in the work area.
12. Snap the cheater to the side to unseal it, and remove the cheater.
13. Fit the Hawthorne strainer into the shaker's top.
14. Hold the mesh strainer in the other hand over the goblet.
15. Finely-strain the drink (through both strainers) into the goblet.
16. Garnish the drink with:
• • preserved cherry (reserved in step #2) — 1
   (placed in the drink with the handle or knob of the skewer on the rim).
17. Serve the drink on the napkin.

Tipple History

This drink was almost surely first made in the late 1920's or early 1930’s. It may well have been the intended entry, apparently missing, before the “Harlem #2” in the World Drinks Company book of 1934.

Both erroneously called 'cocktails' at the time, the Monkey Gland Blossom, and the Harlem Blossom, were associated with the Cotton Club – and the phenomenon of New Yorkers from other parts of Manhattan going to Harlem for an evening out during Prohibition.

That phenomenon went into decline as a result of Repeal late in the year 1933. Alcohol no longer needed to be sought out. It was everywhere.

Racial tension in Harlem after the 1935 riots cast a pall over what remained of the Cotton Club's business model. The original location on Lenox Avenue in Harlem was closed in 1936. Re-establishment in other areas, and countries, has been attempted, but there is no longer the Cotton Club in New York.

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