Bronx (cocktail)

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The Bronx cocktail in a martini glass

The Bronx is a classic cocktail made from gin , two different vermouths and orange juice . It developed in New York City in the early 20th century . The Bronx was the first common and well-known cocktail made with orange juice. It is named after the New York borough of the Bronx . The ingredients are those of a martini , which has also been mixed with orange juice.

history

The Bronx quickly went from being an unfamiliar drink to being a familiar standard drink. While it was still unknown around 1900, by 1910 it was hard to imagine festivals and events on the east coast of the USA.

The exact origin is unclear. The first written mention of it comes from a drinks menu of unknown origin from around 1900 held by the New York Historical Society . The first mention in a newspaper report is from the New York Police gazette from 1904, among a list of new cocktails. In 1907, the cocktail suddenly appeared in various newspaper reports, menus and at events.

Inventors named over the years were Johnnie Solon, former bartender at New York's Waldorf Astoria , the Peter Sellers cafe on Brook Avenue in the Bronx and the Criterin Restaurant in New York. The classic Waldorf Astorias recipe consists of 1.5 ounces of gin, three-quarters of an ounce of orange juice, and a teaspoon each of Italian and French vermouth. These are shaken with ice and then strained into a glass.

The Bronx also received criticism because many drinkers found it too weak to taste. They also criticized that it would be nonsense to make a perfect martini worse with breakfast ingredients. While the drink was widespread at the beginning of the 20th century, it is rarely found on bar menus today. The decline is said to be related to prohibition in the USA. The strong taste of orange juice also helped mask the often low-quality alcohol that was available in the United States during the era of prohibition. This is why the Bronx was one of the most popular cocktails during the prohibition era, but after its abolition too many people associated bad memories of low-quality alcohol with it and switched to other drinks.

reception

In the novel The Great Gatsby , published in 1925, depicting the life of New York's upper class, the Gatsbys purchased an automatic orange juice squeezer to satisfy the great need for Bronx cocktails for their parties.

The 1934 film The Thin Man also sheds light on the image of cocktails as drinks for exuberant parties . There the protagonist Nick Charles describes various cocktails: The important thing is the rhythm. Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you always shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time. While the Martini should be shaken to the beat of the slow waltz, which is considered to be elegant , and the Manhattan in classic Foxtrot rhythm, the Bronx should be shaken to the beat of Two Steps , an exuberant folk dance to Cajun music .

According to the New York Times, the Bronx Cocktail and the Bronx Cheer were largely responsible for the fact that the entire district in the 1930s had an image of dilapidated dubious province with strange pastimes.

variants

Common variants are the Bronx Silver with an additional egg white and the Bronx Gold with an egg yolk. The Income Tax Cocktail extends the recipe with a Dash Angostura bitter , the Satan's Whiskers with orange liqueur and orange bitters.

Remarks

  1. ↑ David Wondrich: Imbibe , Penguin November 2007 ISBN 978-0-399-53287-0 p. 222
  2. ↑ a b c David Wondrich: Imbibe , Penguin November 2007 ISBN 978-0-399-53287-0 p. 223
  3. ↑ Paul Clarke: Time for a Drink: The Bronx , Serious Eats April 18, 2008
  4. ↑ Vicky Gan: Slurred Lines: Great Cocktail Moments in Famous Literature , Smithsonian.com August 30, 2013
  5. ↑ Nora: The Celluloid Pantry: The Bronx and The Thin Man (1934) , The kitchn, January 24, 2006
  6. ↑ Jill Jonnes: South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City Fordham Univ. Press, 2002 ISBN 0823221997 p. 79
  7. ↑ Simon Difford: Silver Bronx. Retrieved December 12, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Harry Craddock: Savoy Cocktail Book . Constable and Company Ltd, London 1970, ISBN 0-09-451811-4 , pp. 78 .
  9. ↑ Harry Craddock: Savoy Cocktail Book . Constable and Company Ltd, London 1970, ISBN 0-09-451811-4 , pp. 130 .