Prince of Wales (Cocktail)

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Prince of Wales Cocktail in a silver cup

The Prince of Wales [ pɹɪns əvˈweɪlz ] is a classic cocktail . Its alcoholic base is mostly cognac , which is refined with liqueurs and bitters, topped up with a little champagne and often served in a silver cup. The drink is named after the Prince of Wales , a title of nobility that traditionally denotes the heir to the throne in the British monarchy . When the cocktail was created at the end of the 19th century, it was worn by Crown Prince Albert Edward , Queen Victoria's eldest son . He remained Prince of Wales for 59 years and was considered an "eternal heir to the throne" until he finally ascended the throne in 1901 as Edward VII .

history

King Edward VII, formerly Prince of Wales , at his coronation, 1902

The exact origin of the cocktail is uncertain, but its origin in the late 19th century and the reference to Crown Prince Albert Edward are certain. In a biography published anonymously in 1901, allegedly written by a "member of the royal household", the drink is attributed to the king himself:

“He is also credited with having composed an excellent 'cocktail'. It consists of a little rye whiskey, crushed ice, a small square of pineapple, a dash of Angostura bitters, a piece of lemon peel, a few drops of Maraschino, a little champagne, and powdered sugar to taste. This 'short drink' is often asked for at the clubs which he frequencies. "

“He is also said to have created an excellent ' cocktail '. This consists of some rye whiskey , crushed ice, a small piece of pineapple , a splash of Angostura bitter , a piece of lemon peel, a few drops of maraschino , some champagne and powdered sugar to taste. This ' short drink ' is often ordered in clubs he visits. "

- NN : The Private Life of King Edward VII

Exact quantities and preparation are not specified, but the ingredients show that the cocktail was based on the Improved Whiskey Cocktail , popular at the time , and varied it by adding champagne. According to cocktail historian David Wondrich, it was fashionable in upscale bars in the 1880s to add a dash of champagne to almost every drink “from brandy punch to Manhattan ”.

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, or "Bertie", as he was called in the immediate family, was considered a bon vivant in his day and, according to Wondrich, would have probably made a "damn good bartender ". After his father, Prince Consort Albert von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha, died early, he did have representative duties, since his mother, Queen Victoria , as a widow, increasingly shied away from the public. However, it kept him largely away from the actual government business and only involved him to a limited extent in official duties. This not only gave the Prince of Wales enough time to cultivate his numerous extramarital affairs, he could also pursue his preferences such as gambling, theater, art, horse racing, nightclubs and vaudeville . Albert Edward became a "playboy prince" and was apparently also very fond of alcoholic enjoyments. It is likely that at the age of 18, during a trip to the United States in 1860 - the first ever visit to the United States by a member of the British monarchy - the crown prince became acquainted with, and possibly even, the developing cocktail and bar culture there met the legendary bartender Jerry Thomas . In the mixbooks by Jerry Thomas that appeared from 1862 onwards, a drink called Prince of Wales does not appear.

A recipe with this name is mentioned for the first time in the mixbook Bariana by Louis Fouquet, published in Paris in 1896 , in the third part of the recipe collection under the heading "Cobblers, Punches". According to Fouquet, these were drinks that were served with lots of ice and garnished with fruit. For the preparation of a Prince of Wales (Fouquet also calls the French name "Prince de Galles") a small beaker ("Glass B", which holds 250 g of water) should be filled with crushed ice, onto which a glass of dry Madeira , 3  Dashes Curaçao , 2 Dashes Noyaux (nut liqueur), a spoonful of powdered sugar and some champagne and soda water , mixed well, put a drinking straw and a lemon wedge over the whole thing and finally added 2 dashes of cherry brandy (a cherry liqueur ).

The recipe from Fouquet and the one from King Edward's biography have in common that the alcoholic base - one whiskey, one Madeira - is combined with small amounts of liqueur or cocktail bitters. The cocktail is prepared like a cobbler with crushed ice, just a little champagne is added and at the end served with a lemon zest or a lemon wedge. However, none of the early recipes called for a silver cup; it was only recommended to go with a drink in the second half of the 20th century.

In later recipes, both the basic ingredients of the cocktail and its preparation varied. Rye whiskey experienced a decline after the end of alcohol prohibition in the United States , so that brandy or cognac was increasingly suggested as a basic spirit in the literature . Frank Meier, bartender at the Hôtel Ritz (Paris) in the 1930s, for example, used ½ glass of Madeira and brandy, 1 teaspoon of Curaçao and 1 dash of Angostura bitters, which he shook with ice in a shaker, strained into a wine glass, filled with champagne and with decorated with an orange zest. The proportions have also been adjusted. For example, the Prince of Wales mentioned by Peter Roth and Carlo Bernasconi , whom the authors attribute to a bartender at Harry's Bar and which is said to have originated in 1936, consists of just 2 cl Cognac, 2 cl Curaçao and the obligatory Dash Angosturabitter, but 12 cl Champagne. The drink is "built" in a chilled champagne glass without ice and garnished with an orange slice and a cocktail cherry. From the original highly alcoholic short drink , like a cobbler with crushed ice served and refined only with a shot of champagne, in this variant, a likörhaltiger was aperitif made in which the Champagne plays the main role.

preparation

Prince of Wales
Typical ingredients, some in historical bottles: cognac , Angostura bitters , champagne , Bénédictine , Cointreau (from left to right).

There is a wide range of recipes and variations for the Prince of Wales . What many have in common are the basic spirits (mostly cognac or rye whiskey ), the rounding off with a few dashes (splashes) of cocktail bitters (usually Angostura bitters ) and small amounts of liqueurs (mostly maraschino , Bénédictine or Curaçao ), the filling with a little champagne and that Serve in a champagne glass or a silver tumbler. When preparing in the cocktail shaker , small pieces of fruit, for example pineapple , are sometimes shaken together and occasionally it is sweetened with powdered sugar or sugar syrup . The amount of champagne to be topped up is not explicitly stated in most recipes, but it should be small in relation to the other ingredients:

“Then a splash of the best champagne crowns the essence of the essential. Historically and metaphorically evident is the fact that it is only a void splash that crowns. It shouldn't bubble, this isn't a jacuzzi. That is gustatory precision mechanics for bon vivants. "

- Oliver Ebert

There are also several options for preparation. The cocktail can be "built" in the guest glass or silver cup or shaken in a shaker. In “building” - as in Fouquet (1896) - the preparation of a mint julep is similar . The mug is filled with crushed ice , followed by the liquid ingredients (except champagne), which are stirred with a bar spoon , before finally adding a shot of well-chilled champagne and carefully mixing. An orange or lemon zest or cocktail cherries are suitable as decoration and are served with a drinking straw. When preparing in a shaker, all ingredients (except champagne) are first shaken on ice cubes and then strained into the drinking vessel . Here too, the chilled champagne is only added at the end and carefully stirred. It is served either on ice in a silver cup or a small tumbler (beaker), alternatively the Prince of Wales can also be drunk straight up, i.e. without ice, from a champagne goblet. Here, decoration is usually not used, but in any case a drinking straw is avoided.

Modern recipes

Based on the recipe from 1901 from the biography of King Edward, David Wondrich (2007) suggests mixing 1 bar spoon (BL) of powdered sugar with a splash of Angostura bitters and ½ BL of water in a cocktail shaker  , all with 4.5  cl of rye Whiskey, 1/4 BL Maraschino, a small piece of fresh pineapple and a few pieces of ice shake vigorously, strain everything into a chilled cocktail glass without ice and pour about 3 cl of champagne and a piece of lemon zest over it.

With reference to Frank Meier's 1936 recipe, the Mixbook Cocktailian (2010) recommends preparing the Prince of Wales from 2 cl Madeira, 2 cl Cognac, 2 Dashes Angosturabitter and 1 BL Curaçao. The ingredients are shaken vigorously on ice in a cocktail shaker, strained into a pre-chilled champagne goblet, filled with champagne and decorated with an orange zest. Jim Meehan interprets the drink in a very similar way in his PDT Cocktail Book (2011) by shaking 3 cl cognac, 3 cl Madeira, 3/4 cl orange liqueur and 1 dash Angostura bitter with ice, straining it into a cocktail bowl, filling it up with 3 cl champagne and decorated with an orange zest. As a reference, however, he mentions Louis Fouquet (1896) and not Meier.

Charles Schumann (2011) recommends serving the drink in a beaker, preferably a silver mug. 1 sugar cube is soaked in Angostura bitter, ice cube, 2 cl cognac, 1 cl Triple Sec , 1 orange and 1 lemon quarters and a cocktail cherry are added, stirred well, filled with champagne and floated with a few dashes Benedictine.

Stephan Hinz (2014) uses 4 cl cognac with 1 BL Maraschino, Curaçao and Bénédictine each, 2 splashes of Angostura bitters and champagne to fill up. The chilled ingredients are “built” directly in the champagne glass or in a silver goblet without ice.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NN: The Private Life of King Edward VII (Prince of Wales, 1841-1901) . D. Appleton, London 1901 (English); Translation of the quote by user: Mangomix .
  2. ↑ a b c David Wondrich: Imbibe! From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash. A Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar . Perigee (Penguin Group), New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-399-53287-0 (English).
  3. ↑ MxMo Submission: The Prince of Wales Cocktail . September 15, 2008, accessed January 22, 2015.
  4. ↑ Louis Fouquet: Bariana. Recueil Pratique de toutes Boissons Américaines et Anglaises. Self-published (Emile Duvoye / Criterion Bar), Paris (no year), p. 82f. The book was probably published in 1896, because the advert for a wine trading house on p. 91 announced that sales of the 1892 vintage would start in January 1897.
  5. ^ Frank Meier: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks. Fryam Press, Paris 1936, p. 75.
  6. ↑ Peter Roth, Carlo Berlasconi: The Mix Book of the Century . Falken-Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-8068-7426-3 , p. 129.
  7. ↑ Oliver Ebert: The essentials and the insignificant of the Prince of Wales , Mixology magazine (online) from August 5, 2012, accessed on January 22, 2015.
  8. ↑ Helmut Adam , Jens Hasenbein, Bastian Heuser: Cocktailian. The bar's manual . Tre Torri, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-941641-41-9 , p. 367.
  9. ↑ Jim Meehan, Chris Gall: The PDT Cocktail Book . Sterling Epicur, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-4027-7923-7 , p. 212 (English). German-language edition: The secret cocktail book . Gestalten Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3899554366 .
  10. ^ Charles Schumann : Schumann's Bar . Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2011 (1st edition), ISBN 978-3-89910-416-5 , p. 164.
  11. ↑ Stephan Hinz : Cocktail Art - The Future of the Bar . Fackelträger Verlag, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-7716-4553-3 , p. 344. Note: The preparation text says “top up with soda” (instead of the champagne mentioned for the ingredients), an obvious mix-up.