Acacia – Recipe from David Embury’s ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’

1 part Benedictine 

3 to 4 parts Gin

1 teaspoonful Kirsch to each drink 

This cocktail (the original recipe, with a larger proportion of Benedictine) won the first prize at the championship cocktail contest at Biarritz in 1928. It can be still further improved by adding 2 parts of lemon juice and another 3 to 4 parts of gin.

I would love to go to a cocktail competition in Biarritz, and I also love the idea of such a competition’s results finding their way back across the Atlantic to Embury’s notebook.

Not having Kirsch, a cherry eau de vie, I used my supply of Maraschino to bring in the cherry flavour, and I suspect this did not help. The drink itself was just to syrupy with the Benedictine and the Maraschino each adding in sugar, and the gin not being able to cut through this enough to make a nice drink. I really should have tried Embury’s improvement, but the idea of adding all that Lemon and Gin turns it into a completely different drink, going from something with martini aspirations to a 8-2-1 sour.

Not a winner, and I’m dubious as to how good his adaptation would be, so it will go untried.