Tango – Recipe from ‘Old Waldorf Bar Days’

After the Argentinian dance which first became popular during the early days of the modern dance craze, in 1912 or 1913. 

One-half French Vermuth 

One-half Dry Gin 

White of Egg 

Frappe

 

It’s funny to think of things like the ‘Tango’ as something that’s been invented recently, as opposed to something that’s just been there forever. The Tango also has a delightful beginning, being a combination of German, Czech, Polish, Spanish, Cuban, African, Argentinian and Bohemian dance, the kind of mongrel cultural entity that you’d expect Britain to come up with, if they had rhythm. It started in brothels and bars on the border of Argentina and Uruguay and then spread like wildfire across the world.

One thing I’m enjoying about all these old drinks is how they’re named after cultural events or icons, if we were still doing this today imagine the bar calls, “I’ll have two Macarena’s, an Elon Musk a bittered Trump, and a Virgin Galactic on the rocks thanks”.

The drink itself is a bit of a non-event, essentially the same as a Soul Kiss (26-01-2018) only with ever so slightly different proportions, which as the soul kiss probably pre-dates this by at least 4-5 years it sounds a little like the bartender thought he should invent a ‘Tango’ and pulled out a previously successful(?) recipe and renamed it. Recycling.

Its not a drink I’d recommend, being a wet martini with texture from the egg white, there’s something nice about the crystal clear light sharpness from a martini which is lost in this.