Stephen’s – Recipe from the ‘Old Waldorf Bar Guide’

One-third Sherry 

One-third French Vermuth

One-third Benedictine 

Frappe

Almost 2/3’s of the way through which feels like a small achievement, the scary thing is I still have a 1/3 of the way to go which seems like a long long road, still.

I feel a little stupid for not being cleverer about which drinks I had on which days, I missed a couple of milestones, like Dorothy Parkers birthday, Pisco day, Rum day and Jamaica Day, but I still have both Winston Churchills birthday and Sinatra’s to celebrate. I kind of feel like I should’ve had this one on my birthday, although to be fair it’s just my parents that use this name for me these days. I remember quite clearly the day my name became shortened, it was my first ever night working in a bar on Christmas eve 25 years ago, I quickly realised the shortened version was a lot more user friendly in a noisy bar and its stayed that way ever since.

The other thing that’s stopped me from trying this sooner was the ingredients, sherry, despite how much I love it, has failed to find its way into my kitchen at home which has trimmed my options a little.

I love sherry, especially the Oloroso I used in this drink, it has such a lush depth of dried fruit flavour it just makes every drink better, I am constantly reminded of the wisdom of using sherry barrels to age other spirits in every time I try it in a drink, and this was no different. Surprisingly the Benedictine gets a little lost, the front and middle is all the sherry and the vermouth is the end, the Benedictine seems to hold court at the back, bringing sweetness and an almost in-perceivable flavour alongside the others, its one of those drinks that you try and go ‘oh, that’s really not bad at all’, but don’t rush to try again.