Literary Cocktails Booklet


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17


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1

Honey:

George:

Martha:

- Edward Albee, 

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Oh, I don’t know, a little brandy 

maybe. “Never mix, never worry!”

Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?

Sure! “Never mix, never worry!”


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2

Vesper Martini

- Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

‘A dry martini,’ Bond said. ‘One. In a deep 

champagne goblet’ . . . Just a moment. Three 

measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure 

of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, 

then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?”

Ingredients

1/2 part Vodka
1 part Gin
1/4 part Lillet Blanc

Shake over ice until well 
chilled, then strain into a deep goblet and 
garnish with a thin slice of lemon peel.


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3

Mint Julep

Ingredients

1 teaspoon powdered sugar
2 oz Bourbon whiskey
2 teaspoons water 
4 mint leaves

Gently muddle the mint, sugar and water. 
Fill a highball glass with cracked ice, add 
Bourbon and stir well until the glass is 
well frosted. Garnish with a mint sprig.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Daisy, “Open the whiskey, Tom, and I’ll 

make you a mint julep. Then you won’t seem 

so stupid to yourself.... Look at the mint!”


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4

At five o'clock I was in the Hotel Crillon, waiting 

for Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and 

wrote some letters. They were not very good letters 

but I hoped their being on Crillon stationery would 

help them. Brett did not turn up, so about quarter 

to six I went down to the bar and had a Jack Rose 

with George the barman.

Jack Rose

Ingredients

2 parts Applejack
1 part lemon or lime juice
1/2 part Grenadine

Traditionally shaken into a chilled glass, 
garnished, and served straight up; without ice

- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises


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5

- Tennessee Williams,

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The click I get in my head when I’ve had 

enough of this stuff to make me peaceful.

Ingredients

1 oz Bourbon
1 tablespoon mild honey
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup boiling-hot water

Put bourbon, honey, and lemon juice in a 
mug. Top off with hot water and stir until 
honey is dissolved.

Hot Toddy


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6

‘Let me build you a drink. Something new. 

They call it a White Angel,’ he said, mixing 

one-half vodka, one-half gin, no vermouth.

White Angel 

[Naked Martini]

Ingredients

1 part vodka
1 part gin
No Vermouth!

Shake over ice for about 
ten seconds. Strain into 
a cocktail glass.

- Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s


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7

Anybody who monkeys around with gin and egg 

white deserves what he gets. I should have stuck 

with Bourbon and have from that day to this.

Gin Fizz

Ingredients

2 oz Gin
1 oz Fresh lemon juice
3⁄4 oz Simple syrup

Mix the first four ingredients to a shaker 
and dry-shake (without ice) for about 10 
seconds. Add 3 or 4 ice cubes and shake 
very well. Double-strain into a chilled 
fizz glass and top with club soda.

- Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins

1 Egg white 
1 oz Club soda


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8

I ordered a Scotch and soda, and told him not to 

mix it—I said it fast as hell, because if you hem 

and haw, they think you’re under twenty-one 

and won’t sell you any intoxicating liquor.

Scotch & Soda

Ingredients

2oz Scotch Whiskey
Club Soda to top

Add the scotch to a 
highball glass filled
with ice, then top with 
club soda & stir briefly.

- J.D. Salinger, 

The Catcher in the Rye


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9

We had actually been sitting there in the 

Polo Lounge – for many hours – drinking 

Singapore Slings with mezcal on the side and 

beer chasers.

Singapore Sling

Ingredients

11/2 oz Gin
¾ oz Cherry Liqueur
1/2 oz Benedictine
3 oz pineapple juice

Add all the ingredients except the club soda 
into a shaker with ice & shake. Strain into 
a highball glass, and top with club soda. 
Garnish with an orange slice and  cherry.

- Hunter S. Thompson, 

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

1/2 oz lime juice
1/4 oz Grenadine 
Dash of Bitters
Club soda to top 


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10

We sat in a corner of the bar at Victor’s and 

drank gimlets. ‘They don’t know how to make 

them here,’ [Lennox] said. What they call a 

gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice, and 

gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real 

gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice 

and nothing else.

Gimlet

Ingredients

1 part Rose’s Lime Juice
2 parts Gin

Mix & serve. Garnish with a slice of lime.

- Raymond Chandler, 

The Long Goodbye


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11

Dean and I had ended up with a colored guy 

called Walter who ordered drinks at the bar 

and had them lined up and said, ‘Wine-

spodiodi!’ which was a shot of port wine, a 

shot of whisky, and a shot of port wine, ‘Nice 

sweet jacket for all that bad whisky!’ he yelled.

Wine-Spodiodi

Ingredients

1 part Bourbon Whiskey
2 parts Red Port

Mix port wine and 
whiskey in a small 
goblet glass & serve.

- Jack Kerouac, On the Road


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12

He wondered what a beer milk shake 

would taste like. The idea gagged him a bit 

but he couldn’t let it alone. It cropped up 

every time he had a glass of beer. Would it 

curdle like milk? Would you add sugar?

Beer Milkshake

ingredients

1 cup milk
1/2 bottle of beer

Combine milk and 
beer in a tall glass.

- John Steinbeck, Cannery Row


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13

I suspect the review above was written 

by a pansy full of Brandy Alexanders.

Brandy Alexander

Ingredients

1 part Fresh cream
1 part Cognac
1 part Crème de cacao

Mix / Shake & strain into a chilled 
cocktail glass. Add a sprinkling of fresh 
ground nutmeg.

- Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night


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14

Punch

Ingredients

1 pint of rum
1 wine-glass of brandy
1 cup of sugar
1 liter / quart of boiling water
3 lemons


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15

To divert his thoughts from this melancholy 

subject, I informed Mr. Micawber that I relied 

upon him for a bowl of punch, and led him to 

the lemons. His recent despondency, not to say 

despair, was gone in a moment. I never saw 

a man so thoroughly enjoy himself amid the 

fragrance of lemon-peel and sugar, the odour of 

burning rum, and the steam of boiling water.

Peel lemons, adding peels to sugar is a 
large, heat-proof crockpot with a lid (do 
not use glass or plastic). Pour brandy and 
rum into the bowl. Heat mixture for 3-4 
minutes on the stove. Once heated, add a 
quart of boiling water and squeeze in the 
juice from the lemons. Allow to simmer 
for 10-15 minutes, cool slightly, and serve.

- Charles Dickens,  David Copperfield


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16

The layering of a lasagna, garlicking of 

a bread, tearing up of romaine leaves, 

eventually, oven on, into the mixing of the 

twilight’s whiskey sours.

Whiskey Sour

Ingredients

1 part simple syrup
2 parts lemon juice
3 parts bourbon

Shake with ice. Strain into 
ice-filled old-fashioned 
glass to serve “on the rocks.”

- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying Lot of 49


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18

"I drink to make 

 other people 

 more interesting."

- Ernest Hemingway