Chinese Cocktail

In The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book (2016) Frank Caiafa gives a version that is 2oz Jamaican Rum (or 1 oz each congnac and aged rum agricole), .25oz Pierre Ferrand dry curacao, .25 maraschino liqueur (or creme de noyaux...or amaretto, or orgeat), .25 grenadine (or simple syrup), and 2 dashes Angostura. He notes that the suggestions in parentheses are based on how 'the Old Books' listed the recipe. I tried his version as listed (and very close to the recipe in the entry here), using appleton reserve 8yr without the suggested substitutions, and it was quite good. The maraschino hits hard, but it works really well with the rum, and makes me want to experiment with that combo.

I tried with with the Savoy ratios (2:1:1 bsp:1 bsp:1 dash) using Appleton Estate hoping to reduce the sweetness tolerably vs. Smith & Cross. I used my own pomegranate grenadine, but there is just far too much grenadine in the recipe to make this anything other than a syrupy sweet drink. The flavor would be pleasant if not so cloying, utterly lacking offsetting acid or bitter. I tried to adjust the already prepared drink with 1/2 oz of lime juice, which helped but was still insufficient. This is a vintage cocktail that just doesn't work as written. It might make a decent long drink with the lime juice and plenty of soda water to tame the sugar.

The 1935 Waldorf Astoria book evens out the grenadine by making it 3 dashes each of grenadine, maraschino, and curaçao. So when I made it, it was 2 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 2 dashes. https://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2017/03/chinese-cocktail.html

There are several versions of this cocktail in the 20's and 30's. The earliest I have found so far in a quick (not exhaustive) search is in a 1924 Swiss cocktail book, "Carlo's Les Cocktails et Les Boissons Americaines" by Carlo Beltramo. I don't know if this is the root recipe or not, but it is listed as the "Chine cocktail" and looks like a reasonable drink, probably the most complete of the lot: 1/2 tsp Angostura Bitters, 1 tsp maraschino, 1 tsp red curacao, 1 tsp grenadine, 50 mL of aged Jamaican rum. Stir and pour into cocktail glass, with a cherry and lemon zest.

I don't know why the large amount of grenadine crept into many later recipes, but in the 1927 "Barflies & Cocktails" listing for the Chinese it is there as: 1 dash Angostura, 3 dashes Maraschino, 3 dashes Curacao, 1/ 6 Syrup Grenadine, 1/3 Jamaica Rum. Shake well and strain. (Recipe by F. P. Newman, Paris. ) Savoy (Craddock) seems to have just copied this dubious recipe.

1934's Boothby recipe for the Chinese is more towards the 1924 recipe: Rum 2/3 jigger, Curacoa 2 dashes, Grenadine 2 dashes, Maraschino 2 dashes, Bitters 2 drops

I gave the 1924 Chine Cocktail recipe a try and it is not bad, 3/5. I used ~7/8 oz each of Appleton Estate and Wray & Nephew, 1 barspoon (teaspoon size) of P.F. Dry Curacao, 1 bsp of my pomegranate grenadine, 1 bsp Luxardo, and an actual 1/2 barspoon (1/2 teaspoon, close to 4+ dashes) of Angostura Aromatic Bitters. [Note that red curacao from Senior would likely be considerably sweeter.] I expressed the lemon peel and dropped it into the drink since I wanted it to help balance the sugar, then added a Luxardo cherry.

This makes for a full flavor intensity drink--still sweet but the baking spice/bitters help balance that.