The Spirits #84: The Income Tax

~ Fiscal Events ~ Nothing to Brag or Write Home About ~ Orange Zest ~ Of Course They Do Of Course They Do ~ LARPING ~

~ THE INCOME TAX ~

5-6 swathes of orange peel
Teaspoon of sugar
40ml gin
20ml French vermouth (dry)
20ml Italian vermouth (red)
10m orange juice
Dash Angostura bitters

Carefully remove the peel from half an orange, avoiding as much white pith as possible. Place in the bottom of your shaker along with a scant teaspoon of sugar. Pound the sugar into the peel to arrive at a nice orange sherbert. Now add the booze, the juice, and half a trayfull of ice. Shake, to a two-step rhythm, and double-strain into a very cold cocktail glass. Use fresh orange peel for the garnish.

Some Income Tax notes:

1. The Income Tax Cocktail is a long-forgotten variation on a long-forgotten cocktail: The Bronx. The Bronx was once held in similar esteem to your Martinis and Manhattans. It was, reputedly, the first cocktail to contain fruit juice and I have a sneaking suspicion it is what was served at Jay Gatsby’s parties (though it is not mentioned by name: “There was a machine in the kitchen which could extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler’s thumb”.)

2. The Bronx fell from favour post-Prohibition and has been passed over in the recent cocktail revival. It is, according to David Embury (a tax inspector as well as a cocktailist) is “only a fairly good cocktail - nothing to brag or write home about.” I believe the Income Tax - basically a Bronx with bitters - first appeared in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book but I couldn’t tell you how it got its name.

3. What I can tell you is that the bitters really sew the whole drink together. And if you perform the orange zest ritual at the beginning (my invention) well you have yourself a drink that you can legitimately write home about. What the orange sherbert gives it is an old-time warmth and brightness,

4. I also made this with fino sherry in place of the French vermouth and this too was an improvement. And something about the way those tastes mesh together suggests to me that actually, Scotch might not be such a bad substitute for the gin, too? But now we are quite far into Income Tax derivatives. What to call this? The Collateralised Debt Obligation? The Credit Default Swap? The Mini-Budget? Ah yes that’ll do.

5. I dont understand the whole Negroni Sbagliato with Prosecco thing either.

Eeeeee-welcome. In THE SPIRITS.

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🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑‍🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
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PLAYLIST

Let’s get fiscal! I thought this would be on the money:

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WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING

I went to the River Café (lucky me) to talk to Ruth Rogers and her head chefs Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trivelli about the River Café Look Book, their first cookbook for children. It’s a really special book, I think - with a fascinating story behind it. (The Telegraph)

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING

Thomas-Corr appointed new literary editor of the Sunday Times(!) (The Bookseller)

Friend of the Spirits Alice Lascelles’s excellent new book, The Cocktail Edit. More on which in a future post! (Order here)

Inside the Thatcher LARP by John Lanchester (LRB)

Also, WTAF? by William Davies (LRB)

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SHOPPING LIST

Hmm, how about something warming and autumnal? Black tea, brandy, absinthe, lemon, sugar.