You may find the Monkey Gland cocktail curiously invigorating

Regular Salt Lake City readers are doubtless aware that the Utah Mixologist regularly dips into the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) for classic cocktail recipes.  One classic cocktail that the mixologist had noticed, but never tried, recently showed up on late night television.  Newscaster and amateur mixologist Rachel Maddow of MSNBC was on the Jimmy Fallon Show and shook him up a Monkey Gland cocktail that Rachel told Jimmy would increase his virility (you can find the cocktail video here (it’s the bottom of three videos)).  The main ingredients of the Monkey Gland are Gin and Orange Juice, which parallels the Opal (also from the Savoy), but here the two are a little more on their own, and the result is pretty good.

The Savoy’s measurements have been translated to more easy-to-use measures in the recipe below.  The conversion from “1/3” and “2/3” measures are explained in How does your classic cocktail measure up? and dashes are discussed in Dash it all!  How to mix consistently great cocktails.  Try your first Monkey Gland with only ½ teaspoons of Absinthe and work your way up from there. Remember, you don’t want the Absinthe to overwhelm the Gin.  The color of the final product is a little more attractive than it looked on TV.  Tanqueray®, a more “ginny” Gin, was selected to stand up to the Absinthe.  (If you don’t have any Absinthe, substitute Pernod® or another anise-based liqueur.)

Monkey Gland

1 ½ oz Tanqueray® Gin

¾ oz freshly squeezed Orange Juice

3 dashes (½ to ¾ teaspoon) Absinthe

3 dashes (¾ teaspoon) Grenadine

Add the ingredients to a shaker 2/3 full of ice.  Shake until nice and icy cold.  Strain into a pre-chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an Orange twist or a wedge of Orange.  Feel your virility increase (sorry, ladies) as you enjoy your first sip.