Cocktails from *Cecil Beaton's Cocktail Book*.
Photo: Courtesy of Claridge's
Channel the Glamorous 1920s with Cecil Beaton’s Cocktail Recipes
Classic drinks that epitomize the era get a contemporary twist in a delightful new book
The cover of Cecil Beaton's Cocktail Book. Photo: Courtesy of D.A.P I Art Book
No group exuded the opulence of the roaring twenties better than the Bright Young Things, the eccentric, glamorous, and Bohemian aristocrats of London. Now you can channel that energy with Cecil Beaton’s Cocktail Book, which was published in conjunction with a major museum exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London in the spring. It features classic recipes inspired by the era’s decadent drinks, contributed by Claridge’s bar manager Denis Broci, coupled with dazzling portraits of Beaton’s fabulous friends, who were certainly not, in his words, “slaves of the ordinary.”
Below, five recipes from the book to make you feel like a glamorous Bright Young Thing too.
A spread from Cecil Beaton's Cocktail Book. Photo: Courtesy of D.A.P I Art Book
1. Great Maiden’s Blush
An amusing interplay of meaning and ingredients, this cocktail offers a twist on the Maiden’s Blush, the British name for the cuisse de nymphe émue, a rose variety by which the sparkling wine of this cocktail is affectionately known in France.
5/6 oz Tanqueray London gin
5/6 oz elderflower cordial
5/6 oz lemon juice
2 drops rhubarb bitters
Top with Laurent-Perrier rosé
Add all ingredients to a wineglass, stir with ice, and top up with Champagne. Garnish with a pink grapefruit slice.
Aviation cocktail from Cecil Beaton's Cocktail Book. Photo: Courtesy of Claridge's
2. Aviation
A drink to whisk those who enjoy it high into the blue sky. Its pale blue color comes from the violet liqueur, although the International Bartenders Association official cocktail leaves this out.
1 2/3 oz Plymouth Gin
1/6 oz crème de violette
1/6 oz maraschino
2/3 oz lemon juice
1/6 oz sugar syrup
Shake and fine strain into a frozen martini glass. Garnish with cherry.
A spread from Cecil Beaton's Cocktail Book. Photo: Courtesy of D.A.P I Art Book
3. Corpse Reviver
For those who are all partied out, the corpse reviver are a family of cocktails originally intended as hangover cures. Most of the corse reviver cocktails have been lost to time, but the most famous date back to the 1930s and recipes crafted by Harry Craddock.
1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin
2/3 oz Lillet Blanc
2/3 oz Cointreau
2/3 oz lemon juice
3 drops of Pernod Absinthe
1/6 oz sugar syrup
Shake and fine strain into a frozen martini glass. Garnish with lemon discard (zest) and maraschino cherry.
Clover Club cocktail. Photo: Courtesy of Claridge's
4. Clover Club
A delightfully rich elixir of fresh ingredients and spirits. The frothy-topped and garish pink mixture might not seem the height of sophistication, but it was the firm favorite of the high-minded lawyers and writers of the pre-Prohibition gentlemen’s club in Philadelphia from which it takes its name.
1 2/3 oz Plymouth Gin
5/6 oz lemon juice
2/3 oz egg white
1/3 oz raspberry syrup
3 fresh raspberries
Shake vigorously—more than normal—to properly mix the egg white and raspberry syrup, and fine strain into a frozen coupette. Garnish with three fresh raspberries on a cocktail stick.
Cecil Beaton, Paula Gellibrand, Marquesa de Casa Maury Against Sequined Curtains, 1928. Photo: © The Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's
5. Hanky Panky
1 1⁄3 oz Plymouth Gin
1 1⁄3 oz Martini Riserva Rubino
3 drops of Fernet-Branca
Stir the ingredients and pour into a frozen coupette glass. Garnish with orange coin.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2020 Summer issue in the section The Artful Life. Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: Cocktails from *Cecil Beaton's Cocktail Book*.
Photo: Courtesy of Claridge's
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