Well this time working through our Old Man Drinks book we concentrated on ABCD drinks: the Aviator, Bronx Cocktail, the Clover Club and the Dubonnet.  Naturally, they were all gin based drinks again as that seems to be the booze of choice in the good ole days. We’re getting better at them though and maybe we’re also getting a taste for it since we liked these better overall than most our prior gin mixology efforts.  We also got to try some new things this round:  Vermouth, Dubonnet — which is a red wine liqueur and egg whites!

Aviator
So this drink we realized afterward we had already done earlier — and wouldn’t you know we liked it better this time!  We don’t really know why.  Maybe we had better ingredients or we poured it colder or we were just in a better mood but here’s how it lined up.
Appearance — 4 This has a very pretty appearance and the nicest fragrance of the four
Ease of Prep — 4 Not hard in any way
Taste — 3 This had the strongest gin taste
Overall – 3 plus.We decided we were glad we had repeated this.  This would be a good drink to order to sip on during cocktail hour.

Bronx Cocktail
Loved the name of this — so visual of a time period.  We thought this was decent, not our favorite but not bad either.  Best of all it called for both sweet and dry vermouth which we liked getting to try.
Appearance — 3  Nothing wrong with it really but a little dull compared to the others
Ease of Prep — 4 Nothing tricky to it.
Taste — 3.5 This was Glen’s favorite.  It has orange juice in it and he’s big on those refreshing drinks
Overall — 3.5 A nice drink that represents an era well.

Clover Club
This was the prettiest drink we’ve done so far!  The picture doesn’t do it justice.  And it has a raw egg white in it which helped make it so pretty.  The one thing I thought was a little odd was the name of it.  It seems like a drink called the Clover Club would be green.  I would call this a Powder Puff.  : )
Appearance — 5  The pink color was very inviting
Ease of prep — 4 Not hard but you did have to separate the egg
Taste — 4 Pretty yummy actually.  This was Tea’s favorite of the four
Overall — A solid 4 plus  We would make this again

Dubonnet
We had a lot of fun with this drink.  Dubonnet was a new liquor for us and we like bitters which was also an ingredient. Dubonnet is found in the wine section at the liquor store and reminded me of a port really.  The clerk at the store told me its actually pretty popular. It made for a kind of sultry, sophisticated, date night drink when you mixed it all together.
Appearance — 4 Another pretty color drink.  In fact even the color was a kind of “come hither red.”
Ease of prep — 4 Put everything together, give it a shake and serve
Taste — 4 This was my favorite of the four. I liked how the flavors seemed a little complicated.
Overall — Another solid 4 plus.  We’ll make this again.

All four of these would be excellent choices for a cocktail party where you wanted a signature drink to serve and also wanted to show off just a tiny bit.

Here’s the recipes for our two favorites this round:

Clover Club
1 1/2 ounces gin
1/4 ounce lemon juice
1/4 ounce grenadine
1 egg white
Combine all ingredients in shaker and shake vigorously.  Strain into a cocktail glass.

Dubonnet Cocktail
1 1/2 ounces gin
1 1/2 ounces red Dubonnet
Dash on bitters
Lemon twist
Combine liquid ingredients in shaker and shake vigorously.  Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with lemon twist.

Finally Tea and I got together to do some more Old Man Drinks — we had gotten way behind and we’ll never get through the whole book if we don’t keep mixing.  Let me start by saying, well, how to put this accurately?  I think “YUCK!” captures our review for most of these! Whew, this round was bad.  No wonder these cocktails are no longer popular — they really weren’t good to begin with! Who cares though?  We had a blast anyways and spent the rest of our time, when we weren’t mixing and making terrible faces, planning a shower for our Philly girl who’s wedding is now THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY ANITA!!!  (We truly don’t recommend serving any of these libations at your festive occasion though.  : ) )

Aviation
The first one had a fun name and we were optimistic since the book says it was one of the most popular drinks during the 1930s and it called for cherry liqueur which always seems like a positive ingredient.  Not so much this time.

Appearance: 5  It was a very pretty color

Ease of prep: 4 It really wasn’t hard to make.  We used a fresh lemon so we had to cut and squeeze that.

Taste: 1.5 maybe a 2 for a true gin lover

Overall:  2 It was easy and pretty but you gotta wanna drink it.

Gin Sour
From the get-go the name seemed like a dead giveaway to a sour experience.  Let’s just say that even with the addition of the sugar the reciped calls for this drink is a pucker-up.  yech.

Appearance:  3.5  There’s nothing really here to like or not like on the look.  It looks like an alka seltzer drink.

Ease of Prep: 4  Like the Aviation, super simple — even getting the fresh lemon juice

Taste:  1  Ick!!  Double ick!  Too sour and gin tasting.  Did I say ick?  Let me say it again. ICK!

Overall:  1  We would never order this or make it again.  Unless the choice was between this and the next drink that is.

Pink Gin
I love the color pink!  How dare they use it in this way!

Appearance:  4  It’s a pretty pinkish/orangish color

Ease of prep: 5  It literally has two ingredients — gin and a dash of angostura bitters

Taste: -1  Wretched!  Really bad.  The best part of this drink is that Tea tried it first and I probably won’t forget the look on her face (or the taste of that drink!) for a really long time.  Priceless!

We laughed over these a long time and then we made ourselves one of our favorite go-to standby drinks, refreshing and delicious and not in the Old Man book — Creamcicles!  Yummy — orange juice and whipped cream vodka.  Now that is a good combo.

We settled in with our creamcicles and dived into some Chinese food.  Then we shifted to the bed to watch an assortment of TV shows while we waited for Glen to come home before we tried our last drink of this round.  Fortunately, this one was worth waiting for and one we would do again.

Grasshopper
Have one of these in place of an after dinner mint!

Appearance: 4.5 A very pretty green color perfect for serving at any occasion centered around the color green.

Ease of prep: 5  Another super easy concoction with just three ingredients — creme de menthe, creme de cocoa and 1/2 & 1/2 — that you mix together and put in a glass.

Taste: 4  Hard not to like it — I mean just about everyone likes mint.  It’s like having chocolate chip mint ice cream in a glass.  Definitely a drink you want to serve with the dessert course.  Glen finished off both of ours!

Overall: 4  Not for everyday or most of the time but nice for the right party or occasion.  And easy, love the easy.