Campden Cocktail

“De gustibus non est disputandum”

The Campden cocktail isn’t the most famous cocktail in the world, you won’t see him on the menu in many cocktail bars. About it’s history there isn’t much known either, except that it goes back since at least the Prohibition. The cocktail was described in the Savoy Cocktail book. And in a way that’s how I got to know it, I read about it on The Savoy Stomp, a website with a single mission: having tried all the cocktails in the Savoy cocktail book. But the website doesn’t rate the cocktail very well. In the contrary, if you read the review of this cocktail it’s no surprise that it’s not well known. According to the review it’s a pretty awful tasting cocktail.

But I believe that you can’t argue about tastes and colors. Plus I was anxious to taste the cocktail and reckoned that it could be turned into a good cocktail if I kept the advice from the Savoy Stomp website in mind. There were reasons enough for me to give it a shot! A good gin and some more balance than the original recipe came to mind. I went for a premium gin with a hint of citrus and replacing triple sec with a smaller amount of Grand Marnier. Here’s the recipe for my version and I’m pretty happy with the result!

Recipe:

• pour 6 cl. (2 fl. oz) Monkey 47 in a mixing glass filled with large ice cubes
• add 3 cl. (1 fl. oz) Cocchi Americano and 3 cocktail spoons of Grand Manier
• place the cocktail spoon at the inner rim of the glass and stir for a good 10 seconds (try to stir all ice cubes equally and at the same time)
• strain the cocktail in a pre-chilled Martini glass