054 – Screwdriver

A Sydney Covid ‘lock-down’ exploration of the ‘Screwdriver’ cocktail and the rise, and rise, and rise of Vodka.

Lock-down has inspired me to explore this famous cocktail, a simple mix at the start of the Vodka cocktail era. Plus a little bonus (in the video) ‘Cordless Screwdriver’.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ #Locktail ‘Screwdriver’.

METHOD – So simple. Half-fill a highball, wine glass or double rocks glass with chunks of ice. Add 60ml Vodka and around 90ml to 120ml of fresh orange juice of your choice. Add some Regan’s Orange Bitters No.6 if you want to extend the orange flavour and add some bitterness. Stir with a Screwdriver for the full experience.

HISTORICAL NOTES – Around one-third of all cocktails made in the USA contain Vodka, amounting to around $20-billion in annual sales (as of 2015). With this 54th Locktail, as we move from the 1940’s into the 1950’s and beyond, we are at the beginning of that ingredient shift. When we started with the website’s Locktail No.1 and cocktails of the 1800’s, core ingredients where generally Whisky (all varieties), Gin, Brandy and Rum, as well as almost lost cocktail ingredients like Applejack, Calvados, and Orange Curaçao. Cocktails like the ‘Moscow Mule’ and the Screwdriver started a progressive historical shift toward Vodka as the core ingredient of so many cocktails.

The ‘Screwdriver’ is barely a cocktail in the true sense, having just two simple ingredients. In the late 1940’s and through the 1950’s American oil workers in the Persian Gulf discretely added vodka to their orange juice while working, stirring it with what they had at had, an actual screwdriver.

In reality, while the Oil Workers may have made ‘Screwdriver’ cocktails, the origin is earlier, as in 1944 a Newsweek article mentions the cocktail, saying “A Screwdriver—a drink compounded of vodka and orange juice and supposedly invented by interned American fliers.” Another later article attributes the cocktail to US Marines, and then there are non US-centric origin stories as well.

All of these cocktail consumption stories may have elements of truth, all we really know is that the name ‘Screwdriver’ was being used for a Vodka and Orange Juice mix before 1944. The name is important, because it led to a vast number of cocktails where if a significant ingredient was ‘Orange Juice’, then the ‘Screw’ part of the name was inherited. Mixologists has a lot of fun with this during the era of cocktail names with sexual innuendo (mainly the 1950’s to 1980’s). I particularly like the more recent ‘Cordless Screwdriver’, a shot of vodka with a slice of orange.

It also led to the later ‘Harvey Wallbanger’ which we will look at when we get to the 1960’s cocktail group.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The ‘Screwdriver’ does not appear in any of the International Bartender Association (IBA) official drinks lists. Perhaps because it is effectively a singe-ingredient mixer, although many ‘variations-on-a-theme’ use the ‘Screwdriver’ as a staring point.

TASTING NOTES – The essence of this cocktail is the quality of the orange juice used. The strength and weakness of Vodka is it’s lack of flavour when stronger flavoured ingredients are in play. So add a great orange juice and it becomes a way to have an alcoholic cocktail, largely without the flavour profile of alcohol.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – I have gone with some amazing fresh ‘Blood Oranges’ freshly squeezed for both the flavour and the colour. In the video I have not used Bitters, but would highly recommend the addition of some Regans’ Orange Bitters No.6 if you are a more experienced cocktail drinker and like a bit of bitterness to counter the sweet orange of fresh produce. Add even more if you like bitter, or some home made bitters from boiling down the white sections of citrus (especially grapefruits) can add another dimension completely. A subject for another day.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is fourth cocktail from the 1941-1950 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. Full list in the index.