059 – Army & Navy

A Sydney Covid ‘lock-down’ exploration of the ‘Army & Navy’ cocktail.

Lock-down has finished (for now) in Sydney, and inspired me to explore this famous pre-WWII cocktail, perhaps more connected to ‘Freedom’ than calling the end of an inconvenient lock-down ‘Freedom Day’.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ #Locktail the ‘Army & Navy’ and don’t forget to proclaim it to your guests.

METHOD – Add 60ml Gin (London Dry), 20ml fresh lemon juice, 10ml orgeat syrup into a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice and optional bitters (to taste). Shake until very cold (15-20 seconds) and double strain into the small cocktail goblet or similar chilled glassware. Garnish with a maraschino cherry. Announce the drink ‘the Army & Navy’ when serving.

HISTORICAL NOTES – The first recipe for the ‘Army & Navy Sour’ turned up in David A. Embury’s 1948 book, ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’, where he promotes a (6:2:1) proportion for the cocktail, viewing the original (2:1:1 – Gin:Lemon:Orgeat) as “horrible”, no doubt too heavy with the ‘marzipan-like’ flavour of orgeat syrup. The fact that Embury was already changing an established 2:1:1 mix, is itself a strong indication that the cocktail was well established by 1948, and the instruction to ‘announce the drink by name’ also points to existing tradition.

It appears there is consensus that the drink most likely originated at the ‘Army and Navy Club’ in Washington D.C., formed in 1885. An alternate theory is that it is connected with the Army and Navy college football games that commenced in 1890.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The ‘Army and Navy’ cocktail does not appear in any of the International Bartender Association (IBA) official drinks lists. The most appropriate ‘official’ recipe seems to be that of David A. Embury (above) from 1948, or alternatively the apparently earlier “horrible” 2:1:1 mix.

TASTING NOTES – For me the 2:1:1 mix is far too heavy with the orgeat flavour (marzipan-like) and almost tastes like an almond baked good, and not a pleasant one. I think Embury’s change was a good one, and most contemporary mixologist recipes seem to sit somewhere between 10 to 20ml of lemon juice and 5 to 15ml of orgeat syrup. The inclusion of bitters is also common.

With Embury’s mix, the orgeat is a pleasing addition that gives the cocktail just a hint of being in ‘tiki culture’ range of mixed drinks. The flavour however is mostly ‘Gin’, so select your Gin carefully and if you use ‘Navy Strength’, make sure you know what you are doing.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – For this re-discovery, I am using David Embury’s 1948 recipe, without his optional inclusion of an egg-white which would have truly made this drink a member of the ‘Sour’ class of cocktails and with the addition of bitters to balance against the sweetness of the orgeat syrup.

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 ninth and second-last cocktail from the 1941-1950 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. Full list in the index.