The Japanese Cocktail , a rich but simple combination of brandy, orgeat syrup, and bitters, is among the recipes found in Jerry Thomas’s 1862 The Bar-Tender’s Guide. See Thomas, Jeremiah P. “Jerry”. It is first mentioned, albeit fleetingly, in print in 1860 as an example of the popular excitement that accompanied the first Japanese mission to the United States and its tour of the country. It is also one of the earliest cocktails whose name is not simply a statement of its main ingredient, and the first such cocktail to have a recipe printed (it should be noted that nothing in the drink is Japanese in any way).
The drink’s origins are uncertain, but it is quite possible that it was one of Thomas’s original creations. The first solid mention of it is in an 1861 composite portrait of the typical American hotel bar, based primarily on two New York hotels, one of them the Metropolitan, where the Japanese emissaries, several of whom greatly enjoyed American drinks, stayed—and where Thomas was head bartender. (Of all the drinks the author tasted, he declared “the ‘Japanese’ the most dangerous.”)
While the Japanese Cocktail was never widely popular, it nonetheless kept popping up (sometimes as the “Mikado Cocktail”) until Prohibition and was part of every serious bartender’s repertoire. It has not been successfully revived since. Perhaps it is too much a product of its time: too sweet and rich for those who like their drinks boozy, too boozy and not fruity enough (or at all) for those who like them sweet.
Recipe: Half-fill small tumbler with cracked ice. Add 60 ml brandy, 30 ml orgeat syrup, and 3 ml aromatic bitters. Stir well; lemon twist.
“American Hotels and American Food.” Temple Bar, June 1860, 353.
Thomas, Jerry. How to Mix Drinks. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1862.
By: David Wondrich