Mixology Monday #9: Bitters

It's time to get that shaker and cocktail glasses out of the closet and join Mixology Monday, a monthly blog event that follows a different theme each time. The host for this month is blog A Dash of Bitters and he chose the theme, what else? - Bitters. What a relief for that bottle of Angustura bitters sitting in my kitchen cabinet for more than a year now!

As I was perusing Dale Degroff's The Craft of the Cocktail, I read somewhere in the introduction that the first time the cocktail appeared in print was in 1806 in an American publication written by the editor about a new kind of drink. So this year could well be the 200 year anniversary of the cocktail. Cheers!

Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters. It is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion…

The Balance and Columbian Repository, 1806
(as quoted by The Craft of the Cocktail)

Adonis Cocktail 11
from The Craft of the Cocktail

1 oz dry sherry
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz fresh orange juice
dash of bitters
dash of simple syrup
orange peel, for garnish

Shake with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange peel.

See what others have contributed to this round of Mixology Monday... MxMo9 Roundup