Get Gold With an Alaska Cocktail
Between gin or vodka, olive or lemon twist, brine or curdled milk, dry or wet, colored in monosodium glutamate or tincture in saline, there is no shortage of ways to choose a martini. If you’re into the martini variation, let me direct you to another branch of this titan of cocktails: the herbal martini. I can’t think of a better introduction than an Alaska cocktail.
Alaska is a pre-prohibition drink immortalized in the Savoy Cocktail Book. It has gin, yellow chartreuse and, most commonly, orange bitters. And although he has survived more wars and recessions than anyone you or I can currently know, and he is still several decades younger than the rest of his circle, his artful sophistication makes me wonder about the specific circumstances surrounding his invention. .
What I can tell you is that Alaska was born around 1910; before that, at least in the states, the “Alaska cocktail” was a pitcher of cold water with ice (the Alaska we’ll be making today is icy, of course, but quenches thirst in a completely different way). Whether the two were ever connected is doubtful. And while any bartender treasured Alaskan ice very much (no doubt the reason for the current preoccupation of craft cocktails with pure ice), it is not clear if this was taken into account in the name, since the drink is served on the table. By all accounts, Alaska was so named because the territory of the same name was at the peak of popularity at the time, and the golden hue of the drink was reminiscent of the precious metal promised to the pioneers who settled there in droves. . Wild, right? This whole story is just so I can add this grassy player to your martini arsenal today.
The yellow chartreuse really shines in this series and is (obviously) the driving force behind the herbs. Softer and slightly sweeter than its green big brother (which has more tangy and tangy flavors), it pairs beautifully with gin and orange bitters and makes the sip surprisingly smooth for a drink with such intoxicating power. I think it’s perfect for this time of year: the herbal tones give it a healing association, and the strength of its high strength must have killed off some of the seasonal germs. While it may not be a pitcher of ice-filled mountain water, it is somehow oddly refreshing, like a deep breath of fresh mountain air.
The recipe below is the more common, modern take, but for my cocktail lovers, swap out the regular gin for the slightly more esoteric Old Tom gin (sweeter gin, somewhere between London Dry and Dutch Genever) and you get a closer approximation to OG. . Enjoy!
Cocktail Alaska
- 2 dashes of orange bitters
- 3/4 oz yellow chartreuse
- 2 1/4 oz dry gin
- lemon twist
Pour the ingredients into a chilled mixing glass, add crushed ice and stir for about 25-30 seconds, or until the mixture is sufficiently chilled (but not too thin). Strain into a chilled coupe, add an express lemon twist and garnish.