Time for a Drink: Monkey Gland
Let's get this weekend started right. Here's a cocktail from Paul Clarke to kick things off. Need more than one? That kinda week, eh? Here you go. Cheers!
In 2008, if you’re an adult male who feels the need for a little, um, assistance in the intimacy department, you reach for one of the pharmaceuticals you see advertised during football games. In 1928, if you needed a little vavoom in the bedroom, you went to see Dr. Voronoff.
So popular was Voronoff’s vitality procedure in the 1920s that it inspired the creation of the Monkey Gland, a cocktail named for the rather sensitive part of an unfortunate simian’s anatomy that Voronoff surgically implanted into his eager patients.
This is a drink where spending the time and money to get your hands on the right ingredients makes all the difference. Fresh-squeezed orange juice is essential, and a quality grenadine—Stirrings makes a decent one, though it’s quite simple to make your own—and an authentic absinthe really make the cocktail come together (though a substitute such as Herbsaint, Pernod or Ricard will also suffice).
Did Voronoff’s treatment work? No, not really—and one can only guess how the monkeys felt about the whole thing. Fortunately, the cocktail still does the trick.
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
Monkey Gland
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin
1 1/2 ounces fresh orange juice
1 tsp. grenadine
1 tsp. absinthe
Procedure
Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake well for 10 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
View other entries from Cocktail Concoctions.
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2 Comments:
Wow. That looks really lovely. Not too sweet, and with the herbal bite of absinthe to balance the grenadine. Definitely one to try soon.
inblackink at 5:34PM on 02/16/08
Very tasty. Just tried one myself (Gordon's gin, Lucid absinthe, a blood orange, and homemade grenadine) and was very pleased with it. The absinthe is there just enough to add a "mysterious" quality to the drink without presenting itself full force. Thanks for sharing this one...
skokefoe at 9:16PM on 02/16/08