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Time for a Drink: Tuxedo

Posted by Paul Clarke, April 4, 2008 at 6:00 PM

Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? That kinda week, eh? Here you go. Cheers!

Let’s admit up front that the name could be a problem. "Tuxedo" is a perfectly fine name for this cocktail, given the crisp formality of its austere dryness; however, it’s such a fetching name that other cocktails have used it as well. It should also be pointed out that this drink has traveled under different sobriquets—CocktailDB.com lists similar recipes under names such as the Cutest One, the Fino Martini, the Golden Girl, the Straight Law and the Roe a Coe Cocktail, and that’s without even breaking a sweat. But it’s best not to get too tangled up in the etymology of a drink; instead, take the many versions as proof that dry gin and fino sherry are destined to be together.

Did I mention this drink is dry? Good lord, it’s nothing less than arid—your typical dry martini is positively flamboyant next to a cocktail as reserved as the Tuxedo. But don’t take this dryness as a sign that it’s boring; rather, the sherry brings a touch of its distinctive nuttiness to the drink, which puts a new spring in the gin’s step and makes this relative of the classic martini a worthwhile variation. And if you accidentally use a different name while mixing them at home, that’s okay—the Tuxedo is used to it.

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.

Tuxedo

Ingredients

2 ounces gin (Plymouth works very well in this drink)
1 ounce fino sherry
1 dash orange bitters

Procedure

Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass; fill with ice, and stir briskly for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

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