Sloe gin is one of those bottles that tends to sit with the gin bottles on any back bar, but’s an uncomfortable spot; it’s a liqueur, after all, but hey, we all do things that don’t make systematic sense from time to time.
The Millionaire Cocktail #1, however, makes a hell of a lot of sense.
Equal parts sloe gin, apricot brandy, rum and lime — with a ritzy dash of real grenadine — this drink appears in a number of different formulations, as Simon McGoram has written for us before:
“Ted Haigh [in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails] cites the recipe as harking from The How and When of 1937 and labels it as a Millionaire #4 although the recipe is identical to one that appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930 with the handle “Millionaire Cocktail #1”. Numbers like these, as Haigh points out, were once a time-honoured way to catalogue drinks variations and entirely different drinks, which happen to have the same name. In this case both the names and the drink are identical. Go figure.”
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All names aside, you’ve got to love a good equal parts drink, and this is one you can take to the bank.
Millionaire Cocktail #1
- 30ml sloe gin
- 30ml apricot brandy
- 30ml Jamaican rum
- 30ml lime juice
- 1 dash of real pomegranate grenadine
Add all ingredients to a shaker. Fill with ice and shake as if seven demons were goading to it.