We have a 29th of February this year, making this a Leap Year ... making Friday a Leap Day. So what does that mean? Well, we have an extra day to put off preparing our taxes (yes!), and an extra day standing between us and summer (boo!). Just like the Olympics and Presidential elections (yeah, we get yet another day of political sniping, too), Leap Years come every four years. It also means it's time to dust off an old classic cocktail called, ingeniously enough, the Leap Year Cocktail.
This hibernating little fellow comes courtesy of the Savoy Cocktail Book, first authored by Harry Craddock and remains, 78 years after publication, a benchmark for tradition-minded bartenders and scholars alike. There are over 750 recipes in the book, a few of which have notations augmenting their worth. I'm going to lift the entire quote regarding the Leap Year.
This cocktail was created by Harry Craddock for the Leap Year celebrations at the Savoy Hotel, London, on February 29, 1928. It is said to have been responsible for more proposals than any other cocktail ever mixed.
Well alrighty then! That's quite a feat considering the little bugger pokes its head out of the ground every Presidential cycle, but okay, I won't quibble with anything reaching its 80th birthday. The recipe is after the jump, taken from a more modern perspective from Gary Regan's excellent Joy of Mixology.
Leap Year Cocktail
2 oz gin (I'd go with Beefeaters on this one)
½ oz sweet vermouth
½ oz Grand Marnier
¼ oz fresh lemon juice
Shake above ingredients with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, then garnish with a lemon twist, just so. It's a fine drink, though I don't think you'll be hemming and hawing for this drink over the next three years. But do enjoy it now at your own Leap Year celebration (you are going to be celebrating Leap Year, right?).
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