The Hanky Panky Cocktail
About the Hanky Panky Cocktail
Try this sultry cocktail invented at London’s Savoy Hotel.
Ingredients in the Hanky Panky Cocktail
- 1.5 oz Gin
- 1.5 oz Sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Fernet-Branca
Garnish: Orange twist
Glass: Cocktail
How to make the Hanky Panky Cocktail
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
Gin and Sweet Vermouth. We are now approaching my favorite drink, developed from a description by Camilo Jose Cela’s novel “Mazurka for Two Dead Men”. It seems Casandulfe Raimundo “was partial to a cocktail: equal parts of red vermouth and gin, a few drops of bitters, a sprig of mint and a morello cherry.” For some reason I began adding a slice of orange to replace mint and cherry. Eventually it became equal parts, usually 1.5 oz., red vermouth and gin and freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice, a couple of dashes of Regan’s orange bitters, shake it up with ice, pour into a 8-10 oz glass with the ice and top with Peligrino. I’d use orange Pelegrino if I could find it in my neck of the woods. This has become my favorite hot summer day drink for the evening. But tonight I’m having a Hanky Panky.
Follow up: I made the Hanky Panky tonight, It went wlll with a dinner of baked honey-mustart-herb provence chicken, sauteed sunchokes with walnuts/dill, a bit of spaghettini so sop the juice. The flavors of all three, cocktail, chicken, sunchokes, blended so well with one another I never wanted to stop. Thanks for this memorable cocktail.
I have been drinking this for over 50 years – when I was 19 (not even old enough to drink legally) I dated a man much older than me and we double dated with an older couple and the woman ordered a “sweet martini” – equal parts gin & sweet vermouth – I later tried it and it has been my go to drink when dining out – it’s now called “Hanky Panky” – interesting, and still good