IBA official cocktail | |
---|---|
Type | Highball |
Base spirit | |
Served | On the rocks: poured over ice |
Standard garnish | Long spiral of lemon zest |
Standard drinkware | Highball glass |
IBA specified ingredients† |
|
Preparation | Pour brandy and ginger ale directly into highball glass with ice cubes. Stir gently. Garnish with lemon zest. If desired, add dashes of Angostura Bitter. |
† Horse's neck recipe at International Bartenders Association |
A horse's neck is an American cocktail recognised by the International Bartenders Association (IBA), identifiably sporting a long, curling strip of lemon rind. [1]
It is made with brandy (or sometimes bourbon) and ginger ale, with a long spiral of lemon peel draped over the edge of an old fashioned glass or a highball glass. A similar Canadian drink, the rye and ginger, is made with Canadian whisky and ginger ale.
Dating back to at least the 1900s, it was a non-alcoholic mixture of ginger ale, ice and lemon peel. [2] By the 1910s, brandy, or bourbon would be added for a "horse's neck with a kick" or a "stiff horse's neck." The non-alcoholic version was still served in upstate New York in the late 1950s and early 60s, but eventually it was phased out. IBA classifies this drink as a long drink.
Franklin Roosevelt occasionally consumed this drink in its non-alcoholic form. According to the head of FDR's Secret Service personal protection detail, “Whenever he [the President] was in a gathering where there was prolonged drinking he would ask for a ‘horse’s neck,’ a drink made of ginger ale, lemon peel, and no alcohol.” [3]
In the 1934 film The Captain Hates the Sea , Alison Skipworth's character craves a horse's neck, when Fred Keating's character tries to stop her, she says, "...I'm a lone wolf and it's my night to howl" then tells the waiter "...be sure to add a big horse, Charley". The disgruntled bartender then takes a lemon and begins to peel it, muttering "...around, and around, and around, for that cock-eyed Horse's Neck." [4]
In the 1935 musical film Top Hat , Madge (Helen Broderick) tries to order a drink in Italian but gives up and says "horse's neck".
In the 1935 film No Limit , starring George Formby as George Shuttleworth, George accidentally orders a horse's neck at the bar in the steam packet ferry en route to the Isle of Man. He originally tries to order a lemonade but becomes confused and begins to repeat the orders of other passengers in a bid to be noticed by the barman who is studiously ignoring George at the busy bar.
In the 1937 crime-adventure novel Challenge featuring gentleman adventurer Bull-Dog Drummond, Drummond's friend Algy Longworth – suffering from a hangover – requests a breakfast cocktail of his butler: "Beneath this outer husk, conditions are poor--very poor... I could do with a horse's neck."
The non-alcoholic version of the drink is referenced in at least two film noir movies from 1950: In a Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart, in which Martha Stewart—playing the hat-check girl—states that adding a twist of lemon to ginger ale is called a "horse's neck"; and Outside the Wall , in which Dorothy Hart tells Richard Basehart the two ingredients that compose the cocktail.
The horse's neck became popular in the wardrooms of the Royal Navy in the 1960s, displacing Pink Gin as the officers' signature drink. An early reference to this is made in the 1957 film Yangtse Incident, in which a naval officer is shown drinking a horse's Neck in 1949. At naval cocktail parties (CTPs), it used to be served by the mess stewards ready-mixed in glass jugs, alongside similar jugs of mixed gin and tonic, with the request "H-N or G&T, sir?"
In the 1970s BBC spy thriller TV series "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", Alec Guinness's character (George Smiley) asks for a brandy and ginger ale in episode six.
In the 1980s British Series "Partners in Crime" based on the Agatha Christie Tommy and Tuppence mysteries, in the episode "The Crackler," Tuppence is particularly eager to try the Horse's Neck, and has several.
At the end of the 1988 film Return of the Living Dead Part II , the character Doc Mandel asks the pre-teen character Jesse Wilson if he has ever had a horse's neck, to which he replies "No." [5]
The old fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters and water, adding whiskey or sometimes brandy, and garnishing with an orange slice or zest and a cocktail cherry. It is traditionally served with ice in an old fashioned glass.
The Tom Collins is a Collins cocktail made from gin, lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water. This "gin and sparkling lemonade" drink is typically served in a Collins glass over ice with a cherry garnish. A non-alcoholic "Collins mix" mixer is produced, enjoyed by some as a soft drink.
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive and/or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. A common variation, the vodka martini, uses vodka instead of gin for the cocktail's base spirit.
The term punch refers to a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruits or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from the Indian subcontinent to England by employees of the East India Company in the late 17th century. Punch is usually served at parties in large, wide bowls, known as punch bowls.
The negroni is a cocktail, made of equal parts gin, vermouth rosso, and Campari, generally served on the rocks, and commonly garnished with an orange slice or orange peel. It is considered an apéritif.
Pimm's is an English brand of gin-based fruit cup but may also be considered a liqueur or the basis of a sling or punch. It was first produced in 1823 by James Pimm and has been owned by Diageo since 1997. Its most popular product is Pimm's No. 1 Cup, commonly used for the Pimm's cup cocktail.
A sour is a traditional family of mixed drinks. Sours belong to one of the old families of original cocktails and are described by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book How to Mix Drinks.
"Shaken, not stirred" is how Ian Fleming's fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond prefers his martini cocktail.
White lady is a classic cocktail that is made with gin, Cointreau or triple sec, fresh lemon juice and an optional egg white. It belongs to the sidecar family, made with gin in place of brandy. The cocktail sometimes also includes additional ingredients, for example egg white, sugar, cream, or creme de menthe.
The Vesper is a cocktail that was originally made of gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet. Since that form of Lillet is no longer produced, modern bartenders need to modify the recipe to mimic the original taste, with Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano as a typical substitute.
The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a book about cocktails by David A. Embury, first published in 1948. The book is noteworthy for its witty, highly opinionated and conversational tone, as well as its categorization of cocktails into two main types: aromatic and sour; its categorization of ingredients into three categories: the base, modifying agents, and special flavorings and coloring agents; and its 1:2:8 ratio for sour type cocktails.
A flip is a class of mixed drinks. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was first used in 1695 to describe a mixture of beer, rum, and sugar, heated with a red-hot iron. The iron caused the drink to froth, and this frothing engendered the name. Over time, eggs were added and the proportion of sugar increased, the beer was eliminated, and the drink ceased to be served hot.
A "fizz" is a mixed drink variation on the older sours family of cocktail. Its defining features are an acidic juice and carbonated water. It typically includes gin or rum as its alcoholic ingredient.
A buck is a cocktail that is made with ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and any of a number of base liquors. Buck cocktails are sometimes called "mules" due to the popularity of a vodka buck that is known as a Moscow mule.
A horsefeather is a whiskey cocktail. It was popularized in Lawrence, Kansas, in the 1990s. It remains a regional drink in the Kansas City region. The drink is an iteration of the classic horse's neck cocktail and is similar to a Moscow mule.
A whiskey cocktail is a cocktail that includes whiskey. Although whiskey is often served neat or on the rocks, it is used in many classic cocktails such as the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, and Julep. Some specifically call for Scotch whisky or bourbon whiskey.
The paper plane is a whiskey-based cocktail created in 2008. In 2020 it was added to the International Bartenders Association's (IBA) list of official cocktails as a new era drink.
The desert healer is a mixed drink made with fresh orange juice, gin, cherry brandy and ginger beer. The recipe appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book. The Art of Mixing (1932) recipe replaces the ginger beer with ginger ale. The cocktail's history goes back to the 1930s Vendome Club in Hollywood, when Los Angeles was still mostly undeveloped desert.