The Bronx Cocktail is basically a perfect martini with orange juice added.
Legend has it it was created by the bartender Johnnie Solon after a waiter named Traverson challenged him to create a new cocktail. It’s named after the Bronx Zoo which Solon visited a day or two before making the cocktail.
It’s similar to another popular drink of the time, The Duplex, which is composed of equal parts sweet and dry Vermouth and two dashes of orange bitters.
I quite liked The Bronx Cocktail. It reminded me a little bit of The Aviation but with orange instead of lemon. The orange adds a freshness and a little bit of sweetness that is nicely balanced by the sharp dry gin. The vermouths add a bit off a spicy note and the orange bitters a bitter, orange zesty note that adds another dimension. All in all a nice, refreshing, easy to like cocktail.
Ingredients for one Martini glass:
60 ml gin (I used Plymouth)
30 ml fresh orange juice
8 ml sweet vermouth (I used Martini & Rossi Rosso)
8 ml dry vermouth (I used Martini & Rossi Bianco)
Dashes of orange bitters to taste (I used Angostura Orange bitters)
How to make it:
Fill your Martini glasses with ice. Fill your shaker with ice and add all the spirits to it. Shake for around 30 seconds. Discard the ice from the Martini glass, rub the edge of the glass with the cut end of an orange peel then strain your cocktail into the glass.
Garnish the edge of the glass with a twisted orange peel.