Avenue
Bourbon, calvados, passion fruit, grenadine and orange flower water, shaken. The Café Royal's 1937 London drink — tropical fruit on American whiskey a generation before tiki, and one of the great lost cocktails.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Chill a coupe.
Add the bourbon, calvados, passion fruit syrup, grenadine and orange flower water to a shaker.
Fill with ice and shake hard for 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe.
A thoughtful finish
- A passion fruit syrup (Liber & Co, Small Hand Foods, or homemade) is the modern standard; fresh juice needs sugar.
- Orange flower water is strong — a drop or two, not a dash from the bottle.
- A bonded applejack is rougher and more American than calvados; both work.
Common mistakes
- Too much orange flower water, which makes it soapy.
- A sweet passion fruit cocktail mix.
- Skipping the grenadine; the colour is part of it.
A few good questions.
What does an Avenue taste like?
Bourbon's vanilla and calvados's apple under tart tropical passion fruit, with a floral orange-blossom finish — fruity and strange and very good.
Where is it from?
The Café Royal Cocktail Book, London, 1937.
Passion fruit juice or syrup?
Syrup is easier and consistent; fresh juice with sugar is brighter.
Is it a tiki drink?
It predates tiki but shares its fruit-and-spirit idea.
Variations
- Hurricane — Rum, passion fruit and lemon.
- Jack Rose — Applejack, lemon and grenadine.
- Pornstar Martini — Vanilla vodka, passion fruit and prosecco.
- Castro — Rum, calvados, lime and orange.
Where it comes from
1937 · London · Café Royal
The Avenue is in the Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937, the United Kingdom Bartenders’ Guild’s collection of drinks from London’s hotel bars: equal parts bourbon and calvados with passion fruit juice, a dash of grenadine and a dash of orange flower water, shaken. Passion fruit was an exotic 1930s import and bourbon was unusual in a London bar, and the pairing with apple brandy and orange blossom is unlike anything else of its date — it reads like a tiki drink built by a Savoy bartender. Ted Haigh revived it in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails and it has become a modern bar standard, usually with a passion fruit syrup in place of the juice. The grenadine is a dash for colour; the orange flower water a drop.
Sources
- W. J. Tarling, Café Royal Cocktail Book, 1937 (book)
- Ted Haigh, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, 2009 (book)
- Difford's Guide, Avenue, 2010 (reference)
Strength. About 1.42 US standard drinks at an estimated 22.2% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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