Sherry Cobbler
Sherry, sugar and orange over crushed ice, with fruit on top and a straw. The most popular drink in 1840s America, and the one that made the straw a bar tool.
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.
Add the orange slices and syrup to a shaker and muddle gently.
Add the sherry, fill with ice, and shake briefly.
Strain into a collins glass or goblet packed with crushed ice.
Garnish generously with an orange wheel, berries and a mint sprig, and serve with a straw.
A thoughtful finish
- Amontillado is the all-round choice: nutty, dry enough, rich enough. Oloroso makes a fuller drink; fino a bone-dry, saline one. All three are correct.
- The fruit is not decoration — the drink is meant to be sipped through it, and the berries and orange add aroma to every pull on the straw.
- Fresh sherry. An opened bottle that has sat on the shelf for a month makes a flat cobbler.
Common mistakes
- Cream sherry. Sweet sherry plus syrup is a dessert.
- Cubed ice. The crushed ice is the texture and the dilution.
- Forgetting the straw. Dickens's character drank his through one and so should you.
A few good questions.
What is a cobbler?
A nineteenth-century drink family: wine or spirit, sugar and fruit over crushed ice, garnished heavily and drunk through a straw. The Sherry Cobbler is the original and most famous.
Which sherry?
Amontillado is the safest; oloroso richer; fino drier. Avoid sweet cream and PX styles.
How strong is it?
Around 10% ABV — the strength of a light wine, in a long cold glass. You can have two.
Why the straw?
The crushed ice and heap of fruit made the drink impossible to sip from the rim, and the straw — a novelty in the 1840s — solved it. The Sherry Cobbler is the reason bars stock straws.
Variations
- Bamboo — Sherry and dry vermouth, stirred.
- Adonis — Sherry and sweet vermouth, stirred.
- Mint Julep — Bourbon, sugar and mint over crushed ice.
- Sangria — Wine, brandy and fruit, chilled.
Where it comes from
c. 1830s · United States
The Sherry Cobbler was the great American drink of the mid-nineteenth century: sherry, sugar and citrus shaken with ice, poured over more ice and heaped with fruit, drunk through a straw — a novelty then, and the drink that made straws standard. Charles Dickens had Martin Chuzzlewit encounter one in 1844 and be astonished by it; Jerry Thomas printed it in 1862 and said it was the most popular beverage in the country. Ice was the luxury that made it possible, and the cobbler — the name may refer to the cobbles of ice — spread to every spirit and wine. The sherry revival of the 2010s brought it back, and it is the best low-alcohol cocktail of them all.
Sources
- Jerry Thomas, How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant's Companion, 1862 (book)
- Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844 (novel)
- David Wondrich, Imbibe!, 2015 (book)
Strength. About 0.85 US standard drinks at an estimated 11.7% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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