Tuxedo Cocktail

New and Improved Bartenders' Manual by Harry Johnson (1900, p.269) — Harry Johnson 1900

1. Add the fine-shaved ice, maraschino, absinthe, orange bitters, French vermouth, and Old Tom gin to a large bar glass.
2. Stir up well with a spoon.
3. Strain into a cocktail glass.
4. Add a cherry, squeeze lemon peel on top, and serve.

Garnish: Cherry, with lemon peel expressed on top

Ice: Fine-shaved ice

Nose

The nose is aromatic, lightly aniseed, and more polished than the earlier whiskey-centred cocktail families.

Palate

Tuxedo is a key bridge toward the modern aperitif style, balancing vermouth, gin, bitters, and delicate liqueur accents into a recognisably later cocktail shape.

Finish

The finish is dry, citrusy, and softly herbal.

Summary

A major turn-of-the-century aperitif cocktail pointing directly toward the modern classic canon.

Tuxedo matters disproportionately because it sits near the hinge between ornate late nineteenth-century cocktails and the twentieth-century dry aperitif line.

This drink depends on restraint in the dash ingredients. The absinthe and maraschino should season, not crowd the vermouth-gin balance.

The Cocktail Book a Sideboard Manual for Gentlemen (1901, p.38)

1. Fill a mixing glass with ice and add the ingredients.
2. Mix and strain into a cocktail glass.

Ice: Ice

This preserves a sherry-seasoned Tuxedo branch before later drier codifications narrow the recipe family.

The sherry is minor in quantity but crucial to the drink's identity.

Daly's Bartenders' Encyclopedia by Tim Daly (1903, p.68)

1. Half fill a mixing glass with fine ice and add the orange bitters, maraschino, French vermouth, and Maple gin.
2. Spoon well, strain into a cocktail glass, put in a cherry, twist a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve.

Garnish: Cherry and twisted lemon peel.

Ice: Fine ice

This is a strong early Tuxedo checkpoint, especially because it preserves Maple gin specifically.

Its identity lies in the tight stirred aromatic build rather than any long-drink logic.

Drinks as They Are Mixed by Paul E. Lowe (1904, p.28) — Lowe 1904

1. Stir the bitters, sherry, Italian vermouth, and Tom gin with ice in a mixing glass.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass and serve.

Nose

Gin botanicals and aromatised wine lead, with a faint fortified-wine note beneath.

Palate

Lowe's Tuxedo matters because it captures a transitional named cocktail where gin, vermouth, and fortified-wine seasoning are becoming more restrained and cosmopolitan.

Finish

The finish is dry, herbal, and quietly vinous.

Summary

A restrained Tom-gin and vermouth aperitif from the late named-cocktail canon.

The Hoffman House Bartender's Guide by Charles S. Mahoney (1905, p.152)

1. Stir the shaved ice, maraschino, absinthe, orange bitters, French Vermouth, and Old Tom gin with a spoon.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry, squeeze lemon peel on top, and serve.

Garnish: Cherry and expressed lemon peel

Ice: Shaved ice

Jack's Manual by J. A. Grohusko (1908, p.63) — Grohusko 1908

1. Stir the Maraschino, absinthe, Angostura, French vermouth, and Old Tom gin with ice.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry, and serve.

Garnish: Cherry

Ice: Ice

Nose

Absinthe and Maraschino lift over the Tom gin.

Palate

This is a major pre-war checkpoint because it shows the Tuxedo still balancing dry aperitif logic with older sweet-gin and liqueur dressing.

Finish

The finish is cool, anise-tinged, and aromatic.

Summary

A pre-war Tuxedo from the dressed dry-aperitif branch.

Jack's Manual by J. A. Grohusko (1910, p.86)

1. Stir the maraschino, absinthe, Angostura bitters, French vermouth, and Tom gin well with ice.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry, and serve.

Garnish: Cherry

Ice: Ice

The Buffet Blue Book by John H. Considine (1912, p.56)

1. Stir the ice, Maraschino, absinthe, orange bitters, Old Tom gin, and French vermouth in a mixing glass.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry, and serve.

Garnish: Cherry

Ice: Ice

Straub's Manual of Mixed Drinks by Jacques Straub (1913, p.50) — Straub 1913

1. Stir well.
2. Serve in a cocktail glass.

This is a major immediate pre-war checkpoint because it preserves the Tuxedo with its full seasoned and sherried complexity rather than a later simplified memory.

Recipes for Mixed Drinks by Hugo R. Ensslin (1917, p.34) — Ensslin 1917

1. Stir well with cracked ice.
2. Strain and serve.

Ice: Cracked ice

This matters because it preserves a notably different Tuxedo lineage from the more familiar gin-led forms in earlier books.

The sherry base is the key historical fact here; the name alone should not cause us to flatten it into the better-known gin template.

Harry of Ciro's ABC of Mixing Cocktails by Harry of Ciro's (1923, p.83) — Harry of Ciro's 1923

1. Stir up well with a spoon and strain into cocktail glass.
2. Put in a cherry and squeeze lemon peel on top.

Garnish: Cherry and expressed lemon peel

This matters because it preserves a London 1923 Tuxedo with explicit Old Tom identity rather than a flattened dry-gin modernization.

The source is explicit that this branch is stirred, garnished with a cherry, and finished with lemon-peel expression.

Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone and Wynn (1927, p.81) — Sir R. Burnett's Old Tom Gin

1. Stir well with a spoon and strain into a cocktail glass.
2. Squeeze lemon peel on top and put in a cherry.

Garnish: Cherry and lemon peel

This matters because it preserves a mature Old Tom Tuxedo witness in the Paris hotel-bar canon.