The hair of the dog cocktail is a cocktail made for the morning after a night of drinking. With the aim of treating the hangover, hair of the dog cocktails use the numbing effects of alcohol to treat the headache. Some well-known hair if the dog cocktails include the Bloody Mary, the Mimosa or the Screwdriver. Among more classic versions of hair of the dog cocktails are the corpse revivers. Having received their name from the magics of reviving the corpses of yesterday’s drinking. Two versions are mentioned in Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book. The versions are numbered 1 and two. This week I have chosen to share the first version. I have planned to share the second version next week. Both of these cocktails are strong, the first cocktail not containing more than alcoholic ingredients, while the second has some lemon juice as well. However, these are vastly different from the previously mentioned hair of the dog cocktails that have a lower abv than these, though they may contain similar amounts of alcohol.
Of the no 1 and no 2 version of the corpse reviver the second has become more popular and quite commonly offered in cocktail bars. And thinking of them as cousins it is hard to see how they are related in any other way than that they both contain alcohol to numb the hangover. The no 2 is similar to a martini in its composition, where the main difference is the base spirit. Where the martini contains gin as the base, this have a combination of two vastly different kinds of brandy, a cognac that is made of grapes and a calvados made of apples. These spirits made of fruit are sweet, in comparison to gin, and lends themselves to well to sweet vermouth. The ratios are also quite different from the martini, where the modern versions are 1:4 vermouth to gin or less and the traditional as high as 1:2. As can be seen is that they the martini does not have a particular standard with the gin and vermouth, however, the corpse reviver still retains its ratio of 1:1:2 vermouth to calvados to gin ratio. However, that might be an effect of the popularity of the martini and that the corpse reviver has nearly become forgotten.
With this cocktail being, initially, aimed as a morning after cocktail to lessen the effects of the hangover, the main goal was not a great tasting cocktail. This gives the question of if it is a good cocktail. In my own opinion, I think it is an ok cocktail, it is certainly not great, but it is definitely better than many generic cocktails containing spirit and a mixer. The tasting notes on this are mellow brandy notes with fruitiness and herbs, albeit rather strong. Would I recommend this cocktail? If you are the person who likes martinis or brandy definitely, if you like cocktails that are fruity from juices that are in the cocktails then this might not be something for you. It may be too strong and not particularly fruity. However if you have some cognac and calvados at home that you don’t know what to do with, then this might be a good cocktail to make or at least try.
My Recipe:
1.5 oz (4.5 cl) Cognac
0.75 oz (2.25 cl) Calvados
0.75 oz (2.25 cl) Sweet Vermouth
Add the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir to chill and dilute, strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
