Pussyfoot Cocktail, the 1922 Bartender’s Mocktail
Reader ratingsLemon and orange juice shaken with a little syrup, mint and egg white: the alcohol-free cocktail a London bartender named in 1922 for the dry campaigner Pussyfoot Johnson.
- Recipe makes
- 1 small drink, about 5 fl oz
- Prep
- Total
Pussyfoot with a white foam and a mint leaf in a stemmed wine glass, beside a lemon.
The story behind the recipe
The Pussyfoot is a soft drink made the way a bartender makes a sour: the juice of a lemon and an orange, a little syrup, three sprigs of mint and a little egg white, shaken hard on ice and strained into a small wine glass. Robert Vermeire printed it in 1922 in Cocktails: How to Mix Them, a London bar book, as “the author’s own recipe in admiration for plucky Pussyfoot Johnson, the world’s total abstainers’ champion.”
A toast to the other side
Pussyfoot Johnson was William E. Johnson, the American dry campaigner, and Vermeire was a working bartender: the book’s blurb lists the Royal Automobile Club, the Criterion and the Embassy Club in London. So the man whose trade Johnson wanted to close named a drink after him, and filed it under “Non-Alcoholic Cocktails” between the gin and whisky pages. The chapter and its other drinks are told in What Did Bartenders Mix for Non-Drinkers in the 1920s?
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
The egg white goes in raw, so use a pasteurized one; it gives the drink a thin white foam and nothing else, and it can be left out. Vermeire’s “plain syrup or apricot syrup” is a choice: plain keeps the citrus sharp, apricot makes it rounder. The soda fountain’s foamy alcohol-free sour is the Lemon Egg Phosphate.
Pussyfoot Cocktail. This is the author’s own recipe in admiration for plucky Pussyfoot Johnson, the world’s total abstainers’ champion. Fill a shaker half full of broken ice and add: The juice of 1 lemon. The juice of 1 orange. A little plain syrup or apricot syrup. 3 sprigs of mint. A little white of egg. Shake well and strain into a small wine-glass.
Recipe makes: 1 small drink, about 5 fl oz
Ingredients
For 1 small drink, about 5 fl oz. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 1 small drink, about 5 fl oz.
- Fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)1 1/2 fl oz
- Fresh orange juice (about 1 orange)2 1/2 fl oz
- Simple syrup or apricot syrup2 tsp
- Fresh mint3 sprigs
- Pasteurized egg white1 tbsp
- Ice cubes1 cup
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 1/2 fl oz fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 2 1/2 fl oz fresh orange juice (about 1 orange)
- 2 tsp simple syrup or apricot syrup
- 3 sprigs fresh mint
- 1 tbsp pasteurized egg white
- 1 cup ice cubes
Equipment
Cocktail shaker and strainer
Citrus juicer
Small stemmed wine glass, about 6 fl oz
Instructions
Put the ice cubes in a cocktail shaker and add the fresh lemon juice, fresh orange juice, simple syrup or apricot syrup, fresh mint and pasteurized egg white.
Close the shaker and shake hard for about 15 seconds, until it is frosty and the egg white has foamed.
Strain into a small stemmed wine glass and serve at once.
Nutrition
80calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 1 small drink, about 5 fl oz
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for orange juice, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white, for one drink.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is one drink. Shake no more than two at a time.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Vermeire says only “a little” syrup and “a little white of egg”; 2 teaspoons and 1 tablespoon are our readings. Taste the shaken drink before you strain it and add a little more syrup if your oranges are sharp. Without the egg white, the drink comes out clear and flat on top, still a good sour. The Pussyfoot printed in Paris in 1927, in Barflies and Cocktails, is a different drink, made with egg yolk and grenadine.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
Robert Vermeire, Cocktails: How to Mix Them (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1922; eleventh printing), p. 52, “Pussyfoot Cocktail”
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-freeMocktail
- Drink family
- Sodas & Soft Drinks
- Region
- British
- Era
- Jazz Age
- Source decade
- 1920s
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Dry January1920s party