Sherry Cocktail, Sherry with Maraschino and Bitters
Reader ratingsA wine glass of sherry stirred on shaved ice with bitters and a dash of maraschino, strained, with a cherry and a squeeze of lemon peel: Harry Johnson’s Sherry Cocktail of 1900.
- Recipe makes
- 1 drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz
- Prep
- Total
Sherry cocktail in a small stemmed glass with a cherry, beside the mixing glass and a strip of lemon peel.
The story behind the recipe
A Sherry Cocktail treats a glass of sherry the way bartenders of 1900 treated whiskey or gin: stirred on ice with bitters and a little liqueur, strained into a stemmed glass, with a cherry and a twist of lemon. Harry Johnson printed it in his New and Improved Illustrated Bartenders’ Manual in New York in 1900, on a page shared with a Porter Cup for a Party and a Champagne Punch.
Sherry, ten ways
Johnson published the manual himself, as “Publisher and Professional Bartender,” and sherry runs all through it. His index lists ten drinks with sherry in the name, from a Cobbler, a Flip and a Sangaree to an Egg Nogg. The plainest is Sherry Wine and Ice: a whiskey glass, a lump or two of ice, a bar spoon, and the bottle handed over “and let the customer help himself.” For Sherry Wine and Bitters the bartender swirls one dash of bitters round the glass “in such a manner, that the bitters will line the entire inside of the glass,” then fills it with wine. The cocktail is the dressed-up version of that drink, with a dash of maraschino and a cherry.
Johnson’s bitters are “Boker’s genuine only.” The original Boker’s is long gone; Angostura usually stands in for it.
When the Pan American Society gave its dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in May 1912, the menu printed “Cocktails” without naming one, just above an “Amontillado Pasado.” Johnson’s manual shows how a New York bar of the time could mix sherry into one. The evening, and the coffee quarrel that came with it, are in A Coffee Row at a 1912 Diplomatic Dinner.
Read more about this recipe
A light cocktail
Johnson asks only for “sherry wine.” Amontillado, dry and nutty, is our choice, after that menu. His wine glass is read as 2 fluid ounces, as on our 1862 Old Fashioned, and his dash of maraschino as a quarter teaspoon. Stirred down, the drink comes to about 2 1/2 fl oz at roughly 15% ABV, about two-thirds of a US standard drink, much gentler than a spirit cocktail. Johnson also prints a Sherry Cobbler, sherry on a heap of shaved ice with fruit, the long summer version; our Sherry Cobbler makes it from Jerry Thomas’s 1862 recipe, and TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab) has a lighter take on the same one. The dinner ended on coffee, which the menu leaves at one word; for a period cup without alcohol, Fannie Farmer’s filtered coffee follows the drip method she printed in 1896.
SHERRY COCKTAIL.
(Use a large bar glass.)
¾ glassful of shaved ice;
2 or 3 dashes of bitters (Boker’s genuine only);
1 dash of maraschino;
1 wine glass of sherry wine;
Stir up well with a spoon; strain into a cocktail glass, put a cherry into it, squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve.
Recipe makes: 1 drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz
Ingredients
For 1 drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 1 drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz.
- Amontillado sherry2 fl oz
- Aromatic bitters2 dashes
- Maraschino liqueur1/4 tsp
- Crushed ice1 cup
- Cocktail cherry1
- Strip lemon peel1
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 2 fl oz amontillado sherry
- 2 dashes aromatic bitters
- 1/4 tsp maraschino liqueur
- 1 cup crushed ice
- 1 cocktail cherry
- 1 strip lemon peel
Equipment
Mixing glass
Bar spoon
Strainer
Small cocktail glass
Peeler
Instructions
Fill the mixing glass about three-quarters full with the crushed ice.
Add the aromatic bitters, the maraschino liqueur and the amontillado sherry.
Stir well with the bar spoon for about 20 seconds, until the outside of the glass feels cold.
Strain into the small cocktail glass, with no ice in the glass.
Drop in the cocktail cherry.
Squeeze the lemon peel over the top, skin side down, to spray its oil on the drink, and serve.
Nutrition
95calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 1 drink, about 2 1/2 fl oz
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for dry dessert wine (for the amontillado) and maraschino liqueur, plus the bitters.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is one drink. Stir no more than two at a time so each gets enough ice.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Any fine ice will stand in for Johnson’s shaved ice; with cubes, stir a little longer. The 20-second stir and the quarter-teaspoon dash are our readings. Johnson names no style of sherry, so a fino, paler and drier than amontillado, fits his recipe as well.
Johnson leaves the lemon peel on top after squeezing it. Dropping it in or leaving it out is a matter of taste.
He allows 2 or 3 dashes of bitters; 2 is our choice, so the sherry leads.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment.
Sources and attribution
Harry Johnson, New and Improved Illustrated Bartenders’ Manual; or, How to Mix Drinks of the Present Style (New York: Harry Johnson, 1900), “Sherry Cocktail”, p. 248
Recipe details
- Drink family
- Cocktails & Mixed Drinks
- Region
- American
- Source decade
- 1900s
- Base
- Wine
- Difficulty
- Easy