Summer Cocktail, Shaken Red Berry Juice from 1922
Reader ratingsCurrants, raspberries and strawberries mashed with sugar, the juice shaken with lemon and water and strained into a small wine glass: an alcohol-free cocktail from a 1922 London bar book.
- Recipe makes
- 1 small drink, about 3 1/2 fl oz
- Prep
- Total
Summer Cocktail of red berry juice in a stemmed wine glass, beside a sprig of red currants.
The story behind the recipe
The Summer Cocktail is fresh berry juice made to order: a few currants, raspberries and strawberries mashed to a pulp with sugar, the juice strained into a shaker of ice with a little lemon and water, then shaken and poured into a small wine glass. Robert Vermeire printed it in 1922 in Cocktails: How to Mix Them, a London bar book, among his “Non-Alcoholic Cocktails.”
Mashed at the bar
There is no syrup bottle in it. The bartender made the juice by hand, which is more work than most of the gin drinks in the book. The same chapter also lists a Lobster Cocktail and a Vegetable Cocktail as non-alcoholic cocktails, so Vermeire’s idea of the word was wide. The chapter is told in What Did Bartenders Mix for Non-Drinkers in the 1920s? Red currants have long gone into cold drinks; a Dutch book of 1669 made a currant syrup to stir into water.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Any mix of red berries works, and frozen berries, thawed, give plenty of juice. Strain carefully, as Vermeire says, pressing the pulp with a spoon, so the drink is clear.
Summer Cocktail. Mash to a pulp a few currants, raspberries, and strawberries with bar sugar. Strain the juice very carefully into the shaker, half filled with broken ice, add a little lemon juice and the same quantity of water. Shake well and strain into a small wine-glass.
Recipe makes: 1 small drink, about 3 1/2 fl oz
Ingredients
For 1 small drink, about 3 1/2 fl oz. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 1 small drink, about 3 1/2 fl oz.
- Red currants, stems removed1/4 cup
- Raspberries1/4 cup
- Strawberries, hulled and halved1/4 cup
- Superfine sugar2 tsp
- Fresh lemon juice1/2 fl oz
- Cold water1/2 fl oz
- Ice cubes1 cup
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1/4 cup red currants, stems removed
- 1/4 cup raspberries
- 1/4 cup strawberries, hulled and halved
- 2 tsp superfine sugar
- 1/2 fl oz fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 fl oz cold water
- 1 cup ice cubes
Equipment
Small bowl and fork or muddler
Fine strainer
Cocktail shaker
Small stemmed wine glass, about 5 fl oz
Instructions
Put the red currants, raspberries and strawberries in a small bowl with the superfine sugar and mash them to a pulp with a fork or muddler.
Half fill a cocktail shaker with the ice cubes. Strain the berry juice into it through a fine strainer, pressing the pulp with a spoon to get all the juice out.
Add the fresh lemon juice and the cold water, close the shaker and shake well for about 10 seconds.
Strain into a small stemmed wine glass and serve at once, with no ice and no garnish.
Nutrition
65calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 1 small drink, about 3 1/2 fl oz
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for red currants, raspberries, strawberries, sugar and lemon juice, for one drink.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is one drink. For several, mash all the berries together and shake two drinks at a time.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
Vermeire gives no amounts. A quarter cup of each berry and 2 teaspoons of sugar are our choice, and his “same quantity of water” is read as the same amount as the lemon juice. No red currants? Use more raspberries. Taste the juice after mashing; sweet strawberries may need less sugar.
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. 53, “Summer 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
- Base
- Fruit & juice
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Summer party
- Season
- Summer