One of our favorite sources of inspiration for cocktails and entertaining is The Savoy Cocktail Book from the 1930s. It’s a classic, and we love it so much that we’re recently set out on a highly ambitious project to work our way through the book.
We think it’s safe to say that everyone prefers cookbooks with gorgeous photography. There are no photos in The Savoy Cocktail Book (although it does have amusing illustrations), so we’ll be giving our take on styling and photographing these classic cocktails.
The Savoy Cocktail Book is still in print, and we have not requested permission to reprint any of the recipes. We will post the inspiration and lots of tips, but for the details, you’ll need to get your own copy of the book to follow along (it also has extremely amusing commentary with certain cocktails that we guarantee you’ll enjoy). The hardcover version, which is super classy looking, is back in stock on Amazon.
The Abbey is the first cocktail in the book. We had a bunch of oranges left over from another project, so we made fresh-squeezed fresh orange juice with this Alessi citrus juicer. It’s great for small quantities, and we love the pour spout. If you’re looking for juicing a higher volume of citrus, we’d suggest this juice press (just watch your fingers).
Our tip for this cocktail is to strain the orange juice. It makes it feel more refined. We just used our go-to small mesh strainer to clarify the juice.
We finished off the cocktail with three cherries. These aren’t called for in the book but they were the perfect finishing touch!