Cap Off Your Wedding with a Vintage “Honeymoon Cocktail”

What’s better than the icing on a wedding cake? A reception featuring vintage-inspired cocktails! We couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to end our 2012 wedding guide than with a good, old-fashioned ‘cheers,’ so we’re taking a cue from the book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails to bring you a wedding-perfect libation.

Whether you’re planning an after party or are a cocktail connoisseur at heart, you’ll heart the “Honeymoon Cockatil” for its vintage charm. Before it appeared in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, this drink appeared in a 1917 tome called Recipes for Mixed Drinks by one Hugo Ensslin, and called for ingredients such as Calvados and Benedictine. Calvados, an Apple Jacks-like spirit, is a oak-aged French brandy, while Benedictine is a liqueur characterized by exotic tastes of orange, tangerine zest, and herbs. You can find both at specialty liquor stores today.

Honeymoon Cocktail
From Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh

2 ounces (1/2 gill, 6 cl) Calvados
1/2 ounce ( 1/8 gill, 1.5 cl) Benedictine
1/2 ounce (1/8 gill, 1.5 cl) Orange curacao
1/2 ounce (1/8 gill, 1.5 cl) lemon juice

Shake ingredients in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed lemon twist.

Does this Honeymoon have you thinking you need to amp up the attitude on your drink menu? Check out our own Vintage Cocktails recipe book. With 223 pages, you’re bound to find a concoction that floats your fancy!