Hanky Panky
Created by one of, if not the greatest female bartender of all time, this sweet Martini’s flavour is brought out through the bitter undertones from the use of an Italian digestif.
Our Favouite Recipe:
50ml Gin
5ml (or a couple of dashes) Fernet Branca
10ml freshly squeezed orange juice
History/Origins:
At the Savoy Hotel’s American Bar during the start of the twentieth century, Ada ‘Coley’ Coleman mixed up her now legendary cocktail for the victorian actor and mentor of Noel Coward, Sir Charles Hawtrey. Little did she know that it would cause such fervor, even when Hawtrey declared it an instant success and exalted it as a ‘Hanky-Panky’ - a personification of the very magic and mischief of the drink.
Coley, was an interesting character herself, who later became the head bartender at the Savoy - the only woman to have ever had the role. This was especially unique in such a male-orientated society, serving the Prince of Wales amongst other various celebrities, millionaires and artists until 1926. She was a real figurehead for women and remains to this day. On another note, speculation has continued to ensue about whether she did mentor Harry Craddock at the Savoy. Their time overlapped for a period of about five years, when Craddock left America’s prohibition period for greener pastures. Furthermore in his famous book, he lists the Hanky-Panky enshrining it in cocktail history forever. We’d like to think that these two iconic figures brought together by fate, worked off and inspired one another.
Original Recipe:
As taken from ‘The Savoy Cocktail Club.’
½ Italian Vermouth
½ Dry Gin
“Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Squeeze Orange peel on top.”
(as referenced by - Difford, Simon. Diffordsguide Cocktails, The Bartender’s Bible. 10th Edition, Odd Firm of Sin.)
How to make it:
Stir all ingredients together and strain into a Martini Glass, with a strip of orange peel.
How to drink it:
Before dancing on the table bar, pick up your Hanky-Panky and away you go.
“The late Charles Hawtrey… was one of the best judges of cocktails that I knew. Some years ago, when he was overworking, he used to come into the bar and say, ‘Coley, I am tired. Give me something with a bit of punch in it.’ It was for him that I spent hours experimenting until I had invented a new cocktail. The next time he came in, I told him I had a new drink for him. He sipped it, and, draining the glass, he said, ‘By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!’ And Hanky-Panky it has been called ever since.”
(Quote taken from The People Newspaper in 1925.)
