Recipe: Millennium Cocktail

Millennium Cocktail
(A.K.A. East India Cocktail)

I was commissioned to create a cocktail with the Millennium bottling from Courvoisier and it turned out better than I ever expected. But now I guess I need to change the name, it's too good to be relegated to the trash heap of millennium merchandise. But in the couple of years since I thought I invented the drink, I acquired an out-of-print book called The Roving Bartender, by Bill Kelly (1946). Much to my surprise, it includes a drink called the East India Cocktail with brandy, curaçao, pineapple, and bitters. I don't know if it was Bill's original or if it predates his book. My version has a couple of subtle additions that translate to a lot of addltional flavor—the grated nutmeg and the flamed orange peel.

1-1/2 ounces Courvoisier Millennium Cognac
1-1/2 ounces pineapple juice
1 ounce orange curaçao
1 dash of Angostura bitters
Flamed orange twist, for garnish (see page 58 of the book)
Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish

Shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with the flamed orange twist and dust with the nutmeg.

from:
The Craft of the Cocktail
Everything You Need to Know to Be a Master Bartender
by Dale DeGroff
Clarkson Potter
Hardcover, 240 pages
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 0-609-60875-4
Recipe reprinted by permission.