Florodora

The Florodora was the only gin cocktail I hadn’t come across in this article, so I thought I’d find out more. Thanks to David Wondrich’s excellent book, Imbibe! Updated and Revised Edition: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to “Professor” Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar, I didn’t have to venture too far.

Florodora was actually a 1900 hit stage show that had transferred from London to New York. It was set half on the fictitious island of Florodora and half in Wales (!) and featured the “Florodora Sextette”, six identical chorus girls who were the stars of the show.

The story goes that the drink was created for one of the girls who had been refusing to drink anything but lemonade unless she had something  “brand new”. Enter Jimmy O’Brien who came up with the cocktail. It’s a wonderfully refreshing cocktail, mixing gin, lime juice, ginger ale and raspberry syrup.

Ingredients for a Florodora

45ml gin (I used Plymouth)

2tsp of raspberry syrup

freshly squeezed juice of one lime

Ginger Ale (I used Fever-Tree)

Method

Put the raspberry syrup in the bottom of a chilled glass. Add the lime juice and gin and then half fill the glass with cracked ice. Top up with ginger ale and garnish with a slice of orange and a pitted cherry. And, in the words of New York Evening World, 1901: “put the stein to your lips, shut your eyes and take an express transport to Elysium.”