On naming a cocktail

B likes grapefruit juice, so I am always on the lookout for a good grapefruit juice based cocktail (see our last post on The Blinker).  So when I got a Twitter feed to a Facebook link for a cocktail called the Sapphire Savoy, I decided I would give it a whirl.   Now at this point two things are probably coming to mind.  1)  Twitter? Facebook?  Are you sure you have a wife and don’t live in your mother’s basement? and 2)  Where did they come up with that name?  In answer to 1)  Yes. I’m sure.  In answer to 2) I have no idea. The cocktail resembles either a Communique, which is equal parts gin, orange curacao and grapefruit juice or a White Lady Variation.  The White Lady is normally 2 parts gin and 1 part each Cointreau and Lemon Juice; the variation substitutes grapefruit juice.  What this cocktail is not is a Savoy cocktail, which is a gin based cocktail with vermouth and Dubonnet.  I thought a better name since the variation substitutes grapefruit juice for the lemon juice in a White Lady, might be a Pink Lady, but then I remembered there already was one that had nothing to do with this and that we already talked about it.  So all this discussion brings up a question.  At what point does a change in proportions constitute a new drink with a different name?  I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be a case where you would give it a different name, and I am definitely sure it isn’t a case where you would give it the name of an entirely different cocktail that already exists.  It isn’t a bad cocktail, though both B and I thought that it needed something.  I remembered that I had picked up some grapefruit bitters a while back without much idea of what to do with them, so we gave those a whirl.  It really perked up the drink considerably.  So, what would I call it?

Bombay’s take on a Communique

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 2 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. orange liqueur (I used Patron’s Citronge)
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Grapefruit Bitters

Shake one ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon or grapefruit twist.

Hope the holidays were good for you and that 2010 good to you.

Cin Cin