Prohibition Punches: A Book of Beverages

Stated first printing. Hard cover. Octavo. 93pp. Pale purple cloth over boards with gilt lettering. Slight fading at spine otherwise very good.

"Several years into the noble experiment (prohibition) Roxana B. Doran wife of James M. Doran, the Commissioner of Industrial Alcohol, earned fleeting fame with the publication of Prohibition Punches (Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1930), the result of a nationwide campaign to popularize fruit drinks. Her own recipe for "1930 Cocktail" was composed of grapefruit juice, pineapple juice, limes and ginger ale, garnished with fruit and a sprig of mint. "Mrs. Doran Introduces New Cocktail at Dinner"- Baltimore Sun [2nd January 1930]. P.2

So that's the background to Harry Craddock's cheekily named "Prohibition Cocktail" in the Savoy Cocktail Book. This one, at least if enjoyed outside the US, was legal, delivered a kick and actually tasted nice. It was everything other prohibition cocktails were not. Even more cheekily, it's almost exactly the same as Craddock's Charlie Lindbergh cocktail: the sole difference is that this recipe calls for a single dash of apricot brandy, not two (the Lindbergh also specifically calls for the proprietary brandy Pricota).