Four Score Cocktail Recipe

Posted in Brandy on February 28, 2014

Some cocktails are simply meant to become famous. This was also the case with the Four Score. If you want to enjoy one drink that truly made history, you can learn to prepare this cocktail at home. This cocktail was especially created for Winston Churchill when he turned 80. A respectable cocktail for a respectable age. Churchill was familiar with alcoholic drinks. He was quite passionate in cocktails and he loved the dry ones. His favorite was Martini and he loved his Martini dry. He became famous for his tastes and it was said at the time that he often skipped the vermouth in the martini and enjoyed the dryness of the gin only. Martini is a combination of gin and vermouth and if the gin proportion is higher, the drink becomes dryer. However, this is not about how Churchill liked his Martini, but about how you can do a Four Score at home.

 

After hearing the above story, you can easily imagine that Four Score is a dry cocktail. It is brandy based and it is very easy to make. Its inventor was Joe Gilmore at the Savoy Bar. He was famous for creating customized drinks for celebrities. Since he knew the tastes of Churchill in cocktails, he came up with this dry and savory drink when the British Prime Minister turned 80 years old. This was back in 1954. In fact, at the time, Churchill was a regular guest of the Savoy Bar. He knew that Gilmore had also done cocktails for other personalities and he asked for one that would represent him. The Four Score became popular. It is not as popular nowadays as it used to be back then, but you should still give it a try. Sometimes old recipes are the best ones.

 

The Four Score Recipe

 

The correct proportions for creating a perfect Four Score, just like the one Churchill enjoyed are:

 

• 3 part brandy.
• 2 parts lillet.
• 1 part Yellow Chartreuse.
• Ice cubes.

 

The lillet is a type of vermouth originating in France in the 1880s. You might have heard about it if you have watched Casino Royal. James Bond is consuming a lillet drink at some point in the movie.

 

All you have to do in order to prepare the Four Score is to stir all the ingredients and to strain them in a cocktail glass. You can use a lemon wedge for garnishing. The cocktail is best stirred. The same is said about Martini which should never be done in a shaker.

 

So, what do you say? Did Churchill have fine tastes in drinks?