Scofflaw

Lowering the amount of grenadine in this cocktail allows the rest of the ingredients to take center stage. It will lead to a drier cocktail, but that may be exactly what you’re looking for.

Using neon red grenadine will simply not work here. Homemade grenadine will add bassier notes which will support and interplay with the spices in the rye whiskey, and the botanicals in the dry vermouth.

This cocktail was created by a bartender named Jock in Harry’s New York Bar, in Paris, France at some point during US Prohibition (1920-1933).

Initially just called New York Bar and opened in 1911, it was a place that was popular with expats and gained notoriety during World War I. Harry MacElhone, a Scottish bartender who had been working there, eventually bought the bar in 1923 and changed the name. McElhone was instrumental in making the bar the landmark it eventually became.

The name Scofflaw comes from a contest held in the US in 1924. Prohibitionists asked the public to come up with a word for “a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor”. The word was meant to stigmatize people who drunk alcohol (“wets”, as they were called).

The prize? $200 worth of gold. Two people came up with Scofflaw (someone who scoffs at the law).

During Prohibition, it is highly likely that this cocktail would’ve been made using smuggled Canadian whisky, which tends to be made with rye.