Between the Sheets
30 ml Cognac, 30 ml White rum, 20 ml Triple sec, 15 ml Lemon juice, 1 Lemon twist
Horse's Neck
Brandy and ginger ale with a whole spiral of lemon down the glass.
Classic
Easy
4 min
Photo: Horses Neck by Cocktailmarler · CC BY-SA 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 480 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 480 ml line. Cognac - Any good brandy will do this drink very nicely
- 1440 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 1440 ml line. Ginger ale
- 12 dashes Bottle Twelve quick shakes of the bottle - each a few drops, about a millilitre. Angostura bitters - Optional, traditional, and very much worth it
- 12 twists Lemon twist - Cut it as long as you can manage - it should spiral down the whole glass
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Peel a long strip of lemon into the glass, then brandy, ginger ale and a dash of bitters.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 1.92 l of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Pare a long strip of lemon peel in one piece, if you can, and drop it into a highball glass so it coils around the inside.
- Fill the glass with ice, keeping the peel against the glass.
- Pour in the cognac.
- Top with ginger ale and add a dash of bitters on the surface.
- Stir once and serve.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Horse's Neck
A century ago this was a non-alcoholic temperance drink - ginger ale with a long twist of lemon peel curling down the glass like a horse's neck - and it was so popular at American bars that people started adding whatever spirit was nearest. Brandy won. The garnish, which looks like a flourish, is really the point: every sip passes over the lemon oil, and the whole drink smells of it.
Getting it right
Take a minute over the peel. A long, unbroken spiral cut with a vegetable peeler, pressed against the inside of the glass before the ice goes in, gives you the smell each time you lift the drink; a stub of peel dropped on top gives you nothing. Ginger ale wants to be a gingery one, and the bitters - a dash, on the surface - is the bartender's trick that makes the whole thing taste more expensive than it was.
Tasting notes
Warm grape brandy, sharp ginger and lemon oil, long and cool and faintly spicy. Gentle, grown-up and absurdly refreshing.
Made with a slug of whisky instead of brandy it is a Mamie Taylor's cousin; made with no spirit at all it is exactly what temperance campaigners were drinking in 1900.
More Cognac cocktails
Brandy Alexander
30 ml Cognac, 30 ml Crème de cacao, 30 ml Double cream, 1 pinch Nutmeg
Sidecar
50 ml Cognac, 20 ml Triple sec, 20 ml Lemon juice, 5 ml Sugar, 1 Orange twist