Ward 8

October 17, 2010 (Day 260) — Ward 8

We’ve been focusing on some new and original cocktails over the past couple days, so let’s take a different route and delve deep into cocktail history for the Ward 8.

But, first a little history lesson via Wikipedia:

The Ward 8 or Ward Eight is a cocktail originating in 1898 in Boston, Massachusetts at the bar of the Gilded Age restaurant Locke-Ober.

In 1898 Democratic political czar Martin M. Lomasney hoped to capture a seat in the state’s legislature, the General Court of Massachusetts. Lomasney held considerable power in the city for nearly 50 years. The story goes that the drink was created to honor his election, and the city’s Ward 8 which historically delivered him a winning margin. Competing, but unfounded myths abound in print and on the Internet. One story purports that it originated in New York in an area known for political corruption, another that the cocktail is a traditional drink of the Scottish Guards.

Now, according to this same article, after the Locke-Ober was re-opened after prohibition, the recipe was as follows:

2 oz rye whiskey

.5 oz lemon juice

.5 oz orange juice

1 tsp grenadine

However, I busted out my trusty “How to Mix Drinks” book from 1936 to see how someone without access to the Interwebs would be told to mix it up. While the “original” version is served up as a martini-style cocktail (no ice), the massive amounts of booze and mixer in Bill Edward’s book means you’re going to want to rock out a highball glass for this beast of a drink.

Ward 8

5 oz rye

2 oz lemon juice

2 oz orange juice

1 oz grenadine

Build your drink in a highball glass filled to the top with ice. Stir well and serve.

Very good, if not a bit odd. Like most classic cocktails, it’s incredibly strong. However, the darkness of the rye goes along with the citrus and just a little bit of sweetness from the grenadine.

Love it!

Cheers!

— Mark