’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

Lewis Carroll

The remarkable set of Lewis Carroll themed puzzle boxes inspired me to celebrate and toast them properly with special cocktails centered around an apropos theme as well. One of Lewis Carroll’s most famous “nonsense” poems is the Jabberwocky, recited from a book Alice finds in Through the Looking Glass. Fast forward fifty-nine years (just a few years before her death) and Alice could have read about a very different beast found in the “coolest book in the world” – the Savoy Cocktail Book. Published in 1930, the book was the opus of Harry Craddock, an English born American ex-pat who fled Prohibition and set up shop at the Savoy in London. The title page reads: “Being in the main a complete compendium of the Cocktails, Rickeys, Daisies, Slings, Shrubs, Smashes, Fizzes, Juleps, Cobblers, Fixes and other Drinks, known and vastly appreciated in this year of grace 1930, with sundry notes of amusement and interest concerning them, together with subtle Observations upon Wines and their special occasions. Being in the particular an elucidation of the Manners and Customs of people of quality in a period of some equality.”

There is one cocktail in the book which is the basis and inspiration for all of the cocktail pairings and toasts for the Lewis Carroll Puzzle Project, which take further inspiration from the individual puzzle boxes as well. The “Jabberwock cocktail” is ascribed to Harry Craddock himself, and was a Prohibition era classic that was all but lost to obscurity until a few years ago when the defining ingredients, Caperitif, was resurrected from the pages of lost vintage spirits. The Humpty Dumpty cocktail takes the four ingredients – gin, dry sherry, Caperitif and bitters – and breaks them up with complimentary spirits. It’s a cocktail in pieces, and oh so delicious to put back together again. Cheers!

Humpty Dumpty

½ oz Sloe gin

½ oz Old Tom gin

½ oz Manzanilla sherry

½ oz Oloroso sherry

½ oz Caperitif

½ oz Meletti

1 d orange bitters

1 d grapefruit bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Cracked lemon peel garnish. Don’t set it down on the wall!

see all the cocktails in the series: