Toasting such a blah puzzle box requires something only so-so. I’ve turned to one of my favorite cocktail books for some tepid inspiration. Despite the fact that the book is often considered to be the “coolest cocktail book in the world”, I was able to find this absolutely boring recipe. I’m a big fan of Harry Craddock’s book, The Savoy Cocktail Book, which was published in 1930 and illustrated in the eye-catching art deco style of the period by Gilbert Rumbold. Craddock is one of the best known cocktail personalities of the prohibition era, which he escaped from by leaving San Francisco to set up shop at the Savoy in London.

The So-So Cocktail is actually a delicious combination of gin, “Italian” (sweet) vermouth, Calvados and grenadine. It’s unusual in that it uses a split base on gin and Calvados, which work well together in this drink. Vermouth is often used to balance a drink, and the grenadine here is a surprisingly perfect touch. Like the ironically named “Blah” puzzle box, which is in fact nothing of the sort, the So-So is delightful. The name does not refer to any particular mood of the mixer or imbiber, but rather the inventor. The drink can be found even earlier, in Harry MacElhone’s first book, “Harry of Ciro’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails”, 1921, where it is credited to “Mr. P. Soso, the popular manager of Ciro’s Club, London”. Perhaps it’s time this anything but so-so cocktail got the revival it’s due, one hundred years later. Cheers!

So-So

1 oz dry gin

1 oz sweet vermouth

½ oz Calvados

½ oz grenadine

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Garnishing this drink would inevitably be rather blah.