A while back, we posted on how to make Sugar Free Grenadine. Since that first post over two years ago, it has painfully come to our attention that the Diet Cran-Pomegranate has been discontinued.
This puts us, the no-carb imbiber, in a bit of a predicament if we want to enjoy anything with grenadine as an additive.
As our supply of Diet Cran-Pomegranate slowly dwindled, we searched high and low for any alternatives that could be find. Anything from powdered versions, to skinny versions.
The Sugar Free Castle Habour Special is a refreshing and fruity drink that is sure to please the pallete. The Sugar Free Castle Habour Special comes to us from originally from 1928 and was first referenced in The Gentleman’s Companion*, by Charles H. Baker, Jr.
While the cocktail calls for an aged rum, we swapped it out for a spiced rum. It still tasted great. I’m sure with an aged rum, it would have a little less spice and a little more woody richness, but combined with the citrus of the lime, the unmistakeable pineapple flavor, and the grenadine, I’m sure it will be equally delicious.
The Sugar Free Magnolia Blossom is another classic cocktail adapted from the Savoy Cocktail Book, which if you haven’t heard us rave about it already, is a definite go-to book for vintage cocktail recipes.
Also, when trying to research a little history on the Sugar Free Magnolia Blossom, we came across another blog called Savoy Stomp. Really impressive that a group of folks would try and work their way through the entire book, one cocktail at a time! The Savoy Stomp lists the origins of the Magnolia Blossom as:
The Sugar Free Opening Cocktail is another wonderful adaptation from the Savoy Cocktail Book. It is a wonderful blend between the blended whiskey and the herby notes of the sweet vermouth. The presence of the grenadine also helps accent this.
We’ve found a different combinations of this drink listed over on DrinksMixer.com, we see the ratio of Whiskey:Vermouth:Grenadine to be 3:1:1, whereas at the Savoy version is a 2:1:1. It really probably depends on just how much you tend to like whiskey, but I bet both are good.
The Sugar Free Angostura Fizz, also known as the Trinidad Fizz comes to us via the Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas, by Brad Thomas Parsons.
The text of the book states that the original recipe that this was adapted from appeared in the “Special Drinks for the Soda Fountain and Other Recipes” section of the 1908 Dr. Siegert’s Angostura Bitters recipe booklet, but did not reach much fame until included in the famous Baker’s 1946 book The Gentleman’s Companion: Volume 2.
The Sugar Free Gold Baron has been adapted from the original cocktail as invented by Thomas Waugh over at Death + Co., in NYC. Check out their site as they have several recipes listed on it as well as some handy hints on cocktail preparation.
We found the recipe over at kindredcocktails.com.
The Sugar Free Mexican Firing Squad was another drink adapted from a search over at kindredcocktails. They list the original as being made by the Raines Law Room back in 2010. However, there is an interesting addition in the comments section of kindredcocktails that the actual real origin of the drink has much older roots. It specifically mentions a book called The Gentleman’s Companion vol 2 by Charles H. Baker (1939).
The Sugar Free Scofflaw is another drink adapted from two of our favorite books, Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails, by Ted Haigh (Dr. Cocktail) and the Savoy Cocktail Book. And it was originally made by Gavin Duffy in the Harry’s New York Bar, in Paris.
This is a flavor-filled cocktail that really blends together wonderfully with the rye whiskey, citrus, and myriad of herbs from the dry vermouth. The bit of grenadine gives it that extra flavor that really completes the drink.
The Sugar Free El Presidente has been adapted from the original that was published by Jason Wilson in his book, Boozehound.
This particular may take a little while to make for the uninitiated! It requires three of our MDR Lab’s Sugar Free Reagents!
The Sugar Free Black Rose is a strong drink! It is highly recommended if you like the taste of bourbon whiskey. It is pretty minimal in preparation, with only the bourbon and some dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters and Grenadine, so I think picking the correct bourbon is crucial here.
We went with the Bulliet, since that is what we had in-house, but we’d be very interested to see how it comes out with other bourbon variations. We found ours to be a little on the bitters side, but maybe with a different bourbon, it might turn out different.