Jockey Club

Allow us to introduce you to the Jockey Club – the most famous whiskey cocktail that you’ve never heard of.

This is certainly no shortage of Manhattan variations floating around the cocktail world. The classic Manhattan, a mix of whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters, has spawned countless riffs throughout the last two centuries including the Revolver, Greenpoint, Waldorf, Jane Russell, Fanciulli Manhattan, and the Red Hook. Some you may have heard of, others may be a complete mystery, but the Jockey Club was one of the first twists to hit the scene.

First appearing in the 1948 cocktail book, “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks,” by David Embury, this Manhattan variation includes familiar whiskey and sweet vermouth, but swaps the bitters for delicious maraschino liqueur. You can definitely see the family resemblance between the two cocktails with both drinks offering a sweet, whiskey-forward concoction. For historians, however, this is where things start to get interesting.

A few rumors claim that the Jockey Club may have actually been invented prior to the Manhattan. It was only the power of PR and advertising that pushed the Manhattan to the top of the drink chain over the original Jockey Club. Others though are more focused and confused by the gin cocktail that carries the same name. The gin Jockey Club pairs the spirit with lemon juice, simple syrup, bitters, and a French liqueur called creme de noyaux. This fruity gin cocktail popped into print around 1930 in Harry Craddock’s famous, “The Savoy Cocktail Book.” That puts 18 years between the publication of the gin version and the bourbon one. So why two very different cocktails with the same name? No one really knows, yet over time the gin drink has found a bit more popularity than its bourbon counterpart.

The Jockey Club may have a confusing and murky past with little name recognition today, so drinking one will earn you a spot in a very exclusive club.