Blood And Sand
Registering astonishment that such a clamorous choir of ingredients as Scotch, Cherry Heering, red vermouth and orange juice create such harmony as the Blood and Sand has become almost a cocktail cliché. And, like many clichés, it got that way by being disarmingly true.
But the real surprise should be that it took so long to catch on. That may be because it was a Prohibition anachronism. The periods known for blending spirit riots came before, with the 19th century golden age, and after, with the Tiki bar sensation. Nailing the Blood and Sand’s exact nativity is difficult because of lack of records. A wide window exists between the 1922 release of Blood and Sand, the Rudolph Valentino movie for which it is apparently named, and the drink’s first known printed recipe in 1930’s The Savoy Cocktail Book. But the point is Prohibition cocktails were typically simple mixes using available sweeteners that could kill the taste of bathtub gin, not premium ingredients that would need to be smuggled in. This suggests the Blood and Sand came from the source of most of its ingredients: Europe. And there the trail ends.
The entries in drink books always point to the movie, a silent flick about the fall of a bullfighter. It isn’t much of a clue. Since none of the ingredients are Spanish, their colors more likely were the source of the name: The Cherry Heering and red vermouth represented the “Blood” and the whisky the “Sand.”
Even with such a cool name, it all but disappeared until the 1990s, the nascent days of the cocktail renaissance, when bartenders like the Rainbow Room’s Dale DeGroff rediscovered its charms and started to tweak the original recipe, which is oversweet at equal parts of each ingredient.
You should, too. You can experiment with pricey malts, but standard Scotch blends do quite well as do vermouths of similar stature. Avoid whisky with too much peat, which can create off notes. Fresh-squeezed orange juice is best, but blood oranges aren’t required. Any drink containing fruit juice should be shaken, not stirred. That creates a thin froth at the top, which suspends the aromas.
2 oz. Scotch whisky
3/4 oz. orange juice
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. Cherry Heering
Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass
