So here we have it. Probably the most famous cocktail ever.
Created by the greatest bartender and a true gentleman, Mr Dick Bradsell.
A legend in his own drinking-up time.
He adamantly disliked the term mixologist or even barman.
He was, as far as he was concerned, a bartender; that is what he had done since the In and Out. Tend bars.
What a great job he did of it too.
A great phrase of his was “Don’t make me not like you”.
It may have been slung my way on occasion.
He did not suffer fools gladly. A necessary quality behind the jump.
Sadly missed but his legacy lives on throughout the libatious world and beyond
- 50 ml Wyborowa rye vodka
- 15 ml Kahlúa
- 10 ml Tia Maria
- 25 ml illy ‘very, very strong espresso’
- a dash of Monin Pure Cane Sugar Syrup, to taste
Pre-chill a Martini glass. Make ‘very, very strong espresso’ in a coffee machine. Put the ingredients in a shaker with ice and ‘shake it like you hate it’. Sieve into your prepared glass and let it settle for a minute before floating three coffee beans on the foam.
This is Dick’s authentic recipe, as recounted by his daughter, Bea.
By now everyone has heard the story of how it originated at The Soho Brasserie in 1984, when a unnamed model asked for:
“something to wake me up, then fuck me up”
Who it was, Dick took to the great jump in the sky. What’s certain is that it was neither Kate Moss nor Naomi Campbell, being 10 and 13 at the time.