Lucien Gaudin
- 1½ oz London Dry Gin (Tanqueray)
- 1/2 oz Campari
- 1/2 oz Cointreau
- 1/2 oz dry vermouth (Dolin Dry)
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
Lucien Gaudin was a French fencer who won Olympic medals during the 1920s. No one knows who created the cocktail but it probably first appeared during Prohibition. The first printed recipe is in Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide from 1947. The recipe was recently rediscovered and made popular by Ted Haigh though his recipe reduces the gin to 1 oz. We've tried both versions and they are both wonderful.
The Lucien Gaudin is a lighter, dryer version of the Negroni though you could think of it as somewhere along the road between between the Martini and the Negroni. It works wonderfully as an aperitif with the bitterness of the Campari perfectly tempered by the Cointreau and dry vermouth.