Unless you’re a cocktail aficionado with a penchant for history, chances are you’ve never heard of the cobbler. Cobblers were among the most popular mixed drink categories in the nineteenth century. Cobblers were made with numerous wines and spirits with the Sherry Cobbler being amongst the oldest recipes. The Sherry Cobbler appears in the 1847 edition of Oxford Nightcaps, which is a collection of drink recipes that were popular at Oxford University. In the 1862 edition of Jerry Thomas’s Bar-Tender’s Guide, there are a total of eight different cobblers with the whiskey cobbler being one of them.
The curious thing about the whiskey cobbler is that recipes for it are so varied that next to each other, each is an entirely different drink. The cobbler appears to be more of a classification than an exacting recipe. As far as I can tell there are five things that historic cobbler recipes have in common: shaved ice (sometimes described as fine or pounded), sugar, spirit (or wine), and fruit. There is a lot of variety in how these ingredients come together but the cobbler was generally served in a tall glass or goblet filled to the rim with fine ice with a straw and decorated with fruit.
Thomas prescribes a pour of whiskey, a tablespoon of sugar, and two or three orange slices–all shaken together. His recipe for the sherry cobbler is nearly identical and based on a line drawing for that drink, my assumption is that Thomas’s cobbler is dirty dumped back in the glass. It’s reminiscent of the caipirinha, which certainly fits the cobbler category.
Harry Johnson, in his Bartender’s Manual (1888), prescribed a pour of whiskey, with a half tablespoon of sugar, and a teaspoon and a half of pineapple syrup. He then says the drink should be decorated with grapes, oranges, pineapple, or whatever berry is in season. Johnson establishes that the drink does not need to be soured or citrus-flavored to fit the category. A fruit-based syrup is sufficient for lending flavor.
Finally, George Kappeler in his book Modern American Drinks (1895) prescribes maraschino liqueur as the flavoring component of his cobbler.
Each of these concoctions would have been very different–entirely different cocktails–from one another but they were all prescribed the label of whiskey cobbler. So what is a cobbler? It’s a sweetened fruit-flavored drink, served with cracked or shaved ice. The fruit flavoring can come from actual fruit that is muddled or shaken, prepared syrup, or even fruit-based liqueurs. While not all recipes are soured, the concoction appears to have begun with wine, which is acidic, and therefore some moderate souring would not be inappropriate.
Orange Whiskey Cobbler
Equipment
- jigger
- pairing knife
- shaker tin
- collins glass julep tin or large juice glass (as an alternative)
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon whiskey
- 3/4 oz demerara simple syrup
- 1/3 cup diced oranges slices
- 1 mint sprig to garnish
Instructions
- Set aside a julep, large juice, or collins glass.
- Combine 1/3 cup diced oranges slices, 3/4 oz demerara simple syrup, and 2 oz bourbon whiskey in shaker tin.
- Add coarsely chopped ice to the shaker tin and shake until chilled.
- Dump all ingredients into the glass. Top off with cracked ice if necessary.
- Garnish with 1 mint sprig.