St. Agrestis · Cocktail library
20th Century Cocktail
A shaken gin drink with lemon, white crème de cacao and a blanc aperitif wine: the classic, and a 2016 riff.
Go to the recipe ↓The 20th Century is gin, lemon juice, white crème de cacao and a blanc aperitif wine, shaken with ice and strained into a chilled glass. The two attributed recipes here are not two versions of one formula. Imbibe's card is an adaptation of the classic first published in 1937. Difford's Guide's card is Joerg Meyer's 2016 riff, which uses much less lemon, larger pours of crème de cacao and aperitif wine, and Americano bianco in place of Lillet Blanc. If you want the classic, make the Imbibe card; if you want Meyer's modern take, buy Americano bianco and make the Difford's card.
Difford's Guide: Joerg Meyer's 2016 riff
Contains alcohol
Ingredients
Original recipe quantities.
See the proportions
Share of the measured liquid, before ice. Unmeasured additions and non-volume ingredients are excluded.
Method as published
- Chill a coupe glass and cut an orange zest twist.
- Add 50 ml Hayman's London Dry Gin, 30 ml Giffard White Crème de Cacao Liqueur, 30 ml Americano bianco and 10 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice to a shaker.
- Shake with ice.
- Fine strain into the chilled coupe.
Garnish Orange zest twist, expressed over the drink and then added to it.
- Difford's credits this recipe to Joerg Meyer at Le Lion Bar de Paris, Hamburg, in 2016, as a riff on the classic Twentieth Century.
- Difford's says the drink was originally made with Rutte Celery Gin; its listed recipe names Hayman's London Dry Gin.
- The Americano bianco is given without a brand.
Recipe source: Difford's Guide ↗
Imbibe: the classic, adapted
Contains alcohol
Ingredients
Original recipe quantities.
See the proportions
Share of the measured liquid, before ice. Unmeasured additions and non-volume ingredients are excluded.
Method as published
- Chill a Nick and Nora or other cocktail glass.
- Combine 1½ oz gin, ¾ oz fresh lemon juice, ½ oz Lillet Blanc and ½ oz white crème de cacao in a shaker.
- Shake with ice and strain into the chilled glass.
- Garnish.
Garnish Lemon twist.
- Imbibe identifies the classic as first published in the 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book, credited to C.A. Tuck; this recipe is adapted by Paris DuRante of The Campbell, New York City.
- Imbibe gives generic gin and white crème de cacao but names Lillet Blanc specifically.
- Imbibe lists a shaker and strainer; it does not call for fine straining.
Recipe source: imbibemagazine.com ↗
What the riff changes
Imbibe's classic runs 6:2:2:3 (gin, crème de cacao, Lillet Blanc, lemon), so the lemon outmeasures either modifier. Meyer's riff on Difford's runs 5:3:3:1 (gin, crème de cacao, Americano bianco, lemon): the crème de cacao and aperitif wine are each three times the lemon. Its 10 ml of lemon is less than half of Imbibe's ¾ oz, while its 30 ml pours of cacao and aperitif wine are well above Imbibe's ½ oz.
The riff also swaps the wine, from Lillet Blanc to Americano bianco, and neither source presents the two as interchangeable. The garnish moves from a lemon twist to an expressed orange twist, and only the riff calls for a fine strain and specifies a coupe.