There are also drinks in the cocktail books that are tied to politics. Among them is Ward Eight, who according to the most widespread stories about its creation was mixed to celebrate the victory of the Boston politician in the Senate elections.
The story of a combination of rye whiskey, lemon and orange juice and grenadine is tied to the eighth Boston constituency, which also gave it a name - Ward Eight. Also located in it was Locke-Ober, the fourth oldest restaurant in the city at the time, the door of which last closed nine years ago. And this is the place where Ward Eight cocktail was created by bartender Tom Hussion.
He was to do so in 1898 in honor of the influential local politician, Democrat Martin Lomasney, who succeeded in obtaining a senatorial seat. Although it is said that he did not come to his victory honestly (among other things, he allegedly handed out completed ballots in front of polling stations), but despite the various unfair practices he resorted to, he was one of the favorite politicians. In Locke-Ober, they were said to be so sure of his victory that they invented the drink in advance.
It is uncertain whether it was really Tom Hussion who first mixed Ward Eight. According to some sources, he did not start working in Locke-Ober until 1900. Moreover, grenadine was not a common product before the end of the 19th century. Hussion's colleague Billy Kane could be behind the drink, but this theory published in the 1940s does not anchor the drink in time. And then there's the letter, published in The Sun in 1936, by Charlie Carter, the Puritan Club's bartender. He was to mix it there for the first time in 1903 to celebrate one of Lomasney's other election victories.
The oldest known book in which the recipe for Ward Eight was included is Cocktails: How to Mix Them by Robert Vermeir, published in 1922. It counts on a part of lemon and a part of orange juice for two parts of rye and a spoonful of grenadine. Later variations play with the proportions of the ingredients, they usually take away slightly on citrus and add a little grenadine. Tipsy Banker Martina Jacošová feels the same way. "I recommend modifying the original recipe for Ward Eight by adding half a centiliter of sugar syrup," he says, continuing.
