9-Bottle Bar Recipe: The XYZ Cocktail

Roger Kamholz
Roger Kamholz
Roger is the Cocktail & Liquor Columnist at The Kitchn. He's a widely published writer and photographer whose work has been featured on Serious Eats, PUNCH, and Food & Wine online. He lives in New York City with his wife, Karen.
updated May 2, 2019
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Credit: Roger Kamholz

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(Image credit: Roger Kamholz)

We’re closing out the 9-Bottle Bar’s month-long look at rum with the recipe for a drink aptly named for the occasion.

The alphabet-ending XYZ Cocktail appeared in the famous Savoy Cocktail Book, by bartender Harry Craddock, first published in 1930. Another drink, a riff on the Perfect Martini, was also known by the same name around the same time — but here we’re interested Craddock’s concoction, which resembles the Sidecar in construction except that rum stands in for cognac.

The XYZ Cocktail is a great formula — simply rum, orange liqueur, and lemon juice — for experimenting with how different rum varieties can influence a drink’s flavor profile. There are only three ingredients, so it’s easy for the notes of the rum — anything from dry and crisp to funky to aged and robust might work well — to shine through in the final product. If you have a few rums on hand, try making the XYZ Cocktail with all of them to find your preference.

(Image credit: Roger Kamholz)
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The XYZ Cocktail

Serves 1

Nutritional Info

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces

    rum

  • 3/4 ounce

    orange liqueur

  • 3/4 ounce

    lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a Boston shaker or cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Strain the contents into a chilled cocktail glass.

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