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Epicurious

Army & Navy

By Roger Kamholz
An Army Navy cocktail in a Nick Nora glass.
Photo by Elizabeth Coetzee, Food styling by Tiffany Schleigh

We get the Army & Navy cocktail from David Embury’s 1948 cocktail book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. Though it includes orgeat, a rich almond-flavored syrup that you might recognize from the mai tai, this fragrant gin sour is not a tiki drink. The citrus and botanical dimensions play nicely with the luscious toasted almond here. Classic Army & Navy recipes are made without bitters, but the additional seasoning of orange and Angostura bitters rounds off the edges of the lemon juice and gives the nutty orgeat a slightly more earthy touch.

Note: Our quick Easy Orgeat starts with almond milk as a base and is a bit less sweet than what you’d find commercially. If you’d like to use store-bought orgeat instead, we recommend starting with just ½ oz. per drink.

What you’ll need

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    2 minutes

  • Yield

    Makes 1

Ingredients

2 oz. gin
¾ oz. Easy Orgeat
¾ oz. lemon juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters
Lemon twist (for serving)

Preparation

  1. Add 2 oz. gin, ¾ oz. Easy Orgeat, ¾ oz. lemon juice, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, and 2 dashes orange bitters to a shaker. Fill with ice and shake vigorously until well chilled, about 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Express a lemon twist over the top and use as a garnish.

TagsEpicuriousCocktailAlcoholBeveragesGinBitters

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