Adonis Cocktail

The Adonis Cocktail comes to us from the late 1800's Waldorf-Astoria and is an equal mixture of Fino Sherry and Sweet Vermouth. Fino Sherry is on the drier end of the spectrum so it's balanced well with the Sweet Vermouth. Since there's no high proof spirit in here, it's also a fairly low alcohol cocktail, so you can treat yourself here without worrying too much!

As mentioned, the Adonis was invented at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in the late 1800's. The cocktail was named after a Broadway show of the time, obviously also called Adonis. Adonis (the show) was the first musical on Broadway to hit 500 performances, so it was a pretty famous show for the time! No wonder there was a cocktail named after it.

Total Time 3

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

45 mL Fino Sherry or another Dry Sherry in a pinch
45 mL Sweet Vermouth
Garnish with Orange peel

Instructions

Add your ingredients to a mixing glass filled with plenty of ice.
Stir until your mixture is well chilled.
Strain into a Coupe glass.
Garnish and serve.

Notes

As we're only working with two ingredients of equal proportions here, you can't afford to go cheap with them. This is a good rule for pretty much all cocktail recipes, but even more so with the more simple recipes! Further on this, while you can probably get away with replacing the Fino Sherry with another Dry Sherry style like a Manzanilla, don't be tempted to replace it with a sweeter Sherry style like a Cream Sherry. The Sweet Vermouth is adding plenty of sugar here, so you'll ruin the drink with a Sweet Sherry.

But, at the end of the day, we're assuming you're making this cocktail for you! And if that's the case, you do you. Make your drinks the way you like them!

Our Review of the Adonis Cocktail

Fino sherry is quite nice on its own. It’s a drier sherry that works well most of the time if you’re after something with little sweetness, so combining it with a sweet vermouth is an interesting choice, since it’s taking away the wonderful dry aspect of the wine on its own!

But that’s also kind of the point of the Adonis cocktail. It’s not too dry, it’s not too sweet. It’s just 50% dryness and 50% sweetness. No extremes anywhere.

Although some people often like a cocktail that goes one way or another, the Adonis cocktail seeks a little bit more balance and it can be quite welcome. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of neutrality.

There is a “but” here though. That “but” is that the Adonis cocktail won’t appeal to someone who simply doesn’t like sherry or fortified wines in general. Some people quite enjoy fortified wine on its own, others will only prefer it if it’s mixed with something else in a cocktail. After all, there are many many cocktail recipes that use sweet or dry vermouth as a modifier. The Adonis cocktail, on the hand, is just two different kinds of fortified wine, so that may not be to everyone’s taste.

For me, I like fortified wine on its own, and I liked the mixture of dry flavours with sweet flavours and then the rest that goes with a fortified wine.

If you’re looking for a cocktail that’s simple, lower in alcohol, and a bit different, perhaps the Adonis Cocktail is for you. If you’re easily not impressed by a simple mixture of fortified wines, maybe skip this one.

7.5/10

Review by Ziggy

And then make some more cocktails!

If you want something a little stronger or want to stick with the lower alcohol cocktails, we have you covered. Take a look at some site sections below.

Top 15 three ingredient cocktail recipes: one of the best things about this is recipe is that it only has three ingredients. Check out our favourite cocktails with three ingredients or fewer.

All three ingredients cocktail recipes: we also have a section of the site with all of our easy three ingredient cocktail recipes. Enjoy!

All low alcohol cocktail recipes: finally, if you’re only interested in cocktail recipes that are on the lower end of the alcohol spectrum, check out all the recipes here.