K is also for Kensington Court Special

You probably haven’t heard of the Kensington Court Special before – but I think you’ll find that you’ve been missing out!

The story of the Kensington Court Special begins at the famous American Bar at the in London. The American Bar, which began operating in 1893, was one of the earliest establishments to introduce American-style to Europe. The bar has featured many prominent head barmen over the years, including Harry Craddock, author of the influential 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book.

One of the most creative and longest serving bartenders at the American Bar was . Gilmore started as a trainee in 1940 and became head barman in 1945, a position he held until his retirement in 1976. During his tenure, Gilmore continued a longstanding American Bar tradition of creating cocktails to mark special events and honor important guests. Gilmore created several drinks in honor of , a frequent visitor to the bar. In 1969 Gilmore created the Moonwalk to commemorate the first moon landing – in fact, it was the first drink the had after their return to Earth. To mark Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, Gilmore concocted the Common Market using an iconic spirit from each of the member countries. In 1975, he made the Link Up to mark the Apollo-Soyuz project and sent the cocktail to the USA and USSR for the astronauts to enjoy on their return – but the astronauts told NASA to “Tell Joe we want it up here.” Gilmore created many more drinks – check out his Wikipedia page for his cocktails and recipes.

Gilmore created the Kensington Court Special for David Davies. Davies was a dairyman born in Wales who came to London to establish a milk delivery business. He was very successful, becoming the first leader of the London Retail Dairymen’s Association. In his later years he became a politician, serving as Chairman of the South East St. Pancras Conservative Party from 1917 to 1944, and he was knighted in 1938. Although Davies may not have walked on the moon, been a member of the royal family, or had the star power of others for whom Gilmore named drinks, he apparently made an significant impression on Gilmore.

The Kensington Court Special is a delicious blend of passionfruit, apricot, and flavors. As we learned in the entry, straight passionfruit juice is hard to find. Since the passionfruit flavor is not as prominent in this drink as in a Hurricane, you can get by with a passionfruit juice blend, but it is quick and easy to make your own passionfruit juice (scoop the insides of two passionfruit into a blender, add 1½ cups water and 1/8 cup sugar, blend, and strain through a fine mesh strainer) – which is what I did.

The recipe also uses apricot . While apricot brandy is featured in many cocktail recipes from the 1930s, today there are very few products available that are actually distilled from apricots. Marie Brizard Apry, Apricot Luxardo, and Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot are some of the few on the market today, but they can be difficult to find. If you need an apricot fix quickly and don’t have time to track one of these down or to infuse your own apricot brandy, you will be stuck with a liqueur made from a neutral spirit with sugar and flavor added. Fortunately, since the cocktail has a blend of fruit flavors, the liqueur works well enough for this recipe.

To make your Kensington Court Special, shake 1½ oz , ½ oz passionfruit juice, ½ oz apricot brandy, and ½ oz lime juice in a shaker with ice, and strain into a . The cocktail is generally ungarnished, although you can fancy it up with a mint sprig, slice, or cherry. Iechyd da!