sloe combustion

1/3 Sloe Gin (1 oz Plymouth)
1/3 Dry Vermouth (1 oz Noilly Prat)
1/6 Sweet Vermouth (1/2 oz vya)
1/6 Grapefruit Crush (1/2 oz Rieme Pink Grapefruit Sparkling Limonade)
2 dash Peach Bitters (Fee's)

The instructions were to shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Instead, I stirred all the ingredients but the soda with ice and strained into a coupe glass. Next, I added the soda, briefly stirred, and garnished with a grapefruit twist.

Two Saturdays ago, I was flipping through the United Kingdom Bartenders Guild's Approved Cocktails from 1937 and spotted the amusingly named Sloe Combustion. Besides the pun, I found the call for Grapefruit Crush to be quite curious. I double checked and the Crush brand of soda was around back then with the original Orange Crush appearing in 1906. While we did not have this specific soda at home, we did have a fine French sparkling grapefruit lemonade on hand.
The grapefruit twist I added in conjunction with the grapefruit soda provided much of the aroma with hints of sloe gin and perhaps sweet vermouth poking through. The grape and berry sip was chased by a peach and grapefruit swallow. While the drink did not start sweet, the swallow did have a lingering sweetness. Indeed, the Sloe Combustion was not as sweet as I expected perhaps from the dry vermouth and the carbonation offering some crispness.