The Simple Cocktail Julia Child Loved So Much That She Gave It A Name

Julia Child loved drinking wine while using it in recipes like coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon, but she was also fond of a cocktail from time to time. One of her favorites was a martini mixed 'upside down.' Which is to say, with the typical vermouth-to-gin ratio reversed. Unlike Ernest Hemingway, who liked his martinis super-dry, Child's martini of choice was all wet with one part vermouth to five parts gin. As vermouth is typically no more than 18% alcohol by volume, an upside down martini is a lot less boozy than a typical, gin-forward version. (Gin's ABV generally starts at 40% and goes up from there.) Child had another favorite cocktail, though. It was actually more of a mocktail since it contained hardly any alcohol at all — a creation she called the Angosoda.

Angosoda is a portmanteau of two words, Angostura (as in bitters) and soda (as in plain seltzer). To make the drink, pour a glass of the latter, splash in some of the former, then squeeze in a lime wedge. While Angostura bitters are, in fact, alcoholic (44.7% ABV), a dash is only about ⅛ teaspoon. Two dashes of bitters in five ounces of soda water makes for a drink that's approximately 0.45% alcohol with maybe three calories, tops. According to Julia Child, she created the drink to be weight loss-friendly, although it's also a great alternative if you're trying to cut down on booze but still want something with more bite than a Shirley Temple.

Julia Child may have been the queen of the kitchen, but her husband ruled over the cocktail cart. Paul Child, a civil servant by day, morphed into a mixologist at night. Not content with recreating classic cocktails which were popular at that time, he liked to come up with his own recipes. They tended to be rather strong, unlike Julia's nearly booze-free Angosoda; but the Childs were responsible hosts, so they never served more than two.

Paul's cocktails got rather creative with ingredients and had boisterous names to match. His Butterfly's Breath was made with gin, apricot brandy, and sweetened lime juice while his Carioca Quencher used those same mixers but swapped the gin for rum and added lemon juice, club soda, and bitters. Other recipes include the Himalaya Sunrise, a martini tinted pink with cherry juice; the Garnet, made with gin, vermouth, white wine, lemon juice, and grape juice; and the extra-complicated Rumbrosia, which combined dark rum, vermouth, Cointreau, jasmine tea, sweetened lime juice, an entire lime complete with peel, raspberry syrup, Angostura bitters, and orange bitters. (Lethal though it sounds, it's still probably a lot safer than Julia's asbestos baking stone which Paul also engineered.)

Julia's favorite out of all her husband's concoctions, however, was something a bit simpler. The Buddha's Eye bears little similarity to the Angosoda as it contains no bitters whatsoever. Instead, it's made with nothing more than gin, crème de menthe, and lime juice served on the rocks. It's a little more calorie-heavy (and a lot more intoxicating), but Julia was a big fan of the flavor.