It isn’t often that a cocktail comes replete with a literary pedigree. But the Green Swizzle has a bonafide literary reference attached to it, one many P.G. Wodehouse fans may know. In The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy, Bertie Wooster and his pal Biffy are wandering through an exhibition on the British Empire, when they find the West Indian section. There, in a Planters’ Bar, a jolly bartender serves up a drink called the Green Swizzle, so bracing in its effect, that Bertie decides that if he ever has a son, he’d name him Green Swizzle Wooster. While it may not be as ubiquitous today, there are still a devoted few who mix up a good Green Swizzle. You need to mix 60 ml of rum with 30 ml creme de menthe, the juice of one lime, a tsp of fine sugar and two dashes of bitters with crushed ice in a shaker. Shake well, pour in a glass and top with 60 ml soda water. Serve with a swizzle stick and guzzle it down in memory of Bertie!
