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Sherry Cobbler

Photo of two sherry cobblers in tall glasses with crushed ice or pebbled ice and metal straws.
Photo by Ed Anderson

The Sherry Cobbler is an American-born cocktail by most accounts. Simply sherry, sugar, and citrus shaken, poured over crushed ice, and slurped through a straw, the cobbler is thought to have originated sometime in the 1820s or early 1830s. And, like most nineteenth-century drinks, its exact origins have been endlessly debated. One thing is for sure: the Sherry Cobbler was the first drink to introduce the drinking straw to popular consciousness.  

Some 150 years after the Sherry Cobbler’s decades-long heyday, it’s being rediscovered, both as a classic cocktail and as a drink prime for riffing. Get weird with your garnishes or omit them altogether, but whatever you do, just don’t forget the straw.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    2 minutes

  • Yield

    Makes 1 cocktail

Ingredients

1 lemon wheel
1 orange wheel
¾ oz. simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water)
3 oz. amontillado sherry
Garnish: berries in season, citrus, mint, a Lego minifig—anything, really

Preparation

  1. In a mixing glass or cocktail shaker, add the lemon, orange, and simple syrup, and muddle. Add the sherry, fill with ice, and shake. Finely strain into a Collins glass over crushed ice. Top up with additional crushed ice and garnish like there’s no tomorrow.

Cover of Sherry by Talia Baiocchi, red book cover.
From Sherry: A Modern Guide to the Wine World's Best-Kept Secret, with Cocktails and Recipes by Talia Baiocchi. Copyright © 2014 by Talia Baiocchi. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House LLC. Photography copyright © 2014 by Ed Anderson. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop .

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